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Civil War-era portrait of a Federal soldier. Courtesy of American Memory.
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Subject Areas |
History and Social Studies
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U.S. History - Civil War and Reconstruction |
Literature and Language Arts
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American |
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Essay |
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Fiction |
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Time Required |
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Two or three class periods. |
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Skills |
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Literary interpretation
Close reading of text
Using primary sources
Internet research
Collaboration
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Additional Data |
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Date Created: 12/09/02 |
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The Red Badge of Courage: A New Kind of Courage
"The Red Badge of Courage… is the narrative of two processes:
the process by which a raw youth develops into a tried and trustworthy soldier,
and the process by which a regiment that has never been under fire develops into
a finished and formidable fighting machine." —Sydney
Brooks, unsigned review, Saturday Review, January 11, 1896, lxxxi, 44-5
on the Red Badge
Home Page of the EDSITEment resource American
Studies at the University of Virginia
"No intelligent orders are given;
no intelligent movements are made. There is no evidence of drill, none of discipline.
There is a constant, senseless, and profane babbling going on, such as one could
hear nowhere but in a madhouse. Nowhere are seen the quiet, manly, self-respecting,
and patriotic men, influenced by the highest sense of duty, who in reality fought
our battles.
It can be said most confidently that no soldier who fought
in our recent War ever saw any approach to the battle scenes in this book…"
"The book is a vicious satire upon American soldiers and American armies. The
hero of the book … betrays no trace of the reasoning being. No thrill of patriotic
devotion to cause or country ever moves his breast, and not even an emotion of
manly courage. —General
Alexander C. McClurg, letter to the Dial, April 16, 1896, XX, 227-8
on the Red Badge
Home Page of the EDSITEment resource American
Studies at the University of Virginia IntroductionIn
The Red Badge of Courage, Stephen Crane presents war through the eyes—and
thoughts—of one soldier. The narrative's altered point of view and stylistic
innovations enable a heightened sense of realism while setting the work apart
from war stories written essentially as tributes or propaganda. One early reviewer
declared that reading the novel "impels the feeling that the actual truth about
a battle has never been guessed before." But the conservative General Alexander
C. McClurg, in the magazine "The Dial," attacked the work as a "vicious satire
upon American soldiers and American armies," with a central character motivated
neither by "thrill of patriotic devotion to cause or country" nor "an emotion
of manly courage." Though Crane is critical of abstract sloganeering about the
manly virtues prized by McClurg, he is far from dismissive of or uninterested
in those virtues. McClurg regarded the novel
as unpatriotic and cowardly. The novel's more nuanced exploration of such values
will be explored by students with a close reading of Chapter
23 in comparison with a more traditional tale of combat and a systematic look
at McClurg's accusations. Using their new understanding, students will be asked
to select one of three published endings to The Red Badge of Courage
best suited to their understanding of Crane's exploration of values in the novel.
Note: This lesson may be taught either as
a stand-alone lesson or as a companion to the complementary EDSITEment lesson
The Red Badge
of Courage: A New Kind of Realism. Guiding Questions:How
does Stephen Crane treat "the process by which a raw youth develops into a tried
and trustworthy soldier" in The Red Badge of Courage? What is the novel's
view of values such as courage? Learning ObjectivesAfter
completing the lessons in this unit, students will be able to: - Provide
examples of Crane's treatment of the "manly virtues" associated with war using
support from the text of The Red Badge of Courage
- Describe the
three published endings of The Red Badge of Courage and the difference
each might make on a reader's interpretation of the novel.
Preparing
to Teach this Lesson- Review the lesson plan.
Locate and bookmark suggested materials and other useful websites. Download and
print out documents you will use and duplicate copies as necessary for student
viewing.
- Download the blackline
masters for this lesson, available here as a PDF file. Print out and make
an appropriate number of copies of any handouts you plan to use in class.
- This
lesson is intended for students who have completed their reading of The Red
Badge of Courage.
- The editor's preface to the exhibit The
Red Badge of Courage, available online at the EDSITEment-reviewed website
American Studies at the University of Virginia,
provides excellent background on the novel. Crane's depiction of a Civil War battle
(very likely Chancellorsville) through the eyes—and thoughts—of one
soldier represented a new approach to the war story. One early reviewer declared
that reading the novel "impels the feeling that the actual truth about a battle
has never been guessed before." But the conservative General Alexander C. McClurg,
in the magazine "The Dial," attacked the work as a "vicious satire upon
American soldiers and American armies" with a central character motivated neither
by "thrill of patriotic devotion to cause or country" nor "an emotion of manly
courage." McClurg regarded what he assumed to be the anti-war stance of the novel
as unpatriotic and cowardly.
- It is not clear that the work is "anti-war,"
however. On the one hand, on the last page of the most well-known version of the
text, Henry, the central character,
…felt a quiet manhood, nonassertive
but of sturdy and strong blood. He knew that he would no more quail before his
guides wherever they should point. He had been to touch the great death, and found
that, after all, it was but the great death. He was a man. But he
also had rid himself of the red sickness of battle. The sultry nightmare
was in the past. He had been an animal blistered and sweating in the heat and
pain of war. He turned now with a lover's thirst to images of tranquil skies,
fresh meadows, cool brooks-an existence of soft and eternal peace. This
lesson asks students to appreciate more fully Crane's exploration of the values
associated with patriotism and war. After making a comparison between Chapter
23 of The Red Badge of Courage and a more traditional piece on war,
students address many of McClurg's accusations one by one, defending or contesting
them with textual evidence whenever possible. Lastly, students look at three different
published endings to the novel and decide which best represents their understanding
of Crane's exploration of values. - George
Wyndam's commentary, reproduced on the Red
Badge Home Page of the EDSITEment resource American
Studies at the University of Virginia, is a relevant, early piece of criticism
that explores the moral imagination. Wyndam speaks of the importance of experience
and the limitations of abstractions, and the difficulty of conveying from one
person to another the emotional kernel of those experiences that are the basis
of our ethical perspective. It is difficult to "teach values" to anyone, but especially
to the young who lack experience but are always ready to pass judgment. As Wyndam
puts it, "Let no man cast a stone of contempt at these two lads during their earlier
weakness until he has fully gauged the jarring discordance of battle…"
Suggested Activities
1.
"Keenan's Charge" vs. Chapter 23 2.
Controversy: Cowardly and Unpatriotic? 3.
The Red Badge of Courage: Choose Your Own Ending 1.
"Keenan's Charge" vs. Chapter 23 The
Red Badge of Courage took a non-traditional approach to the war story. In
addition to stylistic differences (which are treated in detail in the companion
EDSITEment lesson The
Red Badge of Courage: A New Kind of Realism), Crane eschews the didacticism
readers were accustomed to finding in pieces about war. In the course of the novel,
Henry Fleming is, in turn, cowardly, selfish, loyal, and courageous. Share
with your students the poem "Keenan's Charge" by George Parsons Lathrop (page
257
page 258 Scribner's
Monthly, Volume XXII, May 1881 to Oct. 1881, inclusive), available on The
Nineteenth Century in Print Periodicals collection of the EDSITEment-reviewed
website American Memory.
Part II of "Keenan's Charge" describes an assault that took place during the Battle
of Chancellorsville. Chapter
23 of The Red Badge of Courage also describes a battle charge, probably
based on events at Chancellorsville. Download,
copy, and distribute to students the chart "'Keenan's
Charge' versus The Red Badge of Courage" on pages 1-2 of the PDF
file (see Preparing to Teach this Lesson, above, for
download instructions). Have students look through "Keenan's Charge" and Chapter
23 carefully as they find evidence from each to complete the chart and answer
the questions. When they are finished, refer to student answers as you and the
class make comparisons between the two works. Does one or the other make the participants
seem more or less realistic? Brave? Patriotic? 2.
Controversy: Cowardly and Unpatriotic? According
to the Red Badge
Home Page of the EDSITEment resource American
Studies at the University of Virginia: General Alexander C. McClurg
(1832-1901), soldier, publisher, book collector, headed the publishing firm which
owned "The Dial." His letter, written 11 April 1896, is in response to critics
who took The Red Badge seriously, including the reviewer for "The Dial."
McClurg [attacked]… English reviewers and magazines, cowards and deserters, and
the lack of proper censorship of modern literature … Share
with students General
Alexander C. McClurg's letter to the Dial, April 16, 1896, XX, 227-8,
available on the EDSITEment-reviewed website American
Studies at the University of Virginia. Provide students with the handout
"Is The Red Badge of Courage Cowardly and Unpatriotic?," on page
3 of the PDF file (see Preparing to Teach this Lesson,
above, for download instructions), which lists many of McClurg's specific allegations
against The Red Badge of Courage. Give students time to complete the
chart on their own or in small groups. Then discuss evidence from the text that
corroborates or contradicts McClurg's allegations. Crane's
consideration of values in The Red Badge of Courage is one that can't
be framed as simply as either cowardly and unpatriotic or courageous and patriotic.
On the one hand, the last page of the most well-known version of the text says
that Henry …felt a quiet manhood,
nonassertive but of sturdy and strong blood. He knew that he would no more quail
before his guides wherever they should point. He had been to touch the great death,
and found that, after all, it was but the great death. He was a man. But
he also had rid himself of the red sickness of battle. The sultry
nightmare was in the past. He had been an animal blistered and sweating in the
heat and pain of war. He turned now with a lover's thirst to images of tranquil
skies, fresh meadows, cool brooks-an existence of soft and eternal peace. What
is going on in these passages? How can they be reconciled in terms of the text?
3. The Red Badge of
Courage: Choose Your Own Ending Share
with the class the following: …in commending the book I should dwell
rather upon the skill shown in evolving from the youth's crude expectations and
ambitions a quiet honesty and self-possession manlier and nobler than any heroism
he had imagined. —From William Dean Howells' review of The Red Badge
of Courage, "Harper's Weekly", 26 October 1895, xxxix, 1013 A
work like "Keenan's Charge" can be seen as a demonstration of the author's cherished
values about character. As Howell suggests, The Red Badge of Courage
is more about the process of character development, a young person "evolving."
[Here character development is meant in the sense of the process of growth we all go through
in which a person matures and decides what values to endorse as opposed to the
literary term "character development."] What can the students point to in the
text or its plot to support that way of looking at the book? "Courage" is certainly
the foremost value the book explores, but include in your discussion complementary
character traits such as loyalty, patriotism, duty, determination, and self-awareness.
What other character traits are treated in the novel? A
different ending was used for each of three publications of The Red Badge
of Courage. Each ending is available online via a link from the EDSITEment
resource American Studies at the University
of Virginia. Assume, for the sake of discussion, that in writing the book,
Crane was sorting out his feelings about characteristics such as courage and patriotism
and that while he was still uncertain, he composed three endings. Eventually,
of course, he would have to choose the one ending most faithful to what he learned
in the course of writing the book. Share with the class the endings published
in the book
(top of page), manuscript (page 191 Top,
Middle,
Bottom;
page 192 Top,
Middle,
Bottom;
and page 193),
and serial
(bottom of page). Which ending was featured in the text the students read? Help
students explore the different effects of the alternate endings. How does each
ending reflect how Henry has changed during the book? Which ending do students
think is most faithful to what Crane learned by writing the novel? In what way?
What did Crane learn? Extend your discussion
of Crane and his attitude toward war with a reading from War
Is Kind, available on the EDSITEment-reviewed website of the Academy
of American Poets. Is it more like "Keenan's Charge," about the author's cherished
values? Or is it more about a process like The Red Badge of Courage?
Should readers of The Red Badge of Courage allow themselves to be influenced
by the poem in understanding the book? Extending
the Lesson- For a discussion of the stylistic
devices that help Crane convey with realism the process of Henry Fleming's development,
consult the EDSITEment lesson The
Red Badge of Courage: A New Kind of Realism.
- Students interested
in obtaining more information on the Battle of Chancellorsville can access the
following:
- Section 3 of the "Editor's Preface"
to the Red Badge
Home Page on the EDSITEment-reviewed website American
Studies at the University of Virginia describes The Red Badge of Courage
as "a series of 'imaged' moments tenuously linked by narrative, a presentation
of 'history' in the manner of Eadweard Muybridge's photographic exhibit" and adds
that "Crane's debt to the style and subject matter of visual representations of
the Civil War by American artists—photographs by Mathew Brady, Alexander
Gardner, and Timothy H. O'Sullivan… has gone largely unremarked." Through the
Selected Civil War
Photographs collection on the EDSITEment resource American
Memory, students can find a wide variety of Civil War photographs to compare
to Crane's text.
Selected EDSITEment
Websites- Academy of American Poets
[http://www.poets.org/]
- American
Memory
[http://memory.loc.gov/ammem/ammemhome.html] - American Studies at the
University of Virginia
[http://xroads.virginia.edu/] - General
Alexander C. McClurg, letter to the Dial
(April 16, 1896, XX, 227-8)
[http://xroads.virginia.edu/~HYPER/CRANE/reviews/mcclurg.html] - Imaging
the Civil War: Authenticity in Painting, Photography,
and The Red Badge of
Courage [http://xroads.virginia.edu/~HYPER/CRANE/images/section3.html]
- Red Badge
Home Page
[http://xroads.virginia.edu/~HYPER/CRANE/title.html] - Sydney
Brooks, unsigned review, Saturday Review
January 11, 1896, lxxxi, 44-5
[http://xroads.virginia.edu/~HYPER/CRANE/reviews/brooks.html] - The
Battle: Chancellorsville
[http://xroads.virginia.edu/~HYPER/CRANE/ chancellorsville/section2.html]
- The
Red Badge of Courage, Chapter 23
[http://xroads.virginia.edu/~HYPER/CRANE/badge23.html]
- The Red
Badge of Courage, Chapter 5
[http://xroads.virginia.edu/~HYPER/CRANE/badge5.html]
- American
Literature Since 1865
[http://etext.lib.virginia.edu/railton/enam312/index.html]
- Manuscript,
p. 191 Top
[http://etext.lib.virginia.edu/railton/enam854/summer/rbms1a.html]
- Manuscript,
p. 191 Middle
[http://etext.lib.virginia.edu/railton/enam854/summer/rbms1b.html]
- Manuscript,
p. 191 Bottom
[http://etext.lib.virginia.edu/railton/enam854/summer/rbms1c.html]
- Manuscript,
p. 192 Top
[http://etext.lib.virginia.edu/railton/enam854/summer/rbms2a.html]
- Manuscript,
p. 192 Middle
[http://etext.lib.virginia.edu/railton/enam854/summer/rbms2b.html]
- Manuscript,
p. 192 Bottom
[http://etext.lib.virginia.edu/railton/enam854/summer/rbms2c.html]
- Manuscript,
p. 193
[http://etext.lib.virginia.edu/railton/enam854/summer/rbms3a.html]
- Smithsonian National
Museum of American History
[http://www.americanhistory.si.edu/] - Links to the Past [http://www.cr.nps.gov/]
Other Information
Standards Alignment
- NCSS-1
Culture and cultural diversity. more
- NCSS-2
Time, continuity, and change. The ways human beings view themselves in and over time. more
- NCTE/IRA-1
Students read a wide range of print and nonprint texts to build an understanding of texts, of themselves, and of the cultures of the United States and the world; to acquire new information; to respond to the needs and demands of society and the workplace; and for personal fulfillment. Among these texts are fiction and nonfiction, classic and contemporary works. more
- NCTE/IRA-2
Students read a wide range of literature from many periods in many genres to build an understanding of the many dimensions (e.g., philosophical, ethical, aesthetic) of human experience. more
- NCTE/IRA-3
Students adjust their use of spoken, written, and visual language (e.g., conventions, style, vocabulary) to communicate effectively with a variety of audiences and for different purposes. more
- NCTE/IRA-7
Students conduct research on issues and interests by generating ideas and questions, and by posing problems. They gather, evaluate, and synthesize data from a variety of sources (e.g., print and nonprint texts, artifacts, people) to communicate their discoveries in ways that suit their purpose and audience. more
- NCTE/IRA-8
Students use a variety of technological and information resources (e.g., libraries, databases, computer networks, video) to gather and synthesize information and to create and communicate knowledge. more
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