Looking for another book to read, I looked through my “Want to Read” list on Goodreads and wanted to give the book with the lowest average rating a try. I knew this would mean the book to be sub-par, but everyone has different tastes, so why not at least let the underdog try? The book didn’t really catch my eye since it looked to be about war, so I thought it’d be boring, but it actually held my attention pretty well.

This centers around Henry Flemming enlisting in the army to earn glory. Not the best reason to join the army. Despite having dreams of accomplishing great things and making a name for himself, you can’t really be sure how you’ll react in the middle of warfare. This is the central conflict throughout the story; Henry struggling with whether he’ll run when the battle starts or if he’ll stay and fight. Two other characters that are also relevant are the tall soldier (Jim Conklin) and the loud soldier (Wilson).

When the time does come, he does manage to fight back…. until he runs. And runs and runs. After hearing how his regiment successfully held the enemy back, he begins to criticize everyone else, “His actions had been sagacious things. They had been full of strategy. They were the work of a master’s legs.” What’s worse is after walking around for a bit, he runs into the tall soldier who soon passes away, leaving him even more distraught. Once finding his way back to his regiment, he finds that the loud soldier isn’t so loud anymore. Seems that war has humbled him.

It seems that everyone changed for better or worse. Henry was struggling a lot mentally. Feeling everyone was always judging him, he kept thinking it was only a matter of time before everyone knew he was a runner. Henry did get more aggressive and, to me, whiny and quite rude. He got impatient, always talking bad about the commanders and wishing he could just give them a beating. Thankfully, this worked in his favor during battles, quickly earning him the respect he previously wanted.

It was a bit troublesome to understand what the characters were saying because they would speak in their broken, slangy English. It took a passage or two before I understood what they were saying, but they don’t talk much either.

Overall, this book wasn’t as bad as I thought it was going to be. Since it was about war, I was expecting a boring novel about soldiers, but it was better than that. Although I recommend this book (like all the others), I only recommend it to those who don’t mind a story more focused on the psychological than on action, plot, etc. Seeing as the story is on Henry’s struggle with his bravery in battle, there’s nothing else. For most, I guess, this would be a pass, and I wouldn’t blame them. Still, it’s a short read, so you might want to consider giving it a try for when there’s nothing else.

The Red Badge of Courage by Stephen Crane
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

This post was originally published on my now defunct blog “Lucy’s Pick”