Stephen Crane and His Unique Choice of Subjects :: essays research papers

Stephen extendStephen Crane was born on November 1, 1871 in New Jersey. Crane became a writer at the age of twenty-one and died of tuberculosis at the age of twenty-eight. Cranes sister, Agnes, raised him and tutored him. She eventually became a schoolteacher. His parents were very religious and his father had an essay published in an 1869 issue of Popular Amusements. Crane felt himself unworthy of his father because he fell short of his fathers moral principles and his nobility of spiritual outlook.He studied poverty, war, and life and finale struggle. Crane united from the beginning an iron self-assurance with a deep shyness. In The Red Badge of Courage Crane describes the characters in depth. He chose a significant event in Americas history and wrote about it. During the Civil War while a marriage ceremony regiment is based along a river, a tall soldier named Jim Conklin spreads a rumor that the army will march within a twenty-four hour period. A new recruit, Henry Fleming, f eels that if he were to gain action he would run like a coward. When the regiment marches they meet up with the enemy but Henry is unable to flee because he is surrounded. The Union regiment stops the charge of the Confederate. The next day the Confederates charge again and this time Henry is able to flee from the scene. Later he meets up with a group of wounded soldiers walking down the road and he believes that a wound is like a red badge of courage. He meets a soldier with extremely deep wounds and then recognizes that it is Jim Conklin. While they are walking down the road Jim Conklin runs off behind the bushes and dies where the other soldiers can not see him. Henry wanders through the forest alone until he comes to a battlefield. He attempts to stop one of the soldiers to ask what is going on but he gets make water in the head with the soldiers rifle. Another soldier takes Fleming back to his regiments camp. His friend Wilson cares for him because he thinks that Fleming has been shot in the head. The next day the regiment goes back to the battlefield and this time Henry stays and fights in Jim Conklins honor. Wilson and Henry overhear an officer making fun of their regiments style of fighting so they go out to prove him wrong.