Thursday, June 15, 2006

The Red Badge of Courage by Stephen Crane


A classic novel about a young boy fighting in the American Civil War. He finds himself pondering whether he will be able to handle his first battle. Will he run or will he hold his ground? Well, he ultimately runs and in this despises himself and feels shame in front of his other comrades who have no idea what he has done. He tries to justify it but in the end his anger towards himself and his superiors for treating him and the other soldiers like expendable animals drives him to become a quite a warrior.

I don't think I gave this book the attention it deserved. I was just kind of reading it to read it. So as I was reading my mind wandered sometimes and usually when that happens I backtrack and reread what I missed but I didn't do that here because I really didn't care. The only times I did backtrack was when I was so lost about what was going on and I had no idea what the characters were talking about.

Not to say that this wasn't a good book but it was just kind of a filler for me until my book club picked the next book. The imagery and use of color was very interesting especially the color red was symbolic all throughout the book. The last chapter really hit me. I love it when books have good endings. So I'm kind of on the fence about this one. Its a quick read.

5 comments:

Framed said...

I had a teacher read this to my sixth grade class and don't remember a thing about it except the Civil War. Guess I'll pass on it. What!!! I'm not adding another book to my list???

Cassie said...

you'll add the next one.

Booklogged said...

Oh, Cassie, I'm excited that you're reading The Lovely Bones. Is it for your book club?

Framed said...

Yes, I think "The Lovely Bones" belongs on the list. It was written about me, was it not?

Cassie said...

I sure hope not Framed. Its about a girl who gets raped and murdered. Yes it is for my book club. I have another book I need to review before that one though. It was never up because I read it in a day. But I'll get to posting about it this week.