The Beginning Of Red Badge Of Courage By Stephen Crane

In the beginning of Red Badge of Courage by Stephen Crane, Henry Fleming or the â€Å"youthful private† is a farm-boy who has left the farm against his mother’s best wishes to enlist in the Union army. The novella begins after Henry has enlisted and joined with the 304th New York regiment encamped across a river in Virginia from the enemy. The date is May 1863, two years after the Civil War has already begun, and the scene is set for the upcoming Battle of Chancellorsville. Through the course of the weeks leading to Henry’s first battle, Henry is brought to question his beliefs and learn his place within his own regiment. Through the use of naturalism, irony, and the literary point of view, Crane grants the reader a look into the harsh realism†¦show more content†¦While Henry contemplates, the narrator illustrates Henry’s struggle as Henry tries, â€Å"to mathematically prove to himself that he would not run from a battle [†¦] [, however,] [ i]t had suddenly appeared to him that perhaps in a battle he might run,† (4) showcasing how when compared to his previously held notions about war, the irony of Henry’s newfound cowardice and lack of bravery is clear. Similarly, Henry is naà ¯ve to his true part in the war and the uncontrollable forces controlling his life. Through the use of naturalism, the pessimistic version of realism that asserts that most individuals are without freedom—that they are at the mercy of larger forces, like economics, war, the government, heredity, environment, and nature, Crane shows the reader how small and insignificant Henry is in the grand scheme of things. As Dr. Ball states, â€Å"you join the military and lose your freedom, it seems,† exemplifying Henry’s current predicament (Ball). Henry, although having hopes of becoming a hero, is as his mother says, â€Å"jest one little feller amongst a hull lot of others,† (3) revealing the reality and irony of his current situation, he is not a hero able to achieve glory in battle. As the narrator points out Henry, â€Å"had grown to regard himself merely as a part of a vast blue demonstration,† (4) demonstrating how his situation changes Henry’s ability to gain glory and fame in battle. However, soon after the first attack of the