Review: The Red Badge of Courage by Stephen Crane

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"A man with a full stomach and the respect of his fellows had no business to scold about anything that he might think to be wrong in the ways of the universe, or even with the ways of society. Let the unfortunates rail; the others may play marbles." - Stephen Crane, The Red Badge Of Courage

The Red Badge Of Courage, written by Stephen Crane in 1895 is remarkable for a great many things, not the least of which was an absence of romantic notions of war, or the realistic depictions of combat (despite the author's lack of ever experiencing it). No, what I find most remarkable is the lack of partisan politic, ideology, class struggles, or any notion of why there is a civil war in a novel about a young man fighting in the American Civil War. The quote above comes not as a commentary about society, but as individual lamentations at the fortunes of war, that may be applied to society as well.

There are descriptions of uniforms (blue versus gray), and the Confederates are referred to as 'Rebs' (short for rebels), but not once is it ever discussed why they are fighting. Not slavery, not states rights, not any cause that contemporary (to the story) nor modern society can lay at the alter of blame. This is a story about men in combat, camaraderie, and personal failings or exultations. Indeed, there is a telling line from the story...

"The people were afar and he did not conceive public opinion to be accurate at long range." - Stephen Crane, The Red Badge Of Courage

Crane set out to write a story about one man and his journey from animal cowardice to feral bravery to reasoned duty. That is was set during the civil war is perhaps only a necessity of the time. In doing so, he unwittingly wrote a timeless piece applicable to any war, any man or woman fighting in it, years past or some point in the future; applicable to any society regardless of time or place; any cause, any reason. Ultimately, it did not matter to Crane what war the story took place in, because his subject was men-at-arms, personal motivations, and natural order. In this sense, the book is an allegory of any conflict.

"From his home his youthful eyes had looked upon the war in his own country with distrust. It must be some sort of a play affair. He had long despaired of witnessing a Greeklike struggle. Such would be no more, he had said. Men were better, or more timid. Secular and religious education had effaced the throat-grappling instinct, or else firm finance held in check the passions." - Stephen Crane, The Red Badge Of Courage

I end this with another quote from near the beginning of the story that succinctly sets the stage for what is about to transpire in the narrative: The story that follows is the 'means and roads' by which those things taken for 'granted' are finally examined under battle won maturity. A fitting story for any time, any man, any place, in any war.

"In his life he had taken certain things for granted, never challenging his belief in ultimate success, and bothering little about means and roads." - Stephen Crane, The Red Badge Of Courage