Stephen Crane was one of the most superlative writers. In his short time he wrote several novels including: Maggie, The Blue Hotel, The Open Boat and The Red Badge of Courage. Crane was the first to notify the public that war wasn't a good thing. Crane also was the first to depict the anti-war hero, (the one that war demonstrated that war wasn't always a good thing). "Crane dared depict the anti-hero, the one who failed to live up to the image society creates and the one that he would like to have himself. (Knapp 181)." The anti-hero was a new suggestion. Everyone thought that battles were games and heroes were the only things that came out of war, but Crane soon showed the public that that was not the case. That is why I have decided go into the themes of The Red Badge of Courage and the type of writer Stephen Crane was.
             The first comment I would like to make is on the struggles of Cranes characters. Some of his stories were in a war setting, which made the physical struggles very difficult. The emotional stress that war puts on a person is very demanding. In the Red-
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             Badge of Courage The Youth doesn't handle the pressure very well and that is the one of the reasons why I got tied into the book. Crane made you (as the reader) feel like you could almost relate to the characters problems and feelings. The emotional state of characters developed very genuinely throughout their endeavors.
             Someone that humans could relate to by putting themselves into the work, someone who failed, who tried but had pain, but was mature and drastic but not fully matured. But the things that he did learn he used to tackle the other problems that arose. There is a lot of pain and triumph in this story (Edwin 74).
             Psychologists have been trying to figure out why Crane inserted this powerful theme into his pieces. Crane was never in a war, although it seemed li...