Read the excerpt from The Red Badge of Courage. In the excerpt, Henry Fleming and the soldiers in his regiment are marching after performing poorly in a battle. Henry is expressing discontent about his commanding officers’ leadership and the lieutenant of Henry’s regiment expresses his feelings toward his men."Good Gawd,” the youth grumbled, "we’re always being chased around like rats! It makes me sick. Nobody seems to know where we go or why we go. We just get fired around from pillar to post and get licked here and get licked there, and nobody knows what it’s done for. . . . Now, I’d like to know what the eternal thunders we was marched into this woods for anyhow, unless it was to give the rebs a regular pot shot at us. We came in here and got our legs all tangled up in these cussed briars, and then we begin to fight and the rebs had an easy time of it. Don’t tell me it’s just like! I know better. It’s this derned old—”The friend seemed jaded, but he interrupted his comrade with a voice of calm confidence. "It’ll turn out all right in th’ end,” he said."Oh, the devil it will! You always talk like a dog-hanged parson. Don’t tell me! I know--”At this time there was an interposition by the savage-minded lieutenant, who was obliged to vent some of his inward dissatisfaction upon his men. "You boys shut right up! There no need ’a your wastin’ your breath in long-winded arguments about this an’ that an’ th’ other. You’ve been jawin’ like a lot ’a old hens. All you’ve got t’ do is to fight, an’ you’ll get plenty ’a that t’ do in about ten minutes. Less talkin’ an’ more fightin’ is what’s best for you boys. I never saw sech gabbling . . .”He paused, ready to pounce upon any man who might have the temerity to reply. No words being said, he resumed his dignified pacing.
Which statement is the best example of conflicting perspectives?
Read the excerpt from The Red Badge of Courage. In this excerpt, Henry’s regiment is getting ready for their first battle.After a time the brigade was halted in the cathedral light of a forest. The busy skirmishers were still popping. Through the aisles of the wood could be seen the floating smoke from their rifles. Sometimes it went up in little balls, white and compact.During this halt many men in the regiment began erecting tiny hills in front of them. They used stones, sticks, earth, and anything they thought might turn a bullet. Some built comparatively large ones, while others seems content with little ones.This procedure caused a discussion among the men. Some wished to fight like duelists, believing it to be correct to stand erect and be, from their feet to their foreheads, a mark. They said they scorned the devices of the cautious. But the others scoffed in reply, and pointed to the veterans on the flanks who were digging at the ground like terriers. In a short time there was quite a barricade along the regimental fronts. Directly, however, they were ordered to withdraw from that place.
Read the excerpt from The Red Badge of Courage. In this excerpt, a soldier, the tattered man, has been telling Henry Fleming about watching a man die. He warns Henry that he should look out for himself.The youth had been wriggling since the introduction of this topic. He now gave a cry of exasperation and made a furious motion with his hand. "Oh, don’t bother me!” he said. He was enraged against the tattered man, and could have strangled him. His companions seemed ever to play intolerable parts. They were ever upraising the ghost of shame on the stick of their curiosity. He turned toward the tattered man as one at bay. "Now, don’t bother me,” he repeated with desperate menace. "Well, Lord knows I don’t wanta bother anybody,” said the other. There was a little accent of despair in his voice as he replied, "Lord knows I’ve gota ’nough m’ own t’ tend to.” The youth, who had been holding a bitter debate with himself and casting glances of hatred and contempt at the tattered man, here spoke in a hard voice. "Good-by,” he said. The tattered man looked at him in gaping amazement. "Why—why, pardner, where yeh goin’?” he asked unsteadily. The youth looking at him, could see that he, too, like that other one, was beginning to act dumb and animal-like. His thoughts seemed to be floundering about in his head. "Now—now—look—a—here, you Tom Jamison—now—I won’t have this—this here won’t do. Where—where yeh goin’?”The youth pointed vaguely. "Over there,” he replied.
Read the excerpt from The Red Badge of Courage. In this excerpt, Henry Fleming is reflecting on what happened after he decided to enlist in the Union Army during the American Civil War.But his mother had discouraged him. She had affected to look with some contempt upon the quality of his war ardor and patriotism. She could calmly seat herself and with no apparent difficulty give him many hundreds of reasons why he was of vastly more importance on the farm than on the field of battle. She had had certain ways of expression that told him that her statements on the subject came from a deep conviction. Moreover, on her side, was his belief that her ethical motive in the argument was impregnable.At last, however, he had made firm rebellion against this yellow light thrown upon the color of his ambitions. The newspapers, the gossip of the village, his own picturings, had aroused him to an uncheckable degree. They were in truth fighting finely down there. Almost every day the newspaper printed accounts of a decisive victory.
Read the excerpt from The Red Badge of Courage. In this excerpt, Henry Fleming is realizing that he will face battle for the first time.He wishes, without reserve, that he was home again making the endless rounds from the house to the barn, from the barn to the fields, from the fields to the barn, from the barn to the house. He remembered he had so often cursed the brindle cow and her mates, and had sometimes flung milking stools. But, from his present point of view, there was a halo of happiness about each of their heads, and he would have sacrificed all the brass buttons on the continent to have been enabled to return to them. He told himself that he was not formed for a soldier. And he mused seriously upon the radical differences between himself and those men who were dodging implike around the fires.
Read the excerpt from The Red Badge of Courage. In this excerpt, Henry Fleming is reflecting on the marching he has done and is thinking about the pending battle.The youth had been taught that a man became another thing in battle. He saw his salvation in such a change. Hence this waiting was an ordeal to him. He was in a fever of impatience. He considered that there was denoted a lack of purpose on the part of the generals. He began to complain to the tall soldier. "I can’t stand this much longer,” he cried. "I don’t see what good it does to make us wear out our legs for nothin’.” He wished to return to camp, knowing that this affair was a blue demonstration; or else to go into a battle and discover that he had been a fool in his doubts, and was, in truth, a man of traditional courage. The strain of present circumstances he felt to be intolerable.
Read the excerpt from The Red Badge of Courage. In this excerpt, Henry Fleming and the sergeant are talking with a tattered soldier about their experiences in battle.There was a tattered man, fouled with dust, blood and powder stain from hair to shoes, who trudged quietly at the youth’s side. He was listening with eagerness and much humility to the lurid descriptions of a bearded sergeant. His lean features wore an expression of awe and admiration. He was like a listener in a country store to wondrous tales told among the sugar barrels. He eyed the story-teller with unspeakable wonder. His mouth was agape in yokel fashion.
Read the excerpt from The Red Badge of Courage. In this excerpt, Henry Fleming, a young soldier in the Union Army during the American Civil War, receives news that his regiment will soon be in battle, and he remembers how he first enlisted.He had burned several times to enlist. Tales of great movements shook the land. They might not be distinctly Homeric, but there seemed to be much glory in them. He had read of marches, sieges, conflicts, and he had longed to see it all. His busy mind had drawn for him large pictures extravagant in color, lurid with breathless deeds.
Read the excerpt from The Red Badge of Courage. In this excerpt, Henry Fleming is reflecting on his mother’s reaction to the news that he enlisted in the Union Army during the American Civil War.Still, she had disappointed him by saying nothing whatever about returning with his shield or on it. He had privately primed himself for a beautiful scene. He had prepared certain sentences which he thought could be used with touching effect. But her words destroyed his plans. She had doggedly peeled potatoes and addressed him as follows: "You watch out, Henry, an’ take good care of yerself in this here fighting business—you watch, an’ take good care of yerself. Don’t go a-thinkin’ you can lick the hull rebel army at the start, because yeh can’t. Yer jest one little feller amongst a hull lot of others, and yeh’ve got to keep quiet an’ do what they tell yeh. I know how you are, Henry.”
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