Red Badge Soldier: A Literary Analysis

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Although most people enter war because of their own knowledge and patriotic fervor, some enter because of fear, stress, and just simply because they are told to do so. Red Badge soldiers join to save the union, to keep America united. These raw recruits lack the realization of the coming psychological stresses, anxiety, and undesirable conditions they will soon endure. Daniel Weiss says, “The hero’s response to danger, like that of his comrades in arms, will have been conditioned from childhood into patterns of defense and aggression, whose strength and weaknesses will be found out under stress” (19). The soldiers turn to violence; they feel as if they are compelled to take their anger out on the opposing team. Henry comes to the realization

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