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Stephen Crane's 'The Red Badge Of Courage'

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Many authors are notorious for their never ending use of cliff-hangers. Others, merely leave unanswered questions throughout their works. Stephen Crane is one of these writers. According to Julie Armstrong, “One of America's most influential realist writers, Stephen Crane… produced works that have been credited with establishing the foundations of modern American naturalism.” This conveys just what an amazing writer Stephen Crane truly was. Much of Stephen Crane's fame comes from his novel, The Red Badge of Courage. As said by Aaron Ezis, “Crane is less well known for his short stories, essays and poems, including An Experiment in Misery and In the Depths of a Coal Mine.” Along with this, critics often point out that Stephen Crane often asks …show more content…
Melvin Daniels describes, The Red Badge of Courage, by saying, “This book covers just two days of a heated battle between the Union and Confederate soldiers during the American Civil War.” Within this book, Crane tells us where Henry came from and what he’s doing in the present, but it never mentions any kind of future. The last clue given to the reader is, “The procession of soldiers became a bedraggled train, despondent and muttering, marching with churning effort in a trough of liquid brown mud under a low, wretched sky.” Henry stayed in his regiment and was not released, nor did he abandon it. Crane, never reveals whether or not Henry ever lived to see the end of the war. He also doesn’t divulge whether Henry ever sees his mother again. Clearly, Crane left several questions unanswered within, The Red Badge of …show more content…
At the beginning of the story, the lieutenant gets shot in the arm by a bullet. Nobody's quite sure where it came from, but the prediction is somewhere from within the forest. After being shot, lieutenant has trouble replacing his sword to its scabbard, but when he does finish, he leaves with the rest of the men. By the time he reaches the hospital, he notices how bad of shape it is in, “There was here a singular commotion. In the foreground, two ambulances interlocked wheels in the deep mud.” After seeing this, many people would have left, yet the lieutenant stayed. He eventually saw a surgeon, and after talking to him, the come to the conclusion that he will not have to amputate lieutenant's arm. John Weltman explains, “Though the surgeon told that he would not amputate his hand, he found himself losing his arm.” This leads the reader to ask themselves why the doctor had to go against what they said. This is yet another example of unanswered questions in Stephen Crane’s

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