The Red Badge of Courage

The Red Badge of Courage by Stephen Crane is a novel about a soldiers experience during the American Civil War. Though Crane did not serve in the war himself he had many who told him about their experiences, and he was able to quite effectively put them down onto paper. Often times it has been said that this book should be read by those wanting a true sense of war, and while I agree to a point I have many reservations. 

Pros 

The book is well written and definitely reflects the time that it was made for, and I mean that in the best way possible. The grammar and word choice are both excellent. The first 75 pages or so were enjoyable and realistic, so much so that I even considered picking up a few copies to give to friends who were planning on joining the military. Though I have never experienced leaving home to go to war myself I have talked to enough veterans to gain a sense of what it is like and this book seems to replicate that experience very well. Unfortunately that is where the positives end. 

Synopsis on the rear cover calling it the “one of the greatest novels ever written about war”.

Cons

Once you are past that 75 page mark this book becomes ridiculously boring. After a few chapters past that I set this book down for about four months before I came back and completed it. Not only that but I had to read another book as I read this one just to be able to force myself to finish it, I would read one chapter of this book then switch to the other book and read a chapter then back to this one until I was finally done. It is no exaggeration when I say that the latter parts of this book were mind numbingly boring, and they were the parts with the battle scenes! If Crane was trying to demonstrate to people the “hurry up and wait” mentality then I would say he accomplished it. I have been in some paramilitary groups where I experienced that and I can say that I would rather sit for five hours waiting to do something at four in the morning than read this book. 

I was going to complain that as the book goes on the chapters become shorter, some only a page or two, but that’s honestly probably a good thing because it allows you to take ample breaks while reading. The beginning of this book is so different from the middle and ending that it’s ridiculous. I do not understand how a book can start off so good and end up so bad. The ending isn’t fulfilling either, it just left me feeling hollow. I’m not saying that every book has to have a fulfilling ending as some of my favorite books don’t, and being unfulfilled can often times make the reader think about an author's work more and realize what the author was trying to achieve but this book was not one of those cases. Maybe that was the point, to make the reader feel the emptiness that some frontline soldiers do but there are so many books that accomplish this task much better and don’t make you want to rip your hair out. 

Conclusion 

The Red Badge of Courage by Stephen Crane is a book often described as essential reading for those who like military history and is a classic, but I just do not see it. There are other books that chronicle the experience of a soldier much better than this one, if you want that then buy All Quiet On the Western Front and read it. As much as I wanted to like this book I just could not and I can’t think of anyone to really recommend it to. If I had to make a recommendation I would say read the first 75 pages then put it down.

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