Stephen Crane

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Stephen Crane The Red Badge of Courage
-(November 1, 1871 - 5 June 1900) was an
American novelist, poet and journalist. He was
born in Newark, New Jersey, the 14th child of a
Methodist minister.
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-While supporting himself through his writing, he
observed the poor in the Bowery slums to research
his first novel, Maggie A Girl Of The Streets
(1893), which was a milestone in the development
of literary naturalism. - Naturalistic writers
believe that one's heredity and surroundings
decide one's character. Naturalism attempts to
determine "scientifically" the underlying forces
(i.e. the environment or heredity) influencing
these subjects' actions. -This style of writing
would be a defining trait of his later work,
especially The Red Badge of Courage.
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-The Red Badge of Courage (1895) is a powerful
tale of the American Civil War. The book won
international acclaim for its realism and
psychological depth in telling the story of a
young soldier facing the horrors and triumphs of
war for the first time. -Crane had never
experienced battle personally, but conducted
interviews with a number of veterans.
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Characters In the Red Badge...
Henry Fleming Throughout the novel, Crane refers
to Henry as the young soldier and the youth.
Henrys reasons for wanting to win glory in
battle are far from noble. Henry desires a
reputation. Jim Conklin Jim contrasts sharply
with Henry in the opening pages of the novel. Jim
has little patience for the kind of loud,
knee-jerk criticism or vague abstraction that
distracts Wilson and Henry. He prefers to do what
duty requires of him and finds a quiet, simple
pleasure in doing so. Wilson Wilson undergoes
a dramatic change. Wilson is initially loud,
opinionated, and naïve. For the first half of the
book, Crane refers to him almost exclusively as
the loud soldier. His tone changes when he
faces the realities of war.
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-Based loosely on the events of the Civil War
Battle of Chancellorsville (May 26, 1863)though
neither the battle, the war, nor the armies are
named in the bookThe Red Badge of Courage
shattered American preconceptions about what a
war novel could be. In the decades before Cranes
novel, most fiction about the Civil War was
heavily idealistic, portraying the conflict as a
great clash of opposed ideals.
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Whereas previous writers had taken a large, epic
view, Crane focused on the individual psychology
of a single soldier, Private Henry Fleming,
during his first experiences of battle. In this
narrowed scope, Crane represents Henrys mind as
a maze of illusions, vanity, and romantic
naïveté, challenged by the hard lessons of war.
Crane does not depict a world of moral absolutes,
but rather a universe utterly indifferent to
human existence.
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-Crane was also the author of two books of
poetry, The Black Riders (1895) and War Is Kind
(1899). -In 1897, Crane settled in England,
where he befriended writers Joseph Conrad and
Henry James. Shortly before his death, he
released Whilomville Stories (1900), the most
commercially successful of the twelve books he
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-Crane died of tuberculosis (consumption) at the
age of 28, in Badenweiler, Germany on June 5,
1900. He is buried in Evergreen Cemetery in what
is now Hillside, New Jersey.