The Red Badge of Courage Stephen Crane

1. The Red Badge of Courage Stephen Crane

2. Warm Up: Nov. 18. You have five minutes. • Put this in your Daily Section.Write only the title above and your answer. • Directions: Use these words correctly to write a paragraph about a school-yard conflict among 3rd graders. Do not use my examples. • Annihilate: v. to totally destroy. “He was annihilated at the soccer game.” • Ardor: n. burning passion. “She has great ardor for him, but he doesn’t like her.” • Din: n. Loud, jarring noise. “The terrible din alerted the police to the problem.”

3. Warm Up: Nov. 18. You have five minutes. • Put this in your Daily Section.Write only the title above and your answer. • Directions: Use these words correctly to write a paragraph about a school-yard conflict among 3rd graders. Do not use my examples. • Beacon: a signal or guidance device like a lighthouse. “She followed the beacon to the safe haven.” • bleak: exposed and barren. “He could see no comfort in the bleak landscape.” • derived: taken from, received, or obtained from a source. . “By reading the paper, he derived that the crime was solved. ”

4. The Red Badge of Courage: Introduction “He had, of course, dreamed of battles all his life— of vague and bloody conflicts that had thrilled him with their sweep and fire.” Do you ever feel as if great things must be happening somewhere else and you would like to be a part of it?

5. The Red Badge of Courage: Introduction Henry Fleming (The Youth) wants to be part of a heroic struggle. During the Civil War, Henry leaves his family’s farm and enlists in the Union army.

6. Predictions: How do you think Henry’s mother will feel about his joining? How do you think Henry wants her to feel?

7. The Red Badge of Courage: Introduction As the novel begins, Henry’s regiment has been camped for several weeks. The men are impatient: Will they ever see battle?

8. Connection: Waiting for Assembly • Molly: I heard it’s 6th period! • Mike: No, Joe’s girlfriend’s mother knows someone who heard someone in the office say it’s going to be 3rd period! • Sam: We’re not even going! We’re just going to have to go to class!

9. Henry’s Internal Conflict (1) War is heroic! Great men have always fought in wars and I would be proud to be involved in a great conflict! Men are no longer noble, or maybe they are just practical. Being a soldier is stupid in the modern world. http://www.soldierstudies.org/index.php?action=webquest_1

10. Henry’s Internal conflict (2) • Stand firm and be a hero. • Face a fight and run away; live to fight another day!

11. The Loud Soldier: WilsonThe Tall Soldier: Jim Conklin • Wilson (Loud) • Jim Conklin (Tall) • As the book opens, he says the army will move soon. http://sherpaguides.com/georgia/civil_war/blue_gray_trail

12. Predictions: Will Henry earn his own “red badge”—a battle wound to prove his courage? More importantly, what will he learn about himself? About war?

13. Battle Conditions • Extremely loud • Very smoky with poor visibility. • Uneven terrain; wooded areas. • Due to 1, 2, &3, soldiers were easily disoriented and became lost. • Deserters might be running past a soldier on each side. • Completely chaotic—soldiers didn’t know how many of the enemy there were, how many soldiers would back them up, their exact location, the specific purpose for the battle, if they were winning or losing.

14. Loading the Gun

15. The Red Badge of Courage: Background “The real war will never get in the books.” —Walt Whitman

16. The Red Badge of Courage: Background In the years after the Civil War, most popular accounts of the war told an idealized, unrealistic story. Histories and memoirs emphasized the courage and comradeship of soldiers on both sides.

17. The Red Badge of Courage: Background Stephen Crane set out to write a Civil War novel in this spirit: a commercially appealing tale of heroic adventure.

18. It is Not Romantic! • Romanticism includes the years 1800-1860. Why is the end 1860? • The Civil War includes the years 1861-1865. The reality was much too harsh to be “Romanticized” much. • Henry struggles between being a Romanticist in his POV of the war and being a realist.

19. Primary Sources • Primary sources are articles, letters, diaries, etc., written by observers and participants at the time of an event. • Is The Red Badge of Courage a primary source for the Civil War era? Stephen Crane was born in 1871 and died in 1900 of . . . tuberculosis!

20. The Red Badge of Courage: Background As he wrote, Crane’s story changed into a harsher, more realistic portrait of war.

21. The Red Badge of Courage: Background Crane took details of Henry’s first battle from an actual Civil War campaign, the 1863 Battle of Chancellorsville. It was fought from April 30 to May 6, 1863, in Spotsylvania County, Virginia, near the village of Chancellorsville.

22. The Red Badge of Courage: Background More soldiers deserted during the Battle of Chancellorsville than during any other clash of the war.

23. The Red Badge of Courage: Discussion Starters Discuss (1) • What kinds of situations challenge people to show courage? • What would you need to know about a situation before you judged someone else’s courage in facing it?

24. The Red Badge of Courage: Discussion Starters Discuss (2) Desertion has always been considered shameful. During the Civil War it was punishable by death. • Suppose you were a soldier in a terrible battle. What would you do if most of the soldiers around you began to run away? • What would it take to maintain your courage?

25. A Blend of Styles: • It is “impressionistic”—the story is structured by Henry’s impressions at the time, including his feelings and his own confusion. • It also uses “Naturalism”—the recognition that nature exists outside of man and essentially ignores his needs. • It uses “Psychological Realism”—focuses on the thought processes of the protagonists and the plot revolves around these.

26. How to Read It: • Read as much for Henry’s mood as for the “facts” of what is going on. • The story is told from the 3rd person limited point of view. (Henry doesn’t know what’s going on in the big picture, so you won’t either. ) BUT it also “zooms out” and gives a bigger picture. • Pay attention to how often Henry reverses his opinions and ideas. These aren’t mistakes in the writing!

27. Next: • Read “Background” on the handout.