The Red Badge Of Courage VS The Crater Essay, Research Paper

The battlefield was detailed differently by various writers. In Stephen Crane’s

Fictional work, he presents his hero which is Henry Flemming as a child who

wants to receive “the red badge of courage” in order to show his “patriotism and

manhood”.

In “The Crater” written by L. Tracy Power, is a factual work, based on true

evidences.

The two readings are different because one is based on evidences which have

happened, and the other is based on imagination and facts which did not

necessarily take place.

In Stephen Crane’s work, memories are at first evocated followed by an instant

change of situation when someone cried “Here they come!”. In this passage, the

battlefield seems to be a place of torture. “… rushing toward him as against

the swirling battle phantoms which were chocking him, stuffing their smoke robs

down his parched throat.” Starting on page 112, the individuality of each

warrior is crucial. Each warrior has a task to accomplish

Stephen Crane describes the ambience as chaotic; “making low toned noises with

their mouths, and these subdued cheers, snarls imprecations, prayers, make a

wild, barbaric song…”. As explained by Mr. Crane, many bullets were wasted due

to the smoke and unclear atmosphere. The battlefield seemed very unorganised,

“The Crater” is a reading about events which occurred in the past. Strategy is

far more important than the military power in this reading. The Crater has of

course many more details of how the battlefield was like since the people who

talks about it in this reading experienced it. In this reading, the soldiers

knew when the battle would happen: it was planned to happen in 10 days. Land

mines, was used as a new kind of weapon. Attacking troops were “blown away”

after stepping on these mines.

Lee’s army having a powerful land power filled with mines, gave no other

solution to Grant but to attack from under. He and his men digged a tunnel for

more than a month and mined them from under. After the explosion, the Crater

was 125 ft long, 50 ft wide, 25 feet deep.

The big explosions by Grant’s army against Lee killed many confederates.

In the midst of the action, the struggle begins very fast in Stephen Crane’s

work.

But in “The Crater”, there are only remarks about the future battle “observers

notice the preparation of a struggle with Grant’s soldiers almost a month

digging a long tunnel. “In fact they planned to set off a mine and literally

blast a hole in Lee’s line”

In “The Crater” mines are used.

Albright makes reports and comments on the 20th of July about the expectation of

the fight which will occur after 10 days, on the 30 of July.

While the youth in the first text experiences the terrible “smoke infested

fields”

The second text is not filled with colours, intense feelings nor shocking

descriptions of the struggle with mentions of “streams of blood”. It is only

questions of “fierce fight” like a journalist would summarise a scene of war.

“Destroyed” is another example of the objective word used by a journalist.

However, the violence is well showed in the two texts. Once again, the

accumulations of the numbers of causalities are another fact which is not

mentioned in the first text. Many factors contribute to create chaos in the

first text, which is better described in a literary style in the “Red Badge of

Courage”.

In the “The Crater” there are many eye witnesses while in the “Red badge of

Courage”, only the youth is the witness.

Both texts talk about the awful scenes, the astonishing noises and chocks felt

by the soldiers and officers after the battle. In addition, the “Red Badge of

Courage” ends up with a romantic nature which looks serene in opposition to the

“thunder” and furious madness of the men. This aspect of nature does not appear

in “The Crater”.

Both texts reveal heroic attitudes, mixed feelings of fears and horrors. Both of

them keep a dramatic atmosphere by providing informations about the mad civil

war which affected the camps. In both sides, in the situation of extreme changes

and brutal combat, soldiers think of their family and express feelings or react

instinctively with patriotism.