The Red Badge of Courage

Jeffrey Dietz

Literary Techniques

A quote that I really like is during Henry’s first battle, smoke is everywhere and, “he fought frantically for respite for his senses, for air, as a babe being smothered attacks the deadly blanket” (45). The quote obviously compares Henry to a baby being smothered by a blanket. I think that Crane purposely compared Henry to a baby, because he is trying to tell the reader that Henry, at the moment, is a baby in the sense that he isn’t a veteran yet, and that becomes apparent a few pages later when he runs into the woods fearing his death. Crane says that he is so desperately craving “air”. I think that by “air” he means Henry is craving peace. Not necessarily peace with the Rebel Army, but peace within himself. Henry wants to be able to trust that he can go to battle and not run, but since this is his first battle, he doesn’t know the legitimacy of that last statement. I like this quote because Crane is comparing something so ugly as war to something so innocent as a baby, but the outcome is the same. Death.