He stated early on that he would be a team player — that if everybody ran, he would run, and if everybody stood and fought, he would fight. This is what he did, and, in so doing, he has been mortally wounded. As a result, he must find a place to die, so he leaves the road, moves into the field, and dies. This act is the act of a soldier who knows that his time is over, so he must move out of the way. Even though his time as a soldier has ended, the war has not ended, so he moves out of the way to allow the battles to continue.
Because Henry has not been a leader, he has relied on his comrades to be his leaders. When Jim, a true leader for Henry, is wounded and dies, Henry turns inward, a behavior which he has followed throughout the work. Henry does this in an attempt to protect himself psychologically. He does not want his dependence on others to be obvious.
This reaction has been a consistent dimension of Henry's character. The death of Jim isn't totally unexpected by the reader precisely because of the portrayal of this character. The encounters with Jim and the tattered man force Henry to reconcile fantasy with reality.
He views the wounded soldiers as heroic and enviable, but watches two of them die. Henry is deeply ashamed of his own cowardice in running from battle, and longs for a wound to validate his nerve. But the soldiers who acted as he wishes he could have—one of them his childhood friend Jim Conklin—both die of their wounds.
The apparent necessity of navigating this conflict between life and honor troubles Henry greatly. SparkTeach Teacher's Handbook. Themes Motifs Symbols.
Important Quotes Explained. As the youth leaves, the cannons suddenly roar, followed by an answer from enemy infantry. Orange light of sunset bathes the scene. He hurries on in the dark. He hears men babbling as he passes them. His wound hurts much less, but his head feels swollen. He goes along, tired, thinking of old scenes from home.
Soon, he hears a voice over his shoulder, asking him cheerily how he is. Henry only replies with a grunt. The other man offers to go along with him, and helps him along as they walk. The other man talks constantly about the battle, saying that there was so much fighting he could not tell what side he was on. He also tells a story of a soldier in his unit that was shot in the head in the process of telling someone to go to hell.
The cheery man takes Henry through all kinds of forests in the dark. Eventually, he leads him to his regiment, which he had left so long ago. The cheery man departs, wishing Henry luck. The youth then realizes that, in the dark, he never once saw the man's face.
In this section, Henry is confronted with the overt consequences of battle. The death of Jim Conklin especially rattles him. His face turns gray as he tells Henry that he fears being trampled to death by the speeding artillery carts. This shows that the phantoms of battle and death, the gray unknown, do not escape even those who have a red badge of courage. Henry, though he finally wants to act for the first time since the battle, cannot do anything for his friend.
Jim will not even let him touch him. This frustration and anger at seeing his friend die makes Henry weep so much that he cannot talk. Henry's words and thoughts are finally halted. He is no longer thinking now. Instead of coming to terms with the images from the battle, he can only give vent to his emotions now. Still, Henry wishes he was either injured or had died himself.
Both options seem preferable to cowardice. He becomes angry at the corpses strewn on the ground. Unlike him, they will be heroes in the eyes of history, any misdeeds erased by their ultimate sacrifice. To Henry, death has the power to vindicate him either way.
If he were known to have fled, death would have been proof of his prophetic abilities. If he had been killed before he was truly tested, his honor would still be in tact. The dead men he envies will be turned into heroes by history, no matter their desires. And, of course, dying in battle assures glory for any soldier.
The same troops who sent Henry on such a fit of philosophy about war and bravery soon turn tail and flee battle themselves. Their flight lends to a general air of confusion and commotion, with troops, officers, artillery, and cavalry all going in different directions and making different noises. The scene is so confusing that Henry is again rendered speechless and thoughtless. He can only stutter his lack of understanding, repeating to himself and others, "Why? Being hit on the head does not help Henry's understanding of what is going on around him, yet it is a real wound with blood, resembling the red badge that he had desired earlier.
It may not be the type of wound he had imagined, but it opens up a new world for him in subsequent chapters. Unlike the confused ramblings of the fleeing troops in the first part of this chapter, it is the words of the cheery man that get Henry to his destination.
This is one of the longest unbroken speeches in the entire book. It is unclear exactly who this man is. In fact, he himself says that he did not know in battle whether he was from Ohio or Florida. The army, the man states, is a disorganized mess. For a brief moment, readers are no longer following Henry's or the narrator's thoughts. Important Quotes Explained. Quick Quizzes Full Book Quiz. With which regiment does Henry fight? The th The Mass. On which battle is The Red Badge of Courage loosely based?
Vicksburg Gettysburg Chancellorsville Bull Run. Who is the spectral soldier? Wilson Jim Conklin The lieutenant Henry. Who is the loud private? Henry Conklin Murdoch Wilson. How does Henry receive his wound? He is hit on the head by a Union soldier fleeing from battle.
He is grazed on the head by a bullet while fighting for a different regiment. He is hit with a piece of shrapnel from an artillery shell. What do most of the men think about the Union leadership? That the leaders are brilliant and inspire loyalty That the leaders mean well but are not as good as the Confederate generals That the leaders are nitwits incapable of running a war The men do not talk much about their leaders.
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