The
Red Badge of Courage
Review
Questions & Vocabulary
In addition to defining the words on the vocab list, you
would be wise to underline each word in the text as each appears. All words are quizzable and testable!
Discuss Crane's use of color.
What character traits does Crane immediately stress?
To what does Crane refer with "Greeklike struggle"?
"Men were better, or more timid."
Mother/son relationship
resolute(ly)
vivacious
secular
disdain(ing)
diffident(ly)
How do you gauge Henry's level of maturity/self confidence?
How does Crane use metaphor?
Take note of the role of nature in the text.
What character traits does Crane seem to be developing?
ominous
commiseration
vindication
felicitate(ing)
stolid
How do Crane's depictions of the "government" change in this chapter?
How does Henry perceive the "generals"?
Is Henry's self-assessment accurate?
What does Crane intend to show with the "loud soldier's" chapter-ending request?
impetus
ardor
practicable
insolent
nonchalant
How does the image of the heroic/Homeric soldier stand up in this chapter?
banshee
facetious
tumult
querulous
"It was as if seven hundred new bonnets were being tried on."
What is the significance of this quote as it pertains to the youth at this time?
Beginning with the paragraph "If he had thought..." and continuing through "Do they think--?" examine Crane's use of simile and metaphor.
- Nature's role at end of chapter?
- use of color
exultant
undaunted
din
How do Henry's fears "magnify" as he runs?
doleful
How is "They were the work of a master's legs" a motif?
Find examples of Henry's rationalization?
What paragraph in this chapter might Falstaff especially appreciate?
How does the image of a "chapel" enhance the drama of this scene?
derision
imbecile
What is the source of Henry's shame at the end of the chapter?
What role does music play in this chapter?
perfuntory
ilk
spectral
What about the tall soldier's death upsets Henry?
semblance
-"it"
How does the tattered man get to Henry?
harangue
Why does Henry feel a need to believe in his own "virtuous perfection"?
Explain the significance of a "moral vindication".
What is the genesis of Henry's paranoia?
exhortation
imprecation
compunction
Consider t
he irony of Henry's injury.
adroit(ly)
languid
audacious
How does Henry go from feeling like the sinful traitor to "like his comrades" in this chapter? What events were necessary for this change?
glib(ness)
visage
pallid
ethereal
debauch
languor
How has the loud soldier changed?
- "Jest like you done."
- "So?"
peremptory
insolent
audacity
deprecatory
Why doesn't Henry mention
the envelope to "his friend"?
Find examples of Henry's remaining immaturity/self-deception.
Why does he see himself as "still a man"?
lugubrious
What is the central difference between Henry's reality and his appearance?
What makes Henry a "modest person"?
- "old hens"
derision
What ironic about Henry's apparent bravery?
How does Henry's "reg'ment" benefit from his ferocity?
boy vs. men
What harsh reality do the generals provide?
- "mule drivers"????
lamentation
ediface
cavalcade
Flag as source of strength.
- symbolic crutches in the face of challenge.
Consider the hero's reliance on representative emblems,
totems, weapons etc.
lurid
imperious
obstinate(ly)
What does Crane seem to say about war when, at the end of
this chapter, after the regiment's fortunes have abruptly changed, he says:
"And they were men"?
allusion
What does Crane suggest about human instinct when he highlights Henry's (and his friend's) glee at being set apart from the rest of his regiment by the colonel's praise?
perturbation
Explain Henry's final "revenge" as he sees it.
portent(ous)
succor
What apparently brave realization does Henry have as he
charges?
- "a craved treasure of mythology"
obdurate
paroxysm
Trace two five-step summaries of personal evolution for Henry, first from how he might see it, and then from how it seemes Crane hopes you would see it.
(Falstaff's view of the hold-up vs. ours.)
As you "marshall all his acts" and
"deeds," how do you measure Henry's development? Has he grown the ability to feel private
shame?
How does nature play a part in the final scene?
stentorian
stolid