Kevin's Watch

Another classic which I had somehow never had to read for school, but recently read for the first time out of curiosity...

This is a story set in the American Civil War, in particular the battle of Chancellorsville which occurred from May 2 to May 4 in the year 1863. The main characters are part of the Union army, and are from New York state.

However, the author never actually states which battle he is describing, or ever has his characters talk about the Civil War or its causes. In fact, he rarely even mentions the names of his characters, preferring to refer to them by some of their characteristics. The main character is named Henry Fleming, but is nearly always called the Youth. His friends are Jim Conklin (aka the tall soldier and the spectral soldier) and Wilson (aka the loud soldier and the friend).

I believe that Stephen Crane is being deliberately vague on this stuff because he is examining and exploring the psychological and emotional state of his main character - and not even then as Henry Fleming rather than as a very inexperienced and sheltered young man - instead of trying for historical accuracy in place and time. Henry Fleming is meant to be any inexperienced young man put under the horror and pressure of battle (more an archetype than a fully developed character with a backstory). The Civil War battle could be any desperate battlefield in major war in the ninteenth century.

The entire focus is in on what emotional and mental states a person goes through when faced with an ultimate trial.

Haven't read it since college, but I absolutely loved this story when I was younger.

Red Badge of Courage is plotless, dirivel. It's drech, and to call it s**t is an insult to s**t. Don't like it, being forced to read as a 9th grader is one my cruelest academic memories, when reading this worthless tome every page was a tedium, struggle and agony to get through. Classic modern American novel, paaah!

So you're giving it the thumbs up?

Cail, LMAO. ...up, not so much. Maybe, if I'd read it when I was older; however, as a 9th grader, it was probably the last thing I wanted to read.

Huh, go figure. It grabbed me the first time I read it.

I can actually see why someone that young would not care for it, even though I thought it to be very well done (of course I am an old fart at the age I first read it ). If I had read it at that age, I would have probably expected it to be some sort of exciting adventure story, rather than a psychological study of a certain type of person in a certain type of situation. If I had read that at age 13 I would have probably felt ripped off by not getting a cool adventure tale.

Not that I need to justify myself to anyone here! However, by the time I was in the 9th grade I'd already read, 9 billion names for God - Arthur C. Clarke, Starship Troopers - Heinlein, I, Robot short stories - I. Asimov, Farmer in the Sky - Heinlein, Martian Chronicles short stories - Bradbury. This is a short list of what I remember from over 35 yrs ago.

A second factor that was probably detrimental to my experience, my 9th grade English instructor when on and on and on, about what a great book this was and how it was filled with such symbolism and meaning, and in my class I was probably one of the few students who actually finished the monstrosity (my 9th grade English section was a class of goof-offs, mostly HS freshman athletes, and later went to our varsity fb, bb, baseball teams) And HS athletes do not take offense. Entering the TMI zone.

My equivalent experience would be Dickens's Great Expectations. I have managed to voluntarily read (and even enjoyed!!!! ) two Dickens books in the years since (A Tale of Two Cities and A Christmas Carol) but I think that reading Great Expectations back in ninth grade pretty much ruined that author for me for life.