How we cite our quotes: Citations follow this format: (Chapter.Paragraph)
Quote #1
He had grown to regard himself merely as a part of a vast blue demonstration. His province was to look out, as far as he could, for his personal comfort. For recreation he could twiddle his thumbs and speculate on the thoughts which must agitate the minds of the generals. Also, he was drilled and drilled and reviewed, and drilled and drilled and reviewed (1.39).
Interestingly, Henry’s loss of personal identity only makes him feel more isolated. He might be part of a larger machine, but he is a nameless cog surrounded by equally mechanical counterparts. There is no connection, no comfort to be found in this grouping of men.
Quote #2
The youth would have liked to have discovered another who suspected himself. A sympathetic comparison of mental notes would have been a joy to him (2.5).
Henry seeks this "companion" in order to justify his own cowardice and break the isolation which so torments him.
Quote #3
He felt alone in space when his injured comrade had disappeared. His failure to discover any mite of resemblance in their viewpoints made him more miserable than before. No one seemed to be wrestling with such a terrific personal problem. He was a mental outcast (2.52).
Henry is more concerned with his isolation than he is with his reputation or his safety. Red Badge is essentially about his desire to be one of the guys.
Quote #4
The youth felt triumphant at this exhibition. There was the law, he said. Nature had given him a sign. The squirrel, immediately upon recognizing danger, had taken to his legs without ado.
He did not stand stolidly baring his furry belly to the missile, and die with an upward glance at the sympathetic heavens (7.15).
This line of reasoning, an attempt to justify his own flight, will ultimately prove useless in comforting Henry, since it hinges on him being separate and different from his comrades. In his heart, Henry seeks little more than to be like his comrades.
Quote #5
At length he reached a place where the high, arching boughs made a chapel. He softly pushed the green doors aside and entered. Pine needles were a gentle brown carpet. There was a religious half light. Near the threshold he stopped, horror-stricken at the sight of a thing. He was being looked at by a dead man who was seated with his back against a columnlike tree (7.20).
The almost religious serenity Henry finds in his isolation is marred by this intrusion of a dead body. It’s almost as if Crane is asking, "Where is God in all this, anyway?
Quote #6
At times he regarded the wounded soldiers in an envious way. He conceived persons with torn bodies to be peculiarly happy. He wished that he, too, had a wound, a red badge of courage (9.3).
Notice that Henry wants a wound because everyone else has a wound (kind of like new iPod envy). He’s really just seeking to be like those around him.
Quote #7
"This thing won't do, now, Tom Jamison. It won't do. I know yeh, yeh pig-headed devil. Yeh wanta go trompin' off with a bad hurt. It ain't right – now – Tom Jamison – t ain't. Yeh wanta leave me take keer of yeh, Tom Jamison. It ain't – right – it ain't – fer yeh t' go – trompin' off – with a bad hurt – it ain't – ain't – ain't right – it ain't" (10.28).
"The Tattered Soldier" pretends that he wants to take care of Henry, but in fact he just wants someone to keep him company, particularly since he himself is likely close to death. Jim Conklin exhibited the same fear of being alone at his death.
Quote #8
He had been possessed of much fear of his friend, for he saw how easily questionings could make holes in his feelings. Lately, he had assured himself that the altered comrade would not tantalize him with a persistent curiosity, but he felt certain that during the first period of leisure his friend would ask him to relate his adventures of the previous day (15.8).
Henry is tormented by solitude, but consumed by fear of being discovered should he find himself in the company of other men. At all times in the novel, he is forced to face one or the other of these difficulties.
Quote #9
Another, who was a boy in years, took his plight with great calmness and apparent good nature. He conversed with the men in blue, studying their faces with his bright and keen eyes.
They spoke of battles and conditions. There was an acute interest in all their faces during this exchange of view points. It seemed a great satisfaction to hear voices from where all had been darkness and speculation (23.21).
In many ways, Red Badge is in part the story of boundaries between men. Henry feels isolated from his comrades because of the differences between them. It’s quite amazing, then, that these barriers can be broken even between different sides of the war.
Quote #10
The procession of weary soldiers became a bedraggled train, despondent and muttering, marching with churning effort in a trough of liquid brown mud under a low, wretched sky. Yet the youth smiled, for he saw that the world was a world for him, though many discovered it to be made of oaths and walking sticks (24.46).
While the indifference of the universe horrified Henry earlier , he here seems to take solace in its presence. He no longer feels alone or insignificant.