In The Red Badge of Courage by Stephen crane, color is used in a wide variety of instances. The author utilizes color through imagery and symbolism in order to represent concepts and to impact the reader on a more personal basis. Gray is used in this way to describe death, in doing so the color is portrayed on both a symbolic and literal field. Gray is used literally to describe the dead soldiers on the battle field while it is used symbolically as the specter of death; this idea is introduced when Henry has visions of the dead while over looking the soldiers who lay sleeping, also more subtlety as the color of the uniforms of those who stand against him, who are the cause of the conflict. A more dominate color symbol is the color red, which is used to symbolize bravery, blood, wounds, and battle. Through out the book red is used consistently in these ways and becomes a strong repeating motif. In this way Crane uses colors to describe the physical and mental episodes in The Red Badge of Courage.
             Color is brought into play early in the novel, as crane describes the battle field at sun rise: "As the landscape changed from brown to green, the army awakened, and began to tremble with eagerness at the noise of rumors" (43). Color is used in a literal fashion to describe the field's green grass while it is simultaneously used to symbolize the innocence of the soldiers in Henry's battalion. Further more color is used here to affect the reader on a personal level; the image of the young and inexperienced soldiers causes the reader to feel inner conflict as the youths are shown as the last type of people one should expect to be fighting in a war, as Crane later states: "... these battalions with their commotions were woven red and startling into the gentle fabric of the softened greens and browns. It looked to be a wrong place for a battlefield" (69). Green is used once more to describe the youth and innocence of the soldiers; th...