How Does Henry Fleming Show Courage

Henry Fleming was a young soldier who felt he had a lot to prove himself and to others. He romanticized the idea of war and death by heroics naïvely. Throughout the book, especially the beginning, he can be easily interpreted as selfish and vein by the choices he makes. Although Fleming’s emotional state and maturity do flourish as he returns to the war and finds some selflessness as he fights alongside others, his glory in battle and intentions in winning is far from noble. Allowing the underlining theme of self-preservation to prevail. In the beginning of the story Henrys doubt and struggle to find courage seriously affects his faith in himself. He joined the army because he was drawn to the glory of military conflict; considering war a sort of accessory. In the book it states, “He had read of marches, sieges, conflicts, and he had longed to see it all.

On his way back to the base he comes across a column of wounded soldiers. Specifically, a tattered man who has been shot twice and speaks proudly of the fact. Feeling envious, Henry wishes “…that he, too, had a wound, a red badge of courage” (Crane, p.67) that he could claim. He and the tattered man together try find their way back to base. He starts to question Henry about how he found his way so far from the rest and his ‘injuries’. Unable to bear the tattered man’s questioning and realizing his gun lesions are turning fatal, he abandons him to die alone in the woods. Continuing on, he stumbles upon a rotting soldier corpse that puts all the death he has witnessed into perspective. The body serves as a powerful reminder of exactly what’s at stake. This is where Crane establishes the switch in Henry’s mind: the vain belief that human life is a reputation unearned, and the realization that, regardless of your status, all human life meets the same