Name______
The Red Badge of Courage
Study Guide
Chapter 1
1. What are the rumors?
2. How had the youth pictured battles? Cite specific quotations and explain each.
3. What were his mother’s feelings on the war? What evidence in the chapter shows how she feels?
4. How did she react when he enlisted, and what does this reaction tell the reader about her?
5. What does the Youth mean when he thinks, “He was an unknown quantity”?
6. Why do Jim Conklin’s remarks at the end of the chapter reassure him?
7. To what does “a part of the vast blue demonstration” refer?
8. To what/whom do the words “Yank” and “Johnny” refer to?
Chapter 2
1. The youth feels a real need to meet someone else who…
2. To what does the youth metaphorically compare bravery and battle at the beginning of the chapter?
3. Who is the “tall soldier”?
4. What is the protagonist’s name, and why does Crane typically call him “The Youth”?
5. How does the mood of the regiment contrast with Henry’s?
6. What are the serpents in the following simile: “They were like two serpents crawling from the cavern of the night.”?
Chapter 3
1. Explain the feeling Henry has when he says, “he was in a moving box”?
2. When Henry comes across a dead man, Crane says that Henry “vaguely desired to walk around and around the body and stare; the impulse of the living to try to read in dead eyes the answer to the Question.” What does this mean?
3. Crane describes war metaphorically again in this chapter. Write the lines below, and explain the comparison.
4. Why did the scene look like the wrong place for battle?
5. What is the significance of Wilson’s (the loud soldier) giving Henry the packet?
Chapter 4
1. What does the “composite monster” symbolize?
2. What mood is left for the youth and the reader at the end of this chapter? How is this achieved?
3. At the end of this chapter, the Youth makes an observation that foreshadows later events. What is this observation?
Chapter 5
1. What is the “flashback” at the beginning of the chapter?
2. Interpret and explain the following lines, first by telling where they occur in the story, and second by telling what their significance is: “He suddenly lost concern for himself, and forgot to look at a menacing fate. He became not a man but a member. He felt that something of which he was a part – a regiment, an army, a cause, or a country – was in a crisis. He was welded into a common personality which was dominated by a single desire. For some moments he could not flee no more than a little finger can commit a revolution from a hand.”
3. How has Nature been affected by these battles?
4. Describe the battle scene by listing specific images and writing a one-sentence description.
Chapter 6
1. Explain and interpret the following lines by stating who the slaves are, what the temple is, and who or what the god is: “The slaves toiling in the temple of this god began to feel rebellion at his harsh tasks.”
2. What finally triggers the Youth’s flight? What does he see and feel that drives him to desert?
3. How does Henry rationalize his flight? What does this tell us about Henry?
4. Describe the general and his reaction as he observes the fighting.
Chapter 7
1. Why does Henry feel “wronged”?
2. How does the Youth feel about Nature?
3. Give 3 specific examples from this chapter of Crane’s personification of Nature.
a. Example 1:
b. Example 2:
c. Example 3:
4. What was the sign of the squirrel? Why is this significant?
5. Where does Crane use religious imagery in this chapter? What is the significance of Henry’s finding a dead body here?
Chapter 8
1. What contrasting images are seen at the beginning of this chapter? What is the significance of this device (i.e., what does it mean for Henry, and what does it mean for the reader)?
2. What is irony? What irony does Henry see in his own actions at the beginning of the chapter?
3. Who is the “tattered man”?
4. Why does Henry run away from the “tattered man”?
Chapter 9
1. Explain the significance of the book’s title.
2. Who is the “spectral” soldier?
3. How does Jim’s death affect Henry?
Chapter 10
1. Describe the character of the “tattered” soldier, based on the dialogue he has in this chapter. Why is dialogue an effective style device for Crane to use, based on the narrative he is relating?
2. Who was Tom Jamison?
3. In the last paragraph of the chapter, Henry reflects on how the tattered man’s questions were representative of society in general. What does he mean by this?
4. What has Henry learned?
Chapter 11
1. Why was this march “the wild march of vindication”?
2. How does the youth have “mothlike qualities”? (How are his actions like those of a moth?)
3. This story is not one of Man vs. Man Conflict, although the Civil War was just that. What is the dominant form of conflict in this story? Find two examples from this chapter to support your choice.
Chapter 12
1. How is Henry wounded?
2. During the midst of the chaos he flashes back to…
3. How does the “cheery soldier” aid the youth?
4. What is the importance of the last paragraph of this chapter?
Chapter 13
1. The youth has found his way back to his regiment. What is ironical about the greeting he actually received from them?
a. What he expected?
b. How they actually received him?
2. How is the youth’s story of his wound received by the men of the regiment?
3. Describe the camp scene as Henry pictures it.
4. As with the “tattered” soldier, what do we learn about the “loud” soldier based on the dialogue between him and the youth? What do we learn about the youth in this case?
Chapter 14
1. How has the baptism of fire changed the loud soldier, Wilson? Be sure to include some of the descriptive words Crane uses here to characterize the new Wilson.
2. Explain the chapter ending.
Chapter 15
1. Why is the youth reluctant to give back the yellow envelope entrusted to him on the previous day?
2. Explain the passage, “He had performed his mistakes in the dark, so he was still a man.”
3. How do the last two paragraphs show Henry’s disillusionment of himself?
Chapter 16
1. What are Henry’s comments about the military leadership?
2. What causes Henry to return to being modest?
Chapter 17
1. What are the youth’s ruling emotions as he approaches the second battle?
2. What are his comrades’, his friend Wilson’s, and the lieutenant’s reactions to the youth’s failure to stop firing?
3. Is this chapter the climax of the story? If so, why? If not, why not, and where would the climax be?
Chapter 18
1. Briefly explain the conversation between the two officers.
2. What effect does Henry’s hearing this conversation have on him?
Chapter 19
1. Explain these lines and tell how they apply to Henry during the charge: “There was the delirium that encounters despair and death, and is heedless and blind to the odds. It is a temporary but sublime absence of selfishness.”
2. Describe Henry’s feelings toward the flag and what these prompted him to do.
3. Is this chapter the climax of the story? If so, why? If not, why not, and where would the climax be? (Compare and contrast your answer in Ch. 17.)
Chapter 20
1. How does the victory against the enemy affect the men?
Chapter 21
1. In the last part of the fight the men begin to show “strange emotions.” What was the reason?
2. What did the General accuse the regiment of doing?
3. Whom did the Colonel cite for bravery?
4. What lessons of war are learned?
Chapter 22
1. Describe the regiment as it goes to fight again.
2. The youth is not solely motivated by revenge. Why?
Chapter 23
1. What were the youth’s feelings as his regiment is asked to charge?
2. How do the four prisoners react to their capture?
a. Wounded prisoner—
b. Young prisoner—
c. Third soldier—
d. Silent soldier—
Chapter 24
1. Explain what Henry feels he has learned about himself from the past two days.