Stephen Crane’s The Red Badge of Courage, originally published in 1895, was a book unlike any others of its time. It both introduced new methods to American literature and refined them, and it was the possibly the final stroke in completing what Ralph Waldo Emerson had asked for many years earlier when he delivered The American Scholar. Crane had created an American Style, based on the feelings of every person, not just the higher class. He perfected realism, or as it is also called, naturalism. The idea of realism is that life and nature, in short the world, should be portrayed as it actually is. Crane elevated this idea to new levels by using techniques that only let readers see what they would if they were actually there. Similar to his books, Crane himself was much unlike the men of his time or any time. His turbulent youth, his adventurous spirit, his tendency to quite literally live his books after he wrote about them, and his amazingly short life all make for a person and a book that crave to be analyzed and studied, and that is the purpose of this paper.

When this scholar first read The Red Badge of Courage he was immediately struck by the vividness of the pictures Crane created, yet of their blurred impression, a contradictory feeling that only Crane could create, yet holds true for all aspects of the book. The familiarity of the characters struck me. The book’s battles had a feeling unlike anything this reader has ever read. They move at such a pace, yet are filled with numerous details; but the pace never halts, never gives the reader a time to think. It is the only book this scholar has ever read that actually makes one feel dizzy and confused, thus creating the blurred effect. In short, it all feels real which is the whole purpose. It makes the reader feel something, realize something, and that is why Crane’s book on the horror and truth of war is indeed quite "beautiful."