Journal #24 The Red Badge of Courage 9-20

After I read the first chapters one through eight in “The Red Badge of Courage”, I next read chapter nine through twenty. In these chapters much of the story plot is revealed and you learn a lot about the characters. Jim Conklin, one of Henry’s friends, just died from the wounds that he obtained in battle, so Henry and the tattered man he is with are deeply saddened. Henry feels as though he needs to get in the fight so he heads to the battlefield. He sees all the blue coats retreating so he asks one of them why they are all running, but they man will not answer Henry’s question, he just hits him in the head with the butt of his gun. Henry then returns to a new regiment to get his wound taken care of. He said that he got shoot in the head so all the troops see Henry as a brave fighter. They think this even more when they see him in battle because; he does retreat when he sees the enemy, staying in his position firing wildly. The captain of the regiment is very impressed by the courage that he showed and thinks that he is a fine soldier, when really he was just blind firing. He goes to another battle that he expects to lose. As his regiment marches the man holding the flag is shoot and killed so Henry sees it as his duty to further carry the flag. He rages on with it, having the troops in his regiment follow up behind him. In these chapters there really was not much use of religion but, there was a lot of use in figurative language by personification and dialect, use of nature by being it in the woods, human nature by the choices that Henry has to make, society in the army ranks, American dream in that Henry is an ordinary man doing a great thing, and a realism hero in Henry. Overall, this story includes many realism elements into it.