The Red Badge Of Courage

7 Pages 1840 Words

in showing how his previous experiences have affected his thoughts on war now. It is blatantly obvious that he is afraid that he will not be able to withstand the pressures of a battle. He keeps telling himself that if he wants to become a hero, he can not run away. He must stick out the battle with the rest of his comrades.
While marching along, Henry sees the first corpse he has ever seen. He shows pity for the man, because the dead man had died in such poor conditions. The souls of his shoes were worn bare. When Henry sees the corpse, he begins to wonder if his generals actually know what they are doing. He thinks that the generals are leading him right into a trap, right into the middle of the rebels. Henry deals with his fear of battle by acting arrogant. He acts as if he has been in a thousand battles, and complains about the walking, even though the reader knows that he would rather be walking forever then go to battle at this point in time. It shows one of Henry’s defense mechanisms, how he uses his arrogance...