The Red Badge of Courage

It’s a cold, foggy day on the battlefield.  Henry Flemming enlisted as a teenager with romantic ideas of what serving in the military would be like.  But now, faced with the reality of war and fearing defeat, he deserts his company.  Embarrassed by his lack of bravery and desperate to make up for it when his side wins the battle, he works to rejoin his men only to be injured by another confused and fleeing soldier.  Now bearing his own Red Badge of Courage, Henry returns to the battle.

Stephen Crane’s The Red Badge of Courage is a tale of a fictional Union regiment in the Civil War.  Crane himself was not a veteran of this war and was born 6 years after the close.  Crane drew upon war stories from local veterans and may loosely be based on the 124th New York Volunteer Infantry Regiment’s battle at Chancellorsville.  While this book covers a bygone time and military technology, the internal dialogue and conflict is relevant to today’s military warriors.

I give The Red Badge of Courage 4 out of 5 stars.  The vivid descriptions of the battlefield brought the scenes and characters to life for me.  The honest look at fear, shame, and potential PTSD through the lens of 19^th century standards was striking and appreciated.  I did find fault with some of the language, but this may have been a consequence of the times and appropriate when the book was written. 

I would recommend this book for more mature audiences over 16 due to the discussion of battlefield circumstances and death.  This book should be recommended reading for high school and college students in American History or Literature courses.  I would also recommend this book to ROTC members or teens considering enlistment and their families to open honest discussions about the realities of war.

Memorial Day was created in 1868 to honor the more than 200,000 lives lost during the American Civil War.  Since then, it has grown to honor military members lost across all wars.  I chose The Red Badge of Courage in honor of Memorial Day and those lives lost.  It is important to remember where we came from and who has paved the way for us to gain the advances and the freedoms we benefit from today.

Thank you to all our military friends and their families who are reading with us today.  We are especially grateful for those who paid the ultimate sacrifice and will never forget their contributions!

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What I’m Reading

• Current print book: Swan Light, Phoebe Rowe
• Current audio book: Meet Me at the Cupcake Cafe, Jenny Colgan
• Book I’m most looking forward to: The Mostly True Story of Tanner & Louise, Colleen Oakley