In the book The Red Badge of Courage, Henry Fleming enlists himself into the army to fight in the Civil War. He believes that he is ready, but spends time contemplating whether to run or stay. He begins to learn a whole new meaning of fear and the color red. Stephan Crane's use of the character's internal struggle to depict the story of the youth is embodied in the red badge.
             In the society during the Civil War, many young teenagers were either being drafted or elected to risk their lives to fight for the side that they're on. The Red Badge of Courage, published in 1895 shortly after the Civil War happened, emulated a young boy's psychological perspective at the time of the war. According to Crane in the book he sees the teenage boys of the Civil War in their young internal struggle with their mind to make a critical decision at a crucial point in their lives. He focused how the war effects on the human mind itself, Crane called the novel a "psychological portrayal of fear" (Glencoe 3). The author also gives a new impressionistic look at that time. The term impressionism is the highly personal way of seeing
             (Glencoe 3). Crane's new approach, emphasizes the "drama of thought of the character" rather than the action (Glencoe 4). Many critics believed that the time and place during the Civil War, in a particular battle called the Battle of Chancellorsville in May of 1863. Other critics believed that the real setting takes place in Fleming's mind (Glencoe 4).
             Crane's introduction into the book about the boy is extremely vivid, yet disarming. It is clear what Henry thinks, but it misleads (you) when he first hears a rumor of battle in the near future. His mind goes into an endless abyss thinking what to do. His brain goes into a sudden panic attack because of his over thinking.
             When his mind tormented him with fear, Henry longs for the "red bad
             ...