The Red Badge Of Courage

The Civil War
In the midst of the Civil War, literature focused mainly on two aspects, war and slavery. These aspects of life brought about many incredible and touching stories, giving us insight to the life of that era. One of the wonderful authors of the time was Stephen Crane, with his story The Red Badge of Courage. Prior to the war was another eminent author, Harriet Beecher Stowe with her story, Uncle Tom’s Cabin. The Civil War was fought mainly over differing opinions on slavery. It was a trying time in the United States, as the U.S. was divided into two sides fighting against each other. Though it was terrible, without it we would not have some of the great literature that we do today.
On April 12, 1861, the Confederate army barraged
Crane was born on November 1, 1871 (Tony Moore). By 1895, his novel, The Red Badge of Courage had been published. Crane had never been to war, though being such a renowned author, he had the great ability to create incredible stories of that which he had never experienced. Crane’s inspiration for this story came from the failure of his first book, Maggie: A Girl of the Streets. This book was well written, but it did not sell well (“The Red Badge of Courage is Published”). Crane turned to more popular topics, such as that of war. The Red Badge of Courage followed Henry Flemming, a young soldier trying to cope with the feelings and behaviors which he was having (“The Red Badge of Courage”). He had to make the grueling decision of whether to run like a coward, or go headstrong into battle. The novel is known to be one of the most accurate depictions of how it feels to be in the midst of war. It was the first novel to be published which was written from the view point of a soldier. The story was unlike other war stories in that it was very real, and let on to the harsh and excruciating realities of war (“The Red Badge of Courage”). The Civil War impacted this book hugely, in that Henry was in the Civil War. It showed us what soldiers experienced in that time and what they had to face. This novel is marked as one of the best war novels of all time in its precise portrayal of war (“The Red
Stowe was born in 1811, fifty years before the launch of the Civil War. Stowe was born to a Calvinist reverend. After she married her husband in 1836, she abandoned her father’s faith and turned her views to Christianity. This change of faith caused her to have more consideration of how slaves were treated, and the trials they endured. In response to the Fugitive Slave Act passed in 1850, Stowe wrote Uncle Tom’s Cabin. The act provided Southern slave owners with weapons to capture slaves who tried to flee to liberated states (“Fugitive Slave Act”). Uncle Tom’s Cabin follows the life of Tom, a faithful slave who is loved and trusted by his master. Tom begins his trying journey of being sold; he ends up with a good master who treats his slaves well. After that master and a series of unfortunate events, Tom ends up with an evil master, who beats Tom until he dies. Tom was supposed to be freed, but in the midst of the events, he ended up being sold and killed (“Uncle Tom’s Cabin Summary”). Stowe wrote this fictional novel to shed light on some of the trials slaves endured and suffered. While this novel was published years before the Civil War, it focuses on one of the main focuses of the war. This novel has provided us with much insight into slave life before the Civil War, and why the Civil War broke