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the red badge of courage - unseen essay
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Unseen American synoptic essay from an extract from 'The Red Badge of Courage' by Stephen Crane.
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Jack ExtonThrough the extract from The Red Badge of Courage, Stephen Crane reflects the
two sides of war, as both a courageous act in proving strength and masculinity, and
as brutal – showing the horrors of conflict and the effect this has on man. This is
shown as the text was published towards the end of the Gilded Age, highlighting that
whilst masculinity may give the impression of strength and stability, in the long-term
this is oftentimes not the case. Whilst, during this period, there was progress in terms
of movements towards mass industrialisation and mechanisation, there was also
mass discrimination, poverty, and prejudice.
On one hand, Crane presents war as courageous and brave through the portrayal of
war as a proving of masculine strength and dominance – an ideology much enforced
throughout the Gilded Age, in order to push for an ‘idealised’ society built on male
power to prove American superiority internationally. This can be seen evidently
through the colour imagery linking to success, as “purple and gold” link to idea of
regality and triumph, suggesting both the hope for success on the scale of the Civil
War itself, but also in terms of the American hope for superiority on the global stage.
In addition to this, the sematic field of glory through the war being painted as “gleeful
and unregretting” highlights why war is often seen as a positive process that
enforces one’s masculinity, through it proving strength and dominance. Whilst war
being ‘unregretful’ in this is meant in terms of soldiers not regretting it, it could also
be a reference to the overarching control from those in power over ordinary people,
forcing them to feel obliged to prove that it was beneficial to all. This idea is further
enforced through the description of the veterans’ “scars faded as flowers” as this
contrasting statement shows that only through the pain of conflict was man able to
flourish. By pushing this idea, through shame and force, the pressures of masculinity
were effectively legitimised by suggesting they were only to be considered male
enough if their masculinity were to prevail.
On the other hand, Crane’s portrayal of war as brutal reflects the effects of the Civil
War on veterans that was becoming more prominent in American Society at the time
of this novel’s publication (around thirty years after the war’s end). This is reflected
greatly through metaphors throughout the extract: “the procession of weary soldiers
became a bedraggled train” highlights the longevity of the effects of war as it remains
in thought even after the conflict’s end. Whilst the “bedraggled train” suggests a
place of chaos and a lack of uniformity, them being in “procession” juxtaposes this,
thus further enhancing the idea that whilst remaining outwardly composed, on the
interior, many still felt the effect of war much further in life. This justifies the theory
that during the Gilded men were still very confined to pressures of proving their
masculinity, therefore feeling as though they could not make evident how much they
struggled with the aftereffects. Another metaphor that justifies this is a description of
a man who “had been an animal blistered and sweating in the heat and pain of war”,
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