Red Badge of Courage

Naturalism is an idea that people do not have control over what they do. Their power is limited in the decisions they make. People have little real control in how they live. Naturalists believe they are controlled by destiny. What happens to them is because of destiny and heredity. People base their decisions off of social and economic demands. A person is forced to do what he or she does because of how the world is affecting them. Naturalists believe that a person should not be responsible for their actions, because they are required to do what they do because of brutal society. Steven Crane demonstrates this when he writes in “Red Badge of Courage”, “His impotency appeared to him, and made his rage into that of a driven beast.”(Crane 493) An animal that has become angry does not stop to think of the consequences of its actions. It simply does it, and a beast that becomes angry is usually antagonized by someone or something else. People do not blame the animal for the rage, they blame the person or thing that set the animal off. There for making the animal exempt from its actions. Crane also writes, “He was at a task.”(Crane 493) The main character, Henry Fleming, was in the mist of battle, but it was as if it was just a job or a chore for him to fight. Crane writes, “He, in his thoughts, was careening of in other places,” (Crane 493) For Fleming he was not interested in what he was doing. He was forced to do what he was doing by the harsh and brutal environment of battle.

Ralph Waldo Emerson’s transcendentalist philosophy has a different idea. In the Glencoe Literature book a break down of Emerson says, “He believed human beings had limitless potential.”(180). This is contrary to the idea Crane presents in “Red Badge of Courage” when he writes, “His impotency appeared to him”(Crane 493) In this sentence it shows that Naturalists believe that humans power is limited and controlled by society.

Crane, Stephen. "From Sinners Red Badge of Courage." Comp. Jeffrey D. Wilhelm, Ph.D. and Douglas Fisher, Ph.D. Glencoe Literature. American Literature ed. Columbus: McGraw-Hill Companies, 2009. 97-99. Print.

"Emerson’s Outlook." Comp. Jeffrey D. Wilhelm, Ph.D. and Douglas Fisher, Ph.D. Glencoe Literature. American Literature ed. Columbus: McGraw-Hill Companies, 2009. 97-99. Print.