Red Badge of Courage
Naturalism in The Red Badge of CourageThroughout the novel Red Badge of Courage, we are constantly being reminded of a general theme of naturalism. The entire novel is a struggle by Henry to grow as a person and attempt to find satisfaction in the person that he has become. Henry has gone to battle not only to fight for the cause, but also to grow as a person. There are many actions that Henry performs which do not fulfill the expectations that he has for himself. This becomes very difficult for Henry to cope with and therefore he looks for justification in his actions. Henry attempts to use the nature around him to give himself justification for his actions, which conforms to the theme of the novel and Crane's use of naturalism and how Henry looks to nature as a model for his actions. According to Professor Novaks' lecture, naturalism is a form of realism in which authors present their work as a scientific observation of a world in which people's acts are strictly determined by their nature and the nature of their surroundings. In Chapter 7 after Henry had run from a battle, he was attempting to find some sort of resolution for his actions when he sees a squirrel and throws a pinecone at it. He then says:
Pine needles were a gentle brown carpet. War will bring out qualities in a person that have never been exposed before, and, therefore, people need to cope with war in behavior that they have never had to deal with before. Henry sees himself as the squirrel, and he knows that when people throw things at squirrels they run, which is natural because the squirrel was following its natural instincts. Henry truly believes that the forest has become a chapel in which he can take sanctuary from the fear he is facing from the battles. The naturalism that is portrayed in the previous passages, and in the entire novel, makes this novel unique in bringing out the relationship between nature and man and Henry's contentment of his actions due to nature. This statement is ironic because of the fine bitterness that overcomes him. In this passage it is evident that Henry is attempting to find religious comfort in the fact that he ran from the battle. Trees, confronting him, stretched out their arms and forbade him to pass. It makes it a simple task to have the actions that occur be justified by this flawless thing. Nature seems to be a supreme being, which has control over all things, even war, and if nature were not ready for war to kill Henry, then it wouldn't !let it. For instance, Henry probably never thought of nature as being so closely related to him as a friend and a protector until war came. The squirrel didn't stand in front of the pinecone in an attempt to fight, but with the first sign of danger, he ran. This reemphasizes the theme that Henry is constantly struggling between his fantasy of wanting to be the war hero and the actuality of his just being a normal man who is afraid of war and afraid of dying. When walking through the woods, which Crane describes as being too dark and thick, Henry hears noises of battle, and ironically, he goes towards the fight. Henry sees nature as being almost flawless; therefore, it gives him justification into his own actions.
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Acceptance Essays
