Editing The Red Badge of Courage (section)

==Style and genre==
{{quote box|quote=A river, amber-tinted in the shadow of its banks, purled at the army's feet; and at night, when the stream had become of a sorrowful blackness, one could see across it the red, eyelike gleam of hostile camp-fires set in the low brows of distant hills.|source=''The Red Badge of Courage'', Chapter one<ref>{{harvp|Crane|1917|p=1}}</ref>|width=38%|bgcolor=#c6dbf7}}
''The Red Badge of Courage'' has a distinctive style, which is often described as [[Naturalism (literature)|naturalistic]], [[literary realism|realistic]], [[Impressionism (literature)|impressionistic]] or a mixture of the three.<ref>{{harvp|Kent|1986|p=125}}</ref> Told in a [[third-person narrative|third-person limited point of view]], the novel reflects the inner-experience of Henry Fleming, a young soldier who flees from combat, rather than upon the external world around him. ''The Red Badge of Courage'' is notable in its vivid descriptions and well-cadenced prose, both of which help create suspense within the story.<ref>{{harvp|Knapp|1987|p=61}}</ref> Critics in particular have pointed to the repeated use of color imagery throughout the novel, both literal and figurative, as proof of the novel's use of Impressionism. Blue and gray uniforms are mentioned, as are yellow and orange sunlight, and green forests, while men's faces grow red with rage or courage, and gray with death.<ref name="wer283"/> Crane also uses animalistic imagery to comment upon people, nature, and war itself. For example, the novel begins by portraying the army as a living entity that is "stretched out on the hills, resting."<ref name="bloom20">{{harvp|Bloom|2007|p=20}}</ref>

While the novel takes place during a series of battles, ''The Red Badge of Courage'' is not a traditional Civil War narrative. Focusing on the complex internal struggle of its main character, rather than on the war itself,<ref name="wer282">{{harvp|Wertheim|1997|p=282}}</ref> Crane's novel often divides readers as to whether the story is intended to be either for or against war.<ref>{{harvp|Lentz|2006|p=269}}</ref> By avoiding political, military, and geographic details, the story becomes divorced from its historical context.<ref>{{harvp|Kaplan|1986|p=78}}</ref> Notably lacking are the dates in which the action takes place, and the name of the battle; these omissions effectively shift attention away from historical patterns in order to concentrate on the emotional violence of battle in general.<ref>{{harvp|Mitchell|1986|p=16}}</ref> The writer alluded to as much in a letter, in which he stated he wished to depict war through "a psychological portrayal of fear."<ref name="davis65">{{harvp|Davis|1998|p=65}}</ref>

Writing more than thirty years after the novel's debut, author [[Joseph Conrad]] agreed that the novel's main struggle was internal rather than external, and that Fleming "stands before the unknown. He would like to prove to himself by some reasoning process that he will not 'run from the battle'. And in his unblooded regiment he can find no help. He is alone with the problem of courage."<ref name="bloom20"/> Crane's realistic portrayal of the psychological struck a chord with reviewers; as one contemporary critic wrote for ''The New York Press'': "At times the description is so vivid as to be almost suffocating. The reader is right down in the midst of it where patriotism is dissolved into its elements and where only a dozen men can be seen, firing blindly and grotesquely into the smoke. This is war from a new point of view."<ref name="mitchell5"/>

{{quote box|quote=At times he regarded the wounded soldiers in an envious way. He conceived persons with torn bodies to be peculiarly happy. He wished that he, too, had a wound, a red badge of courage.|source=''The Red Badge of Courage'', Chapter nine<ref>{{harvp|Crane|1917|p=91}}</ref>|width=38%|bgcolor=#c6dbf7}}

With its heavy use of [[irony]], [[symbol]]ism and [[metaphor]], the novel also lends itself to less straightforward readings.<ref>{{harvp|Kent|1986|p=130}}</ref> As with many of Crane's fictional works, the novel's dialogue often uses distinctive local [[dialect]]s, contributing to its apparent historicity; for example, Jim Conklin muses at the beginning of the novel: "I s'pose we must go reconnoiterin' 'round th' kentry jest t' keep 'em from gittin' too clost, or t'develope'm, or something".<ref>Habegger (1990), pp. 231–232</ref> The ironic tone increases in severity as the novel progresses, especially in terms of the ironic distance between the narrator and protagonist.<ref>{{harvp|Mailloux|1982|p=183}}</ref> The title of the work itself is ironic; Henry wishes "that he, too, had a wound, a red badge of courage", echoing a wish to have been wounded in battle. The wound he does receive (from the rifle butt of a fleeing Union soldier), however, is not a badge of courage but a badge of shame.<ref>{{harvp|Gibson|1988|p=42}}</ref>

By substituting epithets for characters' names ("the youth", "the tattered soldier"), Crane injects an [[allegory|allegorical]] quality into his work, making his characters point to a specific characteristic of man.<ref>{{harvp|Knapp|1987|pp=62–63}}</ref> There have been numerous interpretations concerning hidden meanings within ''The Red Badge of Courage''. Beginning with Robert W. Stallman's 1968 Crane biography, several critics have explored the novel in terms of Christian allegory.<ref>{{harvp|Bloom|2007|p=30}}</ref> In particular, the death of Henry Fleming's Christ-like friend, Jim Conklin, is noted for evidence of this reading, as well as the concluding sentence of chapter nine, which refers to the sun as "fierce [[sacramental bread|wafer]]" in the sky.<ref>{{harvp|Kent|1986|p=133}}</ref> John Berryman was one of the first critics to interpret the novel as a modern wasteland through which the protagonist plays the role of an [[Everyman]]. Still others read the novel as having a Naturalist structure, comparing the work to those by [[Theodore Dreiser]], [[Frank Norris]] and [[Jack London]].<ref>{{harvp|Mitchell|1986|pp=18–19}}</ref>