Critical Analyses of The Red Badge of Courage

In general, Stephen Crane's The Red Badge of Courage is regarded as a great work of the Realistic literary time period. Many critics of this work cite Crane as a true genius for his ability to make a story of the civil war period, a period taking place before his birth, seem incredibly realistic and accurate to the personal scale of this war. I agree that this story seems to be written by a veteran of the war. Crane really did his homework when writing this novel. He interviewed many many veterans of the war to be sure to have an accurate depiction of the battlefield. This is something that I really can commend him on. Although I may not be the biggest fan of his writing style, I like that he got his facts straight and tried to honor these veterans through reality.

The Dial controversies that Crane faced after writing his novel are a very interesting topic in my opinion. I am a big fan of debate through actual words and reasoning, and these ideas seemed to triumph. General McClurg, writer of the magazine the Dial wrote that Crane was "un-patriotic" in that he portrayed the American soldier as a coward. McClurg's argument, in my opinion, seems to be based on emotions rather than actual facts. The General fails to see the psychological growth of Henry throughout the novel into a courageous individual. Many arguments were sent into the magazine in favor of Crane's novel.

I am kind of surprised that English critics of Crane's work were so accepting. American authors had a real job in convincing English author's of their merits and knowledge. Crane did so with new, informal writing styles. It surprises me that this form of writing could win over such harsh critics. It also surprises me that American critics would be so harsh of his work. I guess this makes sense, however. American authors needed to be harsh on each other seeing as they were all in a fight to make their writing the best in the world.