The Red Badge of Courage

“As the landscape changed from brown to green, the army awakened, and began to tremble with eagerness at the sound of rumors.”

The opening sentence encompasses many of the themes of the book. It links the landscape to the sort of change Henry will soon experience. It also throws into doubt the army’s purpose; this changing landscape opens not on steadfast purpose, but on the sort of confusion that breeds rumor.

“He felt that in this crisis his laws of life were useless. Whatever he had learned of himself was here of no avail. He was an unknown quantity.” 

The 19th-century tendency toward psychological realism in novels is employed here not to explain how behaviors have been performed in the past, nor to explore psychological types or existing phobias. Instead, we find nothing but obscuring cobwebs in Henry’s mind; these will eventually be blown away as mere inconveniences in the call to unthinking action.

“His emotions made him feel strange in the presence of men who talked excitedly of a coming battle as of a drama they were about to witness, with nothing but eagerness and curiosity apparent in their faces.” 

Henry projects emotions and feelings on others he wished he had. In fact, Crane gives us more than enough clues to conclude that the men by Henry’s side are no more or less heroic than he is, and no more prepared for the horror to come.