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The Red Badge of Courage is about finding adulthood. The novel is not really about the civil war or a battle in that war; it is about the inner battle a young man undergoes in the struggle to define his manhood. During Henry’s struggle he undergoes mind changes and at time is very confused on what he should do. In the beginning of the novel Henry has courageous thoughts, but when it comes time to fight Henry gets afraid and chooses to run from battle; however in the end Henry goes into battle and fights with great strength. In the beginning of the novel Henry feels like he is going to commit heroic deeds, but when it comes time to fight Henry turns to cowardly actions.(TS) For example, when Henry is going to his regiment, “he had felt growing within him the strength to do mighty deeds of arms.”(8)(CD) Henry is excited to go into battle to help his regiment overcome the enemy.(CM) Henry must have been told war stories of heroes and it inspired him to want to do heroic deeds.(CM) However, as it comes time to fight with the enemy Henry does something strange, “he had fled, he told himself, because annihilation approached.”(51)(CD) To make his act seem justified he tells himself that if he didn’t run he would have been killed.(CM) Henry feels that if he doesn’t have an excuse to justify his act then the other soldiers would make fun of him.(CM) This shows how actually seeing the fate of war can change how you act even when before the fighting started you were ready to fight.(CS) After Henry matures and overcomes his fears of war, he fights with great strength.(TS) For example, when Henry hears what the officers say about their regiment Henry goes out and fights his hardest, afterwards, “he was an individual of extraordinary virtues.”(101)(CD) Henry believes that he is a good fighter and wanted to prove the officers wrong.(CM) Even though Henry made a mistake earlier by running, he wants to prove to the other soldiers that he is a good fighter.(CM) In addition, after Henry is told that he is one of the finest fighters, “for a moment he blushed, and the light of his soul flickered with shame.”(151)(CD) The maturity level of Henry has risen a lot because even though he is told that he is one of the best he is able to look at his past actions and feels shame.(CM) In the past Henry let down his regiment by running from battle, then he left the tattered man alone in the woods to die.(CM) By the end of the novel Henry becomes a “knight” of the battlefield, however Henry feels bad for all of his actions when he first went to fight.(CS) In this novel fear is what helped mature Henry into who he was at the end of the war.
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