George Westinghouse College Prep
Realism in The Red Badge of Courage
Unit 4
American Literature and Composition
Student Reading Packet
Unit Assessment
SWBAT:
All subjects and verbs agree in number and tense
Uses their, there, and they're and you're and your properly
Locate simple details in uncomplicated passages
Make inferences about how details are used by the author
Ensure that a verb agrees with its subject when there is some text between the two
Provides adequate examples and support with some specifics
Connects and links analysis of the issue to the overall thesis
Orders sequence of events in uncomplicated literary narratives
Identifies clear relationships between people and ideas in passages
Identifies clear cause-effect relationships
Uses sentence variety
Writes with some word choice including little or no use of generic 2nd person (you)
Has few or no grammatical errors
Prompting Question:
Compare The Red Badge of Courage, a work of fiction, to photographs and first-hand accounts of the Civil War. How realistic was Crane’s depiction?
Essay Requirements:
Should include a minimum of three sources from this reading packet
Should reference something learned in AP World History (ie., text, lecture, visual aid)
Follow the ACTS, MEL-Con (M, EL, EL, EL, Con), and STAC writing formulas
Should be submitted via Criterion twice prior to final submission in order to eliminate grammar and mechanical issues as identified in the rubric
Should contain no fewer than two (2) A.W.E. per body paragraph
Should contain a title page
Should contain a Works Cited page in proper MLA format
Grading:
See attached rubric.
_________________________
SWBAT:
Identify clear relationships between people and ideas
Provides adequate examples and support with some specifics
Identify clear cause-effect relationships in passages
Stop and Think: Connecting to Self
How do people discover what their strengths and weaknesses are? Some may say that we discover who we truly are only when we are put in an unexpected circumstance that forces us to react or respond in some way – even if that response involves walking away.
Think about a time when you were tested by a challenging situation such as a friend pressuring you to do something or an event that you witnessed. Describe the event. How did you respond? Were you surprised by your reaction? Explain.
Building Background
Did You Know?
In a typical Civil War battle, the opposing armies were only a few hundred yards apart. Usually one side would attempt to advance across an open field, while the defenders fired at them from the cover of trees or trenches. Such assaults were murderous because the attackers were so exposed. Nevertheless, this tactic remained common throughout the war.
Large battles consisted of countless skirmishes, or minor fights, involving small groups of soldiers. The attacking soldiers did not advance steadily toward the enemy in neat ranks. Rather, they dashed forward a few yards, fired, then lay down or hid to reload before dashing forward a few more yards to fire again.
The thick, eye-watering smoke that settled over the battlefield made combat madly confusing. Soldiers could see only a short distance ahead. It was not uncommon for troops in the second or third line to fire into their own front rank. Soldiers often felt shots coming at them from all directions. The noise of the battle- the booming explosions of cannons, the sharp bursts of rifle shots, and the shouts and groans of those fighting and dying – added to th confusion. Gruesome deaths were common, and advancing or retreating soldiers often had no choice but to step on the dead and wounded.
Source: The Glencoe Literary Library. “Study Guide for The Red Badge of Courage.”
Stop and Think:
Were you surprised by the attack strategies used during the Civil War?
What effects do you think this type of attack method had on
The soldiers actively fighting?
On the soldiers wounded on the battlefield?
On the nurses who cared for the wounded?
On the observers who stood and watched?
SWBAT:
Identify clear relationships between people and ideas
Provides adequate examples and support with some specifics
Identify clear cause-effect relationships in passages
Crane’s American Contempo
raries: Critics and Reviews
"Mr. Stephen Crane, the author of The Red Badge of Courage, is a great artist, with something new to say, and consequently, with a new way of saying it."
-George Wyndham on Crane's remarkable book, New Review (January 1896, xiv, 30-40) on the Red Badge Home Page of the EDSITEment resource American Studies at the University of Virginia
"The Red Badge impels the feeling that the actual truth about a battle has never been guessed before…"
-Harold Frederic, London editor of the “New York Times” (January 12, 1896) on the Red Badge Home Page of the EDSITEment reviewed website American Studies at the University of Virginia
"Of our own smaller fiction I have been reading several books without finding a very fresh note except in The Red Badge of Courage, by Mr. Stephen Crane."
-William Dean Howells, from Howells, review, “Harper's Weekly” (26 October 1895, xxxix, 1013) on the Red Badge Home Page of the EDSITEment resource American Studies at the University of Virginia
Writing Assignment:
Write an ACTS (Attention-getter, Connect, Thesis, Summary statement) in which you apply the critiques to your reading of The Red Badge of Courage. "Something new." "Never been guessed before." "A very fresh note." The critics agreed there was something different was going on here. Many books about war, some quite realistic, had already been written. First-person narration was not unusual. What was fresh in Crane's approach?
SWBAT:
Locate important details in passages
Make simple inferences about how details are used in passages
Identify details that clearly support the key points of written or nonprint sources
Gather and interpret details presented in a text
The Red Badge of Courage
Chapters 1–7
What is your first impression of Henry Fleming?
What challenging or stressful situations does Henry face?
Why does Henry enlist? What new thoughts does he struggle with before battle? Do other soldiers share these thoughts? Explain.
How does Henry perform during the first attack? Why does he run from the battle during the second attack?
Alone in the woods, how does Henry justify his flight? When Henry enters the chapel of trees, does he find comfort? Explain.
SWBAT:
Locate important details in passages
Make simple inferences about how details are used in passages
Identify details that clearly support the key points of written or non-print sources
Gather and interpret details presented in a text
Imagery
Directions: Many striking images appear throughout chapters 1 – 7. Variations on these images occur throughout the novel. As you read, use this chart to record phrases and sentences that contain examples of each kind of image listed.
|Other images from nature |Animal Images |
|Image: |Image: |
| |Enemy campfires look like “red eyes” of a “row of dragons ” |
|Impact: | |
| |Impact: |
|Image: | |
| |Image: |
|Impact: | |
| |Impact: |
|Machine Images |Religious Images |
|Image: |Image: |
| | |
|Impact: |Impact: |
| | |
|Image: |Image: |
| | |
|Impact: |Impact: |
Ensure that a verb agrees with its subject when there is some text between the two
Provide adequate examples and support with some specifics
Demonstrates adequate analysis of the issue through links and connections to the overall thesis
Writing Application:
Review the chart of images you found and analyzed. Think about the way the images contribute to the impact of the novel: How do the images help to create a certain mood? How do they reflect Henry’s psychological state at certain moments? How do they reflect Crane’s attitude toward war or his view of human nature?
Then write a MEL-Con paragraph in which you use the images (evidence) and your analysis (links) to determine whether or not Crane has written a realistic vision of war.
SWBAT:
Locate important details in passages
Make simple inferences about how details are used in passages
Identify details that clearly support the key points of written or non-print sources
Gather and interpret details presented in a text
Comparison Assignment:
Which words would you apply to each image and passage (anonymous, biased, courageous, famous, heroic, realistic, romanticized, static, unbiased, vivid)? Would you add any words?
Image 1.
[pic]
Source: Gardner, Alexander. “Antietam, Md. Confederate dead by a fence on the Hagerstown road.” Dec 2010.
Passage for Image 1: Chapter 12 of The Red Badge of Courage:
The little narrow roadway now lay lifeless. There were over-turned wagons like sun-dried boulders. The bed of the former torrent was choked with the bodies of horses and splintered parts of war machines.
Image 2.
[pic]
Source:
Milhollen, Hirst D. and Donald H. Mugridge, compiled by. Washington, D.C. : Library of Congress, 1977. No. 0427 “Petersburg, Va. Dead Confederate soldier with gun. . 28 Dec 2010.
Passage for Image 2: Chapter 3 of The Red Badge of Courage
He lay upon his back staring at the sky. He was dressed in an awkward suit of yellowish brown. The youth could see that the soles of his shoes had been worn to the thinness of writing paper, and from a great rent in one the dead foot projected piteously. And it was as if fate had betrayed the soldier. In death it exposed to his enemies that poverty which in life he had perhaps concealed from his friends.
The ranks opened covertly to avoid the corpse. The invulnerable dead man forced a way for himself. The youth looked keenly at the ashen face. The wind raised the tawny beard. It moved as if a hand were stroking it. He vaguely desired to walk around and around the body and stare; the impulse of the living to try to read in dead eyes the answer to the Question.
SWBAT:
Spells the following words correctly: their, they're, there, your and you're, its and it's
Ensure that a verb agrees with its subject when there is some text between the two
Provide adequate examples and support with some specifics
Demonstrates adequate analysis of the issue through links and connections to the overall thesis
Writing Application:
Write a MEL-Con (M, EL, EL, EL, Con) paragraph in which you compare the photographs to the accompanying passages from The Red Badge of Courage. Your analysis of each image/text set is your evidence. Your links should evaluate the likelihood that Crane was influenced by these or similar photographs.
SWBAT:
Locate important details in passages
Make simple inferences about how details are used in passages
Identify details that clearly support the key points of written or non-print sources
Gather and interpret details presented in a text
Comparison Assignment:
Read “Keenan's Charge” and chapter 23 of The Red Badge of Courage texts. Then complete the chart, question set, and writing assignment that follow.
KEENAN’S CHARGE.
257 KEENAN’S CHARGE.
(CHANCELLORSVILLE, MAY, 1863.)
I.
THE sun had set;
The leaves with dew were wet;
Down fell a bloody dusk
On the woods, that second of May,
Where Stonewalls corps, like a beast of prey,
Tore .through, with angry tusk.
“They’ve trapped us, boys!”
Rose from our flank a voice.
With a rush of steel and smoke
On came the Rebels straight,
Eager as love and wild as hate:
And our line reeled and broke;
Broke and fled.
No one staid but the dead!
With curses, shrieks, and cries,
Horses and wagons and men
Tumbled back through the shuddering glen,
And above us the fading skies.
There’s one hope, still
Those batteries parked on the hill!
Battery, wheel! (mid the roar)
Pass pieces; fix prolonge to fire
Retiring. Trot! In the panic dire
A bugle rings “Trot” - and no more:
The horses plunged,
The cannon lurched and lunged,
To join the hopeless rout.
But suddenly rode a form
Calmly in front of the human storm,
With a stern, commanding shout:
“Align those guns!”
(We knew it was Pleasontons.)
The cannoneers bent to obey,
And worked with a will, at his word:
And the black guns moved as if they had heard.
But ah, the dread delay!
“To wait is crime; O God, for ten minutes time!”
The general looked around.
There Keenan sat, like a stone,
With his three hundred horse alone.
Less shaken than the ground.
“Major, your men ? -“
“Are soldiers, General.”“Then,
Charge, Major! Do your best.”
258 KEENAN’S CHARGE.
“Hold the enemy back, at all cost,
Till my guns are placed; else the army is lost.
You die to save the rest!”
II.
By the shrouded gleam of the western skies,
Brave Keenan looked in Pleasonton’s eyes
For an instant clear, and cool, and still;
Then, with a smile, he said: “I will.”
“Cavalry, charge!” - Not a man of them shrank.
Their sharp, full cheer, from rank on rank,
Rose joyously, with a willing breath
Rose like a greeting hail to death.
Then forward they sprang, and spurred and clashed;
Shouted the officers, crimson-sashd;
Rode well the men, each brave as his fellow,
In their faded coats of the blue and yellow;
And above in the air, with an instinct true,
Like a bird of war, their pennon flew.
With clank of scabbards and thunder of steeds,
And blades that shine like sunlit reeds,
And strong brown faces bravely pale
For fear their proud attempt shall fail,
Three hundred Pennsylvanians close
On twice ten thousand gallant foes.
Line after line the troopers came
To the edge of the wood that was ringd with flame;
Rode in and sabered and shot and fell;
Nor came one back his wounds to tell.
And full in the midst rose Keenan, tall
In the gloom, like a martyr awaiting his fall,
While the circle-stroke of his saber, swung
Round his head, like a halo there, luminous hung.
Line after line; ay, whole platoons,
Struck dead in their saddles, of brave dragoons
By the maddened horses were onward borne
And into the vortex flung, trampled and torn;
As Keenan fought with his men, side by side.
So they rode, till there were no more to ride.
But over them, lying there, shattered and mute,
What deep echo rolls ? - Tis a death-salute
From the cannon in place; for, heroes, you braved
Your fate not in vain: the army was saved
I over them now year following year
Over their graves, the pine-cones fall,
And the whip-poor-will chants his specter-call;
But they stir not again: they raise no cheer:
They have ceased. But their glory shall never cease,
Nor their light be quenched in the light of peace.
The rush of their charge is resounding still
That saved the army at Chancellorsville.
Source:
Lathrop, George Parsons. “Keenan’s Charge (Chancellorsville, May 1863). Scribner's Monthly, an illustrated magazine for the people Volume 0022 Issue 2 (June 1881). . 28 Dec 2010.
The Red Badge of Courage
CHAPTER 23
Stephen Crane
The colonel came running along the back of the line. There were other officers following him. "We must charge'm!" they shouted. "We must charge'm!" they cried with resentful voices, as if anticipating a rebellion against this plan by the men.
The youth, upon hearing the shouts, began to study the distance between him and the enemy. He made vague calculations. He saw that to be firm soldiers they must go forward. It would be death to stay in the present place, and with all the circumstances to go backward would exalt too many others. Their hope was to push the galling foes away from the fence.
He expected that his companions, weary and stiffened, would have to be driven to this assault, but as he turned toward them he perceived with a certain surprise that they were giving quick and unqualified expressions of assent. There was an ominous, clanging overture to the charge when the shafts of the bayonets rattled upon the rifle barrels. At the yelled words of command the soldiers sprang forward in eager leaps. There was new and unexpected force in the movement of the regiment. A knowledge of its faded and jaded condition made the charge appear like a paroxysm, a display of the strength that comes before a final feebleness. The men scampered in insane fever of haste, racing as if to achieve a sudden success before an exhilarating fluid should leave them. It was a blind and despairing rush by the collection of men in dusty and tattered blue, over a green sward and under a sapphire sky, toward a fence, dimly outlined in smoke, from behind which sputtered the fierce rifles of enemies.
The youth kept the bright colors to the front. He was waving his free arm in furious circles, the while shrieking mad calls and appeals, urging on those that did not need to be urged, for it seemed that the mob of blue men hurling themselves on the dangerous group of rifles were again grown suddenly wild with an enthusiasm of unselfishness. From the many firings starting toward them, it looked as if they would merely succeed in making a great sprinkling of corpses on the grass between their former position and the fence. But they were in a state of frenzy, perhaps because of forgotten vanities, and it made an exhibition of sublime recklessness. There was no obvious questioning, nor figurings, nor diagrams. There was, apparently, no considered loopholes. It appeared that the swift wings of their desires would have shattered against the iron gates of the impossible.
He himself felt the daring spirit of a savage, religion-mad. He was capable of profound sacrifices, a tremendous death. He had no time for dissections, but he knew that he thought of the bullets only as things that could prevent him from reaching the place of his endeavor. There were subtle flashings of joy within him that thus should be his mind.
He strained all his strength. His eyesight was shaken and dazzled by the tension of thought and muscle. He did not see anything excepting the mist of smoke gashed by the little knives of fire, but he knew that in it lay the aged fence of a vanished farmer protecting the snuggled bodies of the gray men.
As he ran a thought of the shock of contact gleamed in his mind. He expected a great concussion when the two bodies of troops crashed together. This became a part of his wild battle madness. He could feel the onward swing of the regiment about him and he conceived of a thunderous, crushing blow that would prostrate the resistance and spread consternation and amazement for miles. The flying regiment was going to have a catapultian effect. This dream made him run faster among his comrades, who were giving vent to hoarse and frantic cheers.
But presently he could see that many of the men in gray did not intend to abide the blow. The smoke, rolling, disclosed men who ran, their faces still turned. These grew to a crowd, who retired stubbornly. Individuals wheeled frequently to send a bullet at the blue wave.
But at one part of the line there was a grim and obdurate group that made no movement. They were settled firmly down behind posts and rails. A flag, ruffled and fierce, waved over them and their rifles dinned fiercely.
The blue whirl of men got very near, until it seemed that in truth there would be a close and frightful scuffle. There was an expressed disdain in the opposition of the little group, that changed the meaning of the cheers of the men in blue. They became yells of wrath, directed, personal. The cries of the two parties were now in sound an interchange of scathing insults.
They in blue showed their teeth; their eyes shone all white. They launched themselves as at the throats of those who stood resisting. The space between dwindled to an insignificant distance.
The youth had centered the gaze of his soul upon that other flag. Its possession would be high pride. It would express bloody minglings, near blows. He had a gigantic hatred for those who made great difficulties and complications. They caused it to be as a craved treasure of mythology, hung amid tasks and contrivances of danger.
He plunged like a mad horse at it. He was resolved it should not escape if wild blows and darings of blows could seize it. His own emblem, quivering and aflare, was winging toward the other. It seemed there would shortly be an encounter of strange beaks and claws, as of eagles.
The swirling body of blue men came to a sudden halt at close and disastrous range and roared a swift volley. The group in gray was split and broken by this fire, but its riddled body still fought. The men in blue yelled again and rushed in upon it.
The youth, in his leapings, saw, as through a mist, a picture of four or five men stretched upon the ground or writhing upon their knees with bowed heads as if they had been stricken by bolts from the sky. Tottering among them was the rival color bearer, whom the youth saw had been bitten vitally by the bullets of the last formidable volley. He perceived this man fighting a last struggle, the struggle of one whose legs are grasped by demons. It was a ghastly battle. Over his face was the bleach of death, but set upon it was the dark and hard lines of desperate purpose. With this terrible grin of resolution he hugged his precious flag to him and was stumbling and staggering in his design to go the way that led to safety for it.
But his wounds always made it seem that his feet were retarded, held, and he fought a grim fight, as with invisible ghouls fastened greedily upon his limbs. Those in advance of the scampering blue men, howling cheers, leaped at the fence. The despair of the lost was in his eyes as he glanced back at them.
The youth's friend went over the obstruction in a tumbling heap and sprang at the flag as a panther at prey. He pulled at it and, wrenching it free, swung up its red brilliancy with a mad cry of exultation even as the color bearer, gasping, lurched over in a final throe and, stiffening convulsively, turned his dead face to the ground. There was much blood upon the grass blades.
At the place of success there began more wild clamorings of cheers. The men gesticulated and bellowed in an ecstasy. When they spoke it was as if they considered their listener to be a mile away. What hats and caps were left to them they often slung high in the air.
At one part of the line four men had been swooped upon, and they now sat as prisoners. Some blue men were about them in an eager and curious circle. The soldiers had trapped strange birds, and there was an examination. A flurry of fast questions was in the air.
One of the prisoners was nursing a superficial wound in the foot. He cuddled it, baby-wise, but he looked up from it often to curse with an astonishing utter abandon straight at the noses of his captors. He consigned them to red regions; he called upon the pestilential wrath of strange gods. And with it all he was singularly free from recognition of the finer points of the conduct of prisoners of war. It was as if a clumsy clod had trod upon his toe and he conceived it to be his privilege, his duty, to use deep, resentful oaths.
Another, who was a boy in years, took his plight with great calmness and apparent good nature. He conversed with the men in blue, studying their faces with his bright and keen eyes. They spoke of battles and conditions. There was an acute interest in all their faces during this exchange of view points. It seemed a great satisfaction to hear voices from where all had been darkness and speculation.
The third captive sat with a morose countenance. He preserved a stoical and cold attitude. To all advances he made one reply without variation, "Ah, go t' hell!"
The last of the four was always silent and, for the most part, kept his face turned in unmolested directions. From the views the youth received he seemed to be in a state of absolute dejection. Shame was upon him, and with it profound regret that he was, perhaps, no more to be counted in the ranks of his fellows. The youth could detect no expression that would allow him to believe that the other was giving a thought to his narrowed future, the pictured dungeons, perhaps, and starvations and brutalities, liable to the imagination. All to be seen was shame for captivity and regret for the right to antagonize.
After the men had celebrated sufficiently they settled down behind the old rail fence, on the opposite side to the one from which their foes had been driven. A few shot perfunctorily at distant marks.
There was some long grass. The youth nestled in it and rested, making a convenient rail support the flag. His friend, jubilant and glorified, holding his treasure with vanity, came to him there. They sat side by side and congratulated each other.
“Keenan’s Charge” versus The Red Badge of Courage
Directions: The subject of both Chapter 23 of The Red Badge of Courage and the poem “Keenan’s Charge” is a battle charge. How does each author describe the event? Use A.W.E. in this chart.
Source:
|How does the author describe: |Evidence from the text of “Keenan’s Charge” |Evidence from chapter 23 of The Red Badge of Courage|
|The enemy? | | |
| | | |
|The strategic situation? | | |
|The tools of battle? | | |
|The charge? | | |
|The officers? | | |
|The attitude of the soldier or | | |
|soldiers to the charge? | | |
|The mindset of the soldiers | | |
|during the charge? | | |
|How the soldiers are commended | | |
|for the victory? | | |
SWBAT:
Locate important details in passages
Make simple inferences about how details are used in passages
Identify details that clearly support the key points of written or non-print sources
Gather and interpret details presented in a text
Establishing Author's Purpose: A Close Reading of “Keenan’s Charge” and Chapter 23 of The Red Badge of Courage
Directions: Answer the following questions for each work with support from the text whenever possible.
1a. In “Keenan’s Charge,” why do the soldiers charge?
1b. In Chapter 23, why do the men “scamper?”
2a. In “Keenan’s Charge,” do the men discover courage or is it assumed to be inherent?
2b. In Chapter 23, do the men “discover courage” or is it assumed to be inherent?
3a. In “Keenan’s Charge,” are the specific actions of any man or men described? In what way?
3b. In Chapter 23, are the specific actions of any man or men described? In what way?
4a. For “Keenan’s Charge,” can you state unequivocally the author’s values? If yes, then what are his values?
4b. In Chapter 23, can you state unequivocally Crane’s values? If yes, then what are his values?
5a. Is it fair to say that the purpose of the author of “Keenan’s Charge” is to demonstrate values he probably held before he wrote the poem?
5b. Is it fair to say that Crane’s purpose in The Red Badge of Courage was to demonstrate a process? To muse on the nature of courage and its development in one individual?
SWBAT:
Spells the following words correctly: their, they're, there, your and you're, its and it's
Ensure that a verb agrees with its subject when there is some text between the two
Provide adequate examples and support with some specifics
Demonstrates adequate analysis of the issue through links and connections to the overall thesis
Writing Application:
How do these descriptions reflect the intentions of each author? Do they have similar purposes or do they conflict with one another?
Once you have made this decision, write a MEL-Con (M, EL, EL, EL, Con) paragraph in which you explore whether or not Crane's intention was realistically executed. In other words, was he successful in meeting his purpose? Select three of the questions above (evidence) and your answers (links) to assist you in composing your MEL-Con.
SWBAT:
Locate important details in passages
Make simple inferences about how details are used in passages
Identify details that clearly support the key points of written or non-print sources
Gather and interpret details presented in a text
Building Background:
THE DIAL CONTROVERSY
One of the most notable features of Red Badge's reception in America is the controversy about Crane's patriotism that raged in the pages of the Dial, a magazine owned by the conservative General Alexander C. McClurg. The outspoken McClurg, who had risen to the rank of Brigadier-General in the Northern Army, attacked Red Badge for portraying a Union soldier as a coward. Although Dial editor William Morton Payne had already made evident the magazine's disapproval of Red Badge, McClurg maintained that Payne's assessment had not been unfavorable enough. Criticizing those English and American reviewers who had praised Red Badge, McClurg fumed at what he saw as another installment in the habitual English ridicule of American soldiers. Mistakenly assuming that Crane's novel had been first published in England, McClurg denounced it as a "vicious satire upon American soldiers and American armies," as part of a plot to undermine confidence in the nation's armed forces (15). Such books, McClurg finished, should never be allowed to be published in America.
The first response to General McClurg's broadside came in a letter from J. L. Onderdonk, who, expressing his agreement with McClurg's position, ridiculed Red Badge as a "literary absurdity." In the same issue of the Dial, Ripley Hitchcock writes to the editors on behalf of the publishers of the novel, D. Appleton & Co. In an understated tone which contrasts pointedly with McClurg's heated prose, Hitchcock points out and corrects some of the General's mistakes while reminding readers of the numerous favorable notices garnered by the novel. English critic Sydney Brooks, who had earlier praised Red Badge in the Saturday Review, wrote to the Dial in defense of Crane's novel. Dismissing McClurg's incendiary speculations about English opinion of the novel as "misjudged patriotism and bad criticism," Brooks rightly points out that McClurg's notion of literary standards constituted a form of censorship which would allow only the most celebratory accounts of American life to be published (16). The good-natured good sense of Brooks' letter ended the Dial controversy.
General Alexander C. McClurg, Letter to the “Dial”
April 16, 1896, XX, 227-8
Must we come to judge of books only by what the newspapers have said of them, and must we abandon all the old standards of criticism? Can a book and an author, utterly without merit, be puffed into success by entirely undeserved praise, even if that praise come from English periodicals?
One must ask these questions after he has been seduced into reading a book recently reprinted in this country entitled The Red Badge of Courage, an Episode of the American Civil War. The chorus of praise in the English papers has been very extravagant, but it is noticeable that so far, at least, the American papers have said very little about the merits or demerits of the book itself. They simply allude to the noise made over it abroad, and therefore treat its author as a coming factor in our literature. Even “The Dial's” very acute and usually very discerning critic of contemporary fiction (Mr. Payne) treats the book and the author (in your issue of Feb. 1) in very much this way that is, as a book and an author to be reckoned with, not because of any good which he himself finds in them, but because they have been so much talked about.
The book has very recently been reprinted in America, and would seem to be an American book, on an American theme, and by an American author, yet originally issued in England. If it is really an American production one must suppose it to have been promptly and properly rejected by any American publishers to whom it may have been submitted, and afterward more naturally taken up by an English publisher.
It is only too well known that English writers have had a very low opinion of American soldiers, and have always, as a rule, assumed to ridicule them. Blackwood's Magazine is quoted by a recent writer as saying during the War: 'We cannot even pretend to keep our countenance when the exploits of the Grand Army of the Potomac are filling all Europe with inextinguishable laughter,' and adds 'we know not whether to pity most the officers who lead such men, or the men who are led by such officers' (Vol. 90, p. 395-6). And again, in January, 1862: 'Englishmen are unable to see anything peculiarly tragical in the fact that half a million of men have been brought together in arms to hurl big words at each other across a river' (Vol. 91, p. 118). Again, in April, 1862, 'Blackwood' tells us that Americans 'do not demand our respect because of their achievements in art, or in literature, or in science, or philosophy. They can make no presence to the no less real, though less beneficent, reputation of having proved themselves a great military power' (Vol. 91, p. 534). And in October, 1861, 'Blackwood' said exultantly: 'The venerable Lincoln, the respectable Seward, the raving editors, the gibbering mob, and the swift-footed warriors of Bull's Run, are no malicious tricks of fortune, played off on an unwary nation, but are all of them the legitimate offspring of the Great Republic,' and is 'glad that the end of the Union seems more likely to be ridiculous than terrible' (Vol. 90, p. 396).
We all know with what bitterness and spitefulness the Saturday Review always treats Americans; and with what special vindictiveness it reviews any book upon our late struggle written from the Northern standpoint. And so it is with all British periodicals and all British writers. They are so puffed up with vain-glory over their own soldiers who seldom meet men of their own strength, but are used in every part of the world for attacking and butchering defenseless savages, who happen to possess some property that Englishmen covet, that they cannot believe that there can be among any peoples well-disciplined soldiers as gallant and courageous as their own.
Under such circumstances we cannot doubt that The Red Badge of Courage would be just such a book as the English would grow enthusiastic over, and we cannot wonder that the redoubtable Saturday Review greeted it with the highest encomiums, and declared it the actual experiences of a veteran of our War, when it was really the vain imaginings of a young man born long since that war, a piece of intended realism based entirely on unreality. The book is a vicious satire upon American soldiers and American armies. The hero of the book (if such he can be called 'the youth' the author styles him) is an ignorant and stupid country lad, who, without a spark of patriotic feeling, or even of soldierly ambition, has enlisted in the army from no definite motive that the reader can discover, unless it be because other boys are doing so; and the whole book, in which there is absolutely no story, is occupied with giving what are supposed to be his emotions and his actions in the first two days of battle. His poor weak intellect, if indeed he has any, seems to be at once and entirely overthrown by the din and movement of the field, and he acts throughout like a madman. Under the influence of mere excitement, for he does not even appear to be frightened, he first rushes madly to the rear in a crazy panic, and afterwards plunges forward to the rescue of the colors under exactly the same influences. In either case has reason or any intelligent motive any influence on his action. He is throughout an idiot or a maniac, and betrays no trace of the reasoning being. No thrill of patriotic devotion to cause or country ever moves his breast, and not even an emotion of manly courage. Even a wound which he finally gets comes from a comrade who strikes him on the head with his musket to get rid of him; and this is the only 'Red Badge of Courage' (!) which we discover in the book. A number of other characters come in to fill out the two hundred and thirty-three pages of the book, such as 'the loud soldier,' 'the tall soldier,' 'the tattered soldier,' etc., but not one of them betrays any more sense, self-possession, or courage than does 'the youth.' On the field all is chaos and confusion. 'The young lieutenant,' 'the mounted officer,' even 'the general,' are all utterly demented beings, raving and talking alike in an unintelligible and hitherto unheard-of jargon, rushing about in a very delirium of madness. No intelligent orders are given; no intelligent movements are made. There is no evidence of drill, none of discipline. There is a constant, senseless, and profane babbling going on, such as one could hear nowhere but in a madhouse. Nowhere are seen the quiet, manly, self-respecting, and patriotic men, influenced by the highest sense of duty, who in reality fought our battles.
It can be said most confidently that no soldier who fought in our recent War ever saw any approach to the battle scenes in this book but what wonder? We are told that it is the work of a young man of twenty-three or twenty-four years of age, and so of course must be a mere work of diseased imagination. And yet it constantly strains after so-called realism. The result is a mere riot of words.
Although its burlesques and caricatures are quite enough to dismiss it from attention, it is worth while to give some samples of its diction to show that there is in it an entire lack of any literary quality. Notice the violent straining after effect in the mere unusual association of words, in the forced and distorted use of adjectives. Notice, too, the absurd similes, and even the bad grammar. Startling sentences are so frequent they might be quoted indefinitely; but here are a few:
[Quotes eighteen separate passages from The Red Badge of Courage.]
It is extraordinary that even a prejudiced animus could have led English writers to lavish extravagant praise on such a book; it is still more extraordinary that an attempt should be made to foist it upon the long-suffering American public, and to push it into popularity here. Respect for our own people should have prevented its issue in this country.
There may have been a moderate number of men in our service who felt and acted in battle like those in this book; but of such deserters were made. They did not stay when they could get away: why should they? The army was no healthy place for them, and they had no reason to stay; there was no moral motive. After they had deserted, however, they remained 'loud soldiers,' energetic and blatant, and they are possibly now enjoying good pensions. It must have been some of these fellows who got the ear of Mr. Crane and told him how they felt and acted in battle.
Source:
You Decide: Is The Red Badge of Courage Cowardly and Unpatriotic?
Directions: Does a close reading of Crane’s text support or contradict General Alexander C. McClurg’s accusations? Use A.W.E. to support your answer.
|McClurg's Accusations: | Is McClurg’s accusation supported or contradicted by evidence from the specific|
| |page? |
| 1. The hero of the book (if such he can be called ‘the |Supported/Contradicted... |
|youth’ the author styles him) is an ignorant and stupid | |
|country lad . . . |I know this because... |
|2. (Henry is) without a spark of patriotic feeling... |Supported/Contradicted... |
| | |
| |I know this because... |
|3. (Henry is) without soldierly ambition. |Supported/Contradicted... |
| | |
| |I know this because... |
|4. (Henry) has enlisted in the army from no definite motive |Supported/Contradicted... |
|that the reader can discover. | |
| |I know this because... |
| 5. Under the influence of mere excitement, for he does not|Supported/Contradicted... |
|even appear to be frightened, he first rushes madly to the | |
|rear in a crazy panic. |I know this because... |
| 6. Under the influence of mere excitement, for he does not|Supported/Contradicted... |
|even appear to be frightened . . . (he) afterwards plunges | |
|forward to the rescue of the colors under exactly the same |I know this because... |
|influences. | |
|7. (Neither) reason (n)or any intelligent motive (have) and |Supported/Contradicted... |
|influence on his action. | |
| |I know this because... |
| 8. No thrill of patriotic devotion to cause or country |Supported/Contradicted... |
|ever moves his breast . . . | |
| |I know this because... |
| | |
| 9. No . . . emotion of manly courage (ever moves his | |
|breast). |Supported/Contradicted... |
| | |
| |I know this because... |
|10. Even a wound which he finally gets comes from a comrade |Supported/Contradicted... |
|who strikes him on the head with his musket to get rid of | |
|him; and this is the only ‘Red Badge of Courage’ which we |I know this because... |
|discover in the book. | |
SWBAT:
Spells the following words correctly: their, they're, there, your and you're, its and it's
Ensure that a verb agrees with its subject when there is some text between the two
Provide adequate examples and support with some specifics
Demonstrates adequate analysis of the issue through links and connections to the overall thesis
Writing Application:
Write a MEL-Con (M, EL, EL, EL, Con) paragraph in which you select three of McClurg's accusations (evidence) and your own analysis (links) to determine whether or not Crane's work was realistic.
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