The Concept of War in "The Red Badge of Courage" and "A Farewell to Arms"

Abstract

The American Civil War and bloody First World War resulted in the deaths of ten million people, twenty millions disabled people, and destruction of the values such as freedom, democracy and equality. The two wars caused important changes in the world of arts and ideas, created their own literature, and as a result, many writers produced war literature. Among the modernist authors who wrote novels about war are Stephen Crane and Ernest Hemingway, who are the subjects of this study. Wars enabled the concepts of patriotism, nationalism, and heroism to prevail in the war novel genre. Stephen Crane’s "The Red Badge of Courage" (1895) and Ernest Hemingway’s "A Farewell to Arms" (1929) are studied in terms of human nature, realism, and romanticism. Crane describes a young soldier Henry Fleming’s psychological development, and the harsh atmosphere of war. In the novel, thesis-antithesis is shown such as idealism-instinction, romanticism-realism, and cowardice-courage. Hemingway maps the psychological complexity of Frederic Henry who does not know the violence in wars and serves voluntarily in the ambulance corps of the Italian army. Hemingway suggests that war is the dark side of a world that refuses to preserve true love. Crane and Hemingway deal with human nature, romanticism, and realism. Although the characters are volunteers for war due to abstract values of courage and heroism, they cannot bear the harsh reality of war when they experience it. This study demonstrates the effects of the brutal and harsh atmosphere of war on human beings.