Te Achievement of Self-Assurance in The Red Badge of Courage
...ce he needs to feel that he has enough courage and bravery to stay and fight with his fellow comrades, and “he thinks about the question constantly…” (Carey 9). Then, Henry puts his “…panting agonies of the past…” (Crane 84) out of sight. This means that Henry no longer doubts himself before the regiment goes into battle because he gains the confidence he needs to fight. Henry agrees with a soldier who exclaims “We’ll git swallowed” (Crane 100) even though he does not wrestle in his mind how he will react to the battle (Carey 33). In addition, Henry illustrates that there is an increase in his self-assurance when he does not second guess himself when he goes into battle. At first, Henry runs away from battle because he fears it too much. Then, in Chapter 5, Henry “…forgets himself for a while…” (Carey 14) while he is fighting the enemy which shows the reader that during a time of tremendous danger Henry automatically forgets his fears and gains assurance to do what he needs to do. In Chapter 17, he fights violently because he “…loses sight of everything…” (Carey 31). “The youth [Henry] does not consider his state of mind” because he “is in ‘his battle sleep’” (Carey 15). Henry is so involved in the battle and so sure that he is able to defeat the enemy that he does not consider the great danger or fear he faces. Even when Henry thinks he gets shot he still continues to shoot at the enemy because “he was so engrossed in his occupation…” (Crane 94). Until Henry goes through some of the traumas and the battles of war, he puts himself down making him feel incompetent while comparing himself to the other soldiers. Henry “…continually tried to measure himself by his comrades” (Crane 11). Henry would compare himself to his childhood friend Jim Conklin because he thought that since he knew him for a long period of time that he could do anything Jim could do. When Henry is surrounded by injured soldiers, he envies them because “he conceived persons with torn bodies to be peculiarly happy” (Crane 52). Henry wanted a “red badge of courage” (Crane 52) of his own because he felt that he was not as brave or as courageous as the wounded soldiers that had one. However, once Henry returns to his regiment he stops comparing himself to others. In fact, Henry starts to look down upon the other soldiers instead of thinking that he could never be as strong as them. He thinks about the men who have run from battle and feels “…a scorn for them” (Crane 85) because he feels that “they were weak mortals” (Crane 85) because th...