In the first part of the novel, Henry is a youth that is very inexperienced. His motives were impure. He was a very selfish and self-serving character. He enters the war not for the basis of serving his country, but for the attainment of glory and prestige. Henry wants to be a hero. This represents the natural human characteristic of selfishness. Humans have a want and a need to satisfy themselves. This was Henry’s main motive throughout the first part of the novel, but he still is unsure of war and a

That price is by wounds or worse yet, death. Henry then becomes self-serving in the fact that he wants to survive for himself, not the Union army. There is many a time when Henry wants to justify his natural fear of death. He is at a point where he is questioning deserting the battle “The battle is about to begin and I’m about to be tested. Even if I wanted to escape, it’s impossible. Troops are surroundin’ me on all sides. It’s like bein’ in a movin’ box.” (Crane, 34); in order to justify this, he asks Jim, the tall soldier, if he would run. Jim declared that he’d thought about it. Surely, thought Henry, if his companion ran, it would be alright if he himself ran. During the battle, when Henry actually did take flight, he justified this selfish deed—selfish in the fact that it did not help his regiment hold the Rebs—by natural instinct. He proclaimed to himself that if a squirrel took flight when a rock was thrown at it, it was alright that he ran when his life was on the line. This was a selfish reason for fleeing, in the broad sense.

Henry’s fear of death was a natural human fear that would not work in a war. This is where Henry’s character change took place “By jiminy, we’re bein’ commanded by a lunkhead of a general! He exploded. Don’t we fight like the devil? Don’t we do all that a man ca

Some topics in this essay:
Henry Fleming, Shouted Henry, Badge Courage, Surely Henry, Stephen Crane, red badge courage, everyday life, Red Badge, badge courage, red badge, fear death, character change, Henry’s Henry’s, everyday life humans, war machine, natural human, change red, attainment glory, henry fleming, change red badge,