The Red Badge Of Courage: Naturalistic
The Red Badge of Courage by Stephen Crane, one of the most significant and renowned
books in American literature, defies outright classification, showing traits of both the realist and
naturalist movements. It is a classic, however, precisely because it does so without sacrificing
unity or poignancy. The Red Badge of Courage belongs unequivocably to the naturalist genre,
but realism is also present and used to great effect. The conflict between these styles mirrors
the bloody clash of the war described in the book and the eternal struggle between good and
evil in human nature.
There are many characteristics in Crane's novel that would more readily fit within the
category of realism: the ordinariness of his characters, the use of dialect, the portrayal of
protagonist Henry Fleming as a complex individual, the description of nature as disinterested in
human affairs, and the positive ending of the story. Realism, often described as "slice of life" or
"photographic" writing, attempts to portray life exactly as it is, without twisting it or reworking it to
fit it into preconceived notions of what is appropriate or what is aesthetically pleasing. In this
book, Crane relies on neither the oversimplified rationalism of classicist literature nor the
emotional idealism of romantic prose. Instead, he offers realistic, believable characters with
average abilities. The soldiers are presented neither as epic heroes nor as bloodthirsty killers;
rather, their most noticeable trait is their overwhelming normalcy. The soldiers of Henry's
regiment curse, fight, and argue just like normal people. This down-to-earth, gritty, everyday
style is characteristic of realism. A particular convention used by Crane in...
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