"From Catterpillar to Man" an analysis of "The Red Badge of Courage"
... of the soldier’s face to represent the fading and the quickly paced changes Henry goes through. Crane often states that the fallen soldiers are on the “red and green dragon” with the green representing the grass on the battle field and the red “scales” representing the blood of the fallen soldiers. The different colors are a depiction of how the affected character may be feeling in reaction to the colors. Henry goes from his colorful farm-life to a new found life with the “Gray” death and the “yellow” cowardice he must lean to overcome. During the reading-process, the reader feels for Henry as he goes from a farm-grown child, with no idea of the dangers and the tragedies of the forthcoming war, to a full-grown man with the still-life photographs stored forever in his head. As the story begins, Henry rebels against his mother knowing that she does not want him to go to war, “she could calmly seat herself and with no apparent difficulty give him many hundreds of reasons why he was of vastly more importance on the farm than on the field of battle (pg.5)” his rebellion displayed childlike qualities. At the end of the book it is the total opposite as the narrator says Henry will listen to what his elders have to say, “He felt a quiet manhood, nonassertive but of sturdy and strong blood. He knew that he would no more quail before his guides wherever they should point.(p134)" this now shows the qualities of a man. Yet another example of they youths maturity is when he finds the dead body of a soldier when he flees from the first battle, “The invulnerable dead man forced a way for himself. The youth”, Henry, “looked keenly at the ashen face. The wind raised the tawny beard. It moved as if a hand were stroking it. (p.24)” Henry goes into war without any idea of what a dead soldier may look like, but soon sees, and brilliantly remembers one. No longer is he a “youth” as Crane frequently refers to him as, Henry is now a man with a definite horror to look back on. A big part of Henry’s evolution from a boy to a man is expressed through religious symbolism throughout the book. Within the first chapter Henry’s mother tells him, “Henry, don’t think of anything ‘cept what’s right, because there’s many a women has to bear up ‘ginst sech things these times, and the Lord’ll take care of us all (pg.7)” almost as if his mother is telling him that the lord will guide and care for him in his journey. Soon afterwards Henry feels ashamed that he is going against his mothers will, “Her brown face, upraised, was stained with tears, and her spare from was quivering. H...