Archive for the ‘badge’ tag
Badge Courage
How does "The Red Badge of Courage" challenge the difference between the "human" and the "animal"?
Because Stephen Crane makes a point about describing how the soldiers become animal-like during battle. All they care about is fighting and self-preservation. Throughout the book, he uses metaphors and similes comparing the soldiers to animals... (ie. "they slithered like snakes through the grass" or whatnot). In one battle scene, all the soldiers take off their jackets and canteens and everything that isn't needed to fight. This symbolizes how they 'strip their civilized selfs' to enter battle as mere beasts.
(And homosapiens ARE technically animals... I don't know why people keep saying that we aren't...)