Features Of Modernism In The Red Badge Of Courage

Stephen Crane is a brilliant American writer and poet in the end of19th century. Although Crane’s life is short only with span of29years, his writing career is prolific, with5long novels,2volumes of poetry, and more than300stories, reports and features. Stephen Crane is honored as “Thomas Chatterton in American literature”. The Red Badge of Courage, with depicting the American Civil War, was published in1895. The specialty of the work is that it has no complicated plots and it focuses much more on men’s psychological state under the influence from the external world. This novel is commonly regarded as a classic in the history of American literature, and the success of this novel had strengthened Crane’s status in the field of American literature.In The Red Badge of Courage, Crane adopts the angle of the third-person limited point of view in the narration. This narrative angle changes with the change of protagonist’s perspective or narrator’s perspective, which can present the law of perceiving things of man. The Red Badge of Courage is not a simple war novel as it ignores the both fighting identities and the background of war. At the same time, this work also rarely mentions about the names of characters. The author intends to present the chaotic state, absurdity and unreasonableness of battlefields in order to uncover the dilemma of individuals’ living condition. The work indicates the alienation between man and man, the indifferent relationship between man and nature, and the limited ability of perceiving world for human beings, which reflect Crane’s attitude of anti-war and criticize of western cultural hegemony.The study of Stephen Crane is widely at home and abroad. The research categories of Crane’s works mainly focus on naturalism, impressionism, symbolism, and realism. However, the study of modernistic features of the work is not enough, so this thesis tries to study the features of modernism that include characteristics of thought and characteristics of art in The Red Badge of Courage based on the domestic and foreign research achievements. In this thesis, the features of thought in modernism contain two aspects which are themes of alienation and cultural criticism. The features of art in modernism contain three aspects which are the technique of symbolism, stream of consciousness, and the third-person limited point of view. Crane’s creative thought and art techniques are better understood from the study of two angles of modernism. At the same time, The Red Badge of Courage can be deeply understood either. This thesis offers followers a new thought and angle to make further studies of Crane’s works.This thesis consists of three parts: introduction, main text, and conclusion.The part of introduction states the life career of Stephen Crane and his main literature achievements. This part also presents the creation background of The Red Badge of Courage and the current study situation of this work at home and abroad..The main text is divided into three chapters:Chapter one mainly states the background of the times of modernism, and basic features of modernism. In the late of19th century, the western science and technology developed rapidly so that man’s life style, thinking form and perspective of cultural values had changed a lot. Under the new institution of economy, man’s degree of freedom becomes limited, the degree of alienation grows deep, and the mental restlessness becomes severe. So the modernistic works often present the fragmented and discontinuous forms, ambiguous and uncertain themes. Individualism and experimental language become virtues. At the same time, modernists adopt the form of writing and expression which are against traditional form. They pay much attention on individuals’ inner world, the alienation between man and man, the indifferent relationship between man and nature, and impersonal and antagonistic capitalist society. Features of modernism mainly cover two aspects: features of thought and features of art. The former refers to themes of work like the themes of alienation and cultural criticism, and the latter refers to writing techniques like the technique of symbolism, stream of consciousness and the third-person limited point of view.Chapter two analyses the features of thought of modernism. Features of thought contain two aspects which are themes of alienation and cultural criticism. The themes of alienation are divided into three aspects which are isolation and illusion, the indifferent relationship between man and nature, and the limited ability of perceiving world for man. The isolation refers to the strangeness and alienation between man and man, man and nature, man and God, man and themselves. The illusion refers to the imaginations occurs in protagonist’s mind for the unknown and future before he joins the army and involves in the war respectively. War and death place man in a dilemma, but nature does not care about the fate of man any more, which present man’s faith crisis and spiritual decline under the war environment. The protagonist considers that everything happened in the battlefield are controlled by an invisible power, and men are unable to decide their own destiny, which present the restrictions of capitalist society to human beings who have limited ability of perceiving world. Cultural criticism mainly refers to the twist to human nature and the persecution to man’s body and mind. War is a metaphor of cultural hegemony, and the protagonist is summoned to join the army by “the red badge of courage” which is a sign of cultural hegemony.Chapter three analyses the features of art in modernism. Features of art contain three aspects which are the technique of symbolism, stream of consciousness, and the third-person limited point of view. The symbolism begins in the middle of19th century, as an important branch of modernism. Crane uses many lively images to present his subjective emotion. This chapter analyses the color images, animal images, and weather images which indicate the creative thought and characteristic of art in the work created by Stephen Crane. In the novel, there are large writings to depict the protagonist’s psychological activities. This chapter analyses the use of stream of consciousness through the aspects of free association and interior monologue. The narrative angle affects the whole arrangement of structure and art effects of the work in which the third-person limited point of view is adopted. This perspective is able to present the whole picture of the war. It is one of the writing features by the continuous shift from narrator to protagonist, and from subjectivity to objectivity.The last part is the conclusion.The conclusion sums up the features of thought and features of art in modernism of the The Red Badge of Courage. Stephen Crane utilizes the themes of alienation, cultural criticism of modernism, and special writing techniques to present the cruelty and absurdity of the war, confusion and dilemma of individuals’ living condition. This thesis brings people into the contemplation of the influence from the external world on the individual’s existence. At the same time, this work has enlightenment meanings for followers to study the confusion of inner world of modern people and their cognitive abilities of the world.