Abstract

     The Red Badge of Courage is a masterpiece of a famous American realist writer of the late 19th century--- Stephan Crane. It is a short novel which tells a story that the protagonist, Henry Fleming, who had a rosy fantasy towards the war, joined the northern forces despite his mother’s disapproval, but then he escaped from the battle field, finally overcame his inner cowardice. Henry did run away once, which was unacceptable in traditional views. However, on the other hand, it’s quite reasonable that one chooses to run out of nature when faced with danger. Henry might not be a hero of traditional sense, that is, he was not born to be a hero. As a common person, he spared no effort to conquer his inner cowardice, and fought in the war as brave as a hero. In general, Henry had anguished a lot before his first war, in addition, he got various excuses for his running away, which the author thinks are in essence the ways which enable Henry to keep going in spite of his shameful deed. Born to be an average man, Henry never stopped struggling to overcome his cowardice until the moment he fought bravely. 

Key words:  Brave  cowardice  overcome  struggle

Content

摘要：

Abstract:

1 Introduction-1

2 About Stephan Crane-2

3 Analysis of Henry’s Positive Thinking and Behaviors-3

3.1 Struggling with the issue “if I would run”-3

3.2 Fighting bravely in the beginning-5

3.3 Wishing to be wounded or even dead-6

3.4 Leading the regiment to win-7

4 Analysis of Henry’s Negative Thinking and Behaviors-9

4.1 Fleeing as enemy staged back-9

4.2 Excusing for running away-10

5 Conclusion-11

Bibliography-13

Acknowledgments-14