Courage
To me, courage and heroism are the abilities to stick to one’s own beliefs and to fight for them. It is one’s ability to stand up for who they are no matter what the situation they are put in to. It is one who doesn’t run when things don’t go their way, one who will fight for themselves and for others in an attempt to bring about love, strength and their own ideals.
In chapters 5-8 of the Red Badge of Courage, the enemy soldiers attack Henry and the others of his troop. Henry fights and eventually the other troop begins to retreat. At this moment, the soldiers feel like heros, they feel courageous because they defeated an army which they didn’t know was coming. But soon the enemy troops come again to battle and they feel like they can not win. Henry feels frightened, he is awed at the other armys ability to just keep coming and he runs away.
Henry feels guilt at running away, a cowardice thing to do and he begins to attempt to justify it within himself. His need for self assurance shows that he is egotistical when he says that when it comes down to it, he did the right thing by running because he was protecting himself and the future of his troops. For without him, what would happen to the army?
Henry is not a hero, he runs away from battle, “Directly he began to speed toward the rear in great leaps. his rifle and cap were gone.” Within literature, the hero has always been the type who sticks through, who never runs, no matter what the situation. Beowulf was a hero, Hercules was a hero, even Huckleberry Finn ended up being a hero to his friend Jim. Henry is not, because he not only ran, but he tried to redeem runing within himself, he can be thought of as cowardly at this point and time in the novel.
