Initiation In The War

Stephen Crane's The Red Badge of Courage was an acknowledged masterpiece of American literature and Crane himself became one of the most closely examined late nineteenth-century authors. The Red Badge of Courage has been discussed from naturalism, symbolism, impressionism and so on and each result of the research has contributed to the understanding of Crane and his works.In modern American fiction the initiation theme provides a method for exploring the quality of the individual human being and the society which confronts him. By capturing a moment or series of incidents when the inexperienced person learns about the world, this theme shows the development of the protagonist from ignorance to maturity. This paper explores the initiation theme as it relates to Stephen Crane's work The Red Badge of Courage.The paper intends to use the specific literary genre:"initiation story", to explore and analyze the novel's initiation theme under the special setting of war. It will be divided into five sections:Introduction: This section gives a brief introduction of the author's family background, life career and the novel's main plot, and current research status. Chapter One: Initiation Story. This chapter mainly discusses the definition of initiation story and traces back to the origin of initiation story as well as its development and analyzes the common elements and themes related to this specific literary genre. In the end of the chapter, it discusses the initiation theme of the novel"The Red Badge of Courage".Chapter Two: The track of the protagonist's maturity. This chapter mainly expounds how the author presents the growing process of the protagonist Henry Fleming. Firstly it studies Fleming's character and secondly analyzes the setting–the war working as special growing background. In the main part of the chapter, it explores Fleming's journey to manhood. This paper uses the"badge of courage"as a clue, presenting the protagonist's growing path, which can be grouped into five stages, namely, the"badge of courage"in ideal, deserter of the"badge of courage", craving for the"badge of courage", a fake"badge of courage"and the"badge of courage"in heart. Through the five stages, the protagonist grew by learning the true meaning of honor and courage.Chapter Three: Important symbols to show the initiation theme. Crane's symbolic use in The Red Badge of Courage contributes not only to its vivid portrayal of the war and his characters but also to its successful revelation to the initiation theme. In this part, it is devoted to discussing two symbols: the red badge, the sun, and the function of the symbols will be discussed too.In the conclusion part, the thesis concludes that The Red Badge of Courage is a typical initiation story under the special war setting.