STYLE
Style may simply mean a writer’s characteristic way of using language. In short, we mean everything the author does with words, including his way for arranging words into such larger units as sentence. For purposes of simplification, we shall consider this topic under three heading elements: diction, imagery, and syntax.
1.Diction
It simply means the author’s choice of words. In this novel entitled The Red Badge of Courage, the writer uses connotation in his most paragraphs. There are several paragraphs that represent it.
He had, of course, dreamed of battles all his life—of vague and bloody conflicts that had thrilled him with their sweep and fire. In visions he had seen himself in many struggles. He had imagined peoples secure in the shadow of his eagle-eyed prowess. But awake he had regarded battles as crimson blotches on the pages of the past. He had put them as things of the bygone with his thought-images of heavy crowns and high castles. There were a portion of the world’s history which he had regarded as the time of wars, but it, he thought, had been long gone over the horison and had disappeared forever. (chapter I, page 5)
The ground was cluttered with his vines and bushes, and the trees grew close and spread out like bouquets. He was obliged to force his way with much noise. The creepers, catching against his legs, cried out harshly as their sprays were torn from the barks of trees. The swishing saplings tried to make known his presence to the world. He could not conciliate the forest. As he made his way, it was always calling out protestation. When he separated embraces of trees and vines the disturbed foliages waved their arms and turned their face leaves toward him. He dreaded lest these noisy motions and cries should bring men to look at him. So he went far, seeking dark and intricate places. (chapter VII, page 41)
As he marched along the little branch-hung roadway among his prattling companions this vision of cruelty brooded over him. It clung near him always and darkened his view of these deeds in purple and gold. Whichever way his thoughts turned they were followed by the sombre phantom of the desertion in the field. He looked stealthily at his companions, feelings sure that they must discern in his face evidence of his pursuit. But they were plodding in ragged array, discussing with quick tongues the accomplishments of the late battle. (chapter XXIV,page 117)
2.Imagery
An image is the evocation through words of sensory experience; imagery is simply the collection of images in the entire work or in any significant part of the work. In this novel entitled The Red Badge of Courage, the writer uses literal images and figurative images.
a.Literal images.
A basic function of literal imagery is simply to satisfy the reader’s demand for specific, concrete details, his desire to know how things look, sound, smell, taste, and feel. Look out of these paragraphs:
The cold passed reluctantly from the earth, and retiring fogs revealed an army stretched out on the hills, resting. As the landscape changed from brown to green, the army awakened, and began to trembled with eagerness at the noise of rumours. It cast its eyes upon the roads, which were growing from long troughs of liquid mud to proper thoroughfares. A river, amber-tinted in the shadow of its banks, purled at the army’s feet; and at night, when the stream had become of a sorrowful blackness, one could see accross it the red, eyelike gleam of hostile camp-fires set in the low brows of distant hills. (chapter I, page 3)
The spectral soldier was at his side like a stalking reproach. The man’s eyes were still fixed in a stare into unknown. His grey, appalling face had attracted attention in the crowd, and men, slowing to his dreary pace, were talking with him. They were discussing his plight, questioning him and giving him advice. In a dogged way he repelled them, signing to them to go on and leave him alone. The shadows of his face were deepening and his tight lips seemed holding in check the moan of great despair. There could be seen a certain stiffness in the movements of his body, as if he were talking infinite care not to arouse the passion of his woiunds. As he went on, he seemed always looking for a place, like one who goes to choose a grave. (chapter IX, page 48)
The men cuddled behind the small embankment and sat in easy attitudes awaiting their turn. Many had their backs to the firing. The youth’s friend lay down, buried his face in his arms, and almost instantly, it seemed, he was in a deep sleep. (chapter XVI, page 79)
b.Figurative images.
It is more commonly called figures of speech. An image is figurative when it must be understood in some sense other than the literal. There are several figures of speech that the writer uses inside the story.
à Simile, an explicit comparison of dissimilar objects, involving the use of such comparative words as ‘like or as’. It represents in these paragraphs.
He had, of course, dreamed of battles all his life—of vague and bloody conflicts that had thrilled him with their sweep and fire. In visions he had seen himself in many struggles. He had imagined peoples secure in the shadow of his eagle-eyed prowess. But awake he had regarded battles as crimson blotches on the pages of the past. He had put them as things of the bygone with his thought-images of heavy crowns and high castles. There were a portion of the world’s history which he had regarded as the time of wars, but it, he thought, had been long gone over the horison and had disappeared forever. (chapter I, page 5)
A dull, animal—like rebellion against his fellows, war in the abstract, and fate grew within him. He shambled along with bowed head, his brain in a tumult of agony and despair. When he looked loweringly up, quivering at each sound, his eyes had the expression of those of a criminal who thinks his guilt litlle and his punishment great, and knows that he can find no words. (chapter VII, page 41)
The youth’s regiment was marched to relieve a command that had lain long in some damp trenches. The men took positions behind a curving line of riffle pits that had been turned up, like a large furrow, along the line of woods. Before them as a level strecth, peopled with short, deformed stumps. From the woods beyond came the dull popping of the skirmishers and pickets, firing in the fog. From the right came the noise of a terrific fracas. (chapter XVI, page 79)
At nightfall the column broke into regimental pieces, and the fragments went into the fields to camp. Tents sprang up like strange plants. Camp fires, like red, peculiar blossoms, dotted the night. (chapter II, page 16)
Metaphor, the comparison remains implicit, the statement seems to assert an identification. It represents in these paragraphs.
The other sat down and and carefully lighted his pipe. “You’re getting blue, my boy. You’re looking thundering peeked. What the dickens is wrong with you?” (chapter II, page 16)
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. (chapter IX, page 48)
A single riffle flashed in a thicket before the regiment. In an instant it was joined by many others. There was a mighty song of clashes and crashes that went sweeping through the woods. The guns in the rear, arroused and enraged by shells that had been thrown burr-like at them., suddenly involved themselves in a hideous altercation with another band of guns. The battle roar settled to a rolling thunder, which was a single, long explosion. (chapter XVI, page 83)
Personification, is the giving of human characteristics to inanimate objects, ideas, or animals. It represents in these paragraphs.
The skirmish fire increased to a long clattering sound. With it was mingled far-away cheering. A battery spoke. (chapter III, page 25)
The day had grown more white, until the sun shed his full radiance upon the thronged forest. A sort of a gust of battle came sweeping toward that part of the line where lay the youth’s regiment. The front shifted a trifle to meet it suarely. There was a wait. In this part of the field there passed slowly the intense moments that precede the tempest. (chapter XVI, page 82)
Over the river a golden ray of sun came through the hosts of leaden rain clouds. (chapter XXIV, page 115 )
3.Symbols.
It is basically a kind of image, differing from other images in the use to which it is put. Because symbolism often proves a stumbling block for inexperienced readers, we shall approach the subject of the literary symbol indirectly.
1.The dead man
After Henry runs away from battle and is in the midst of rationalizing his behavior, he comes across a particularly tranquil spot in the woods:
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
This is where Henry comes to realize that nature and the universe have no interest in this dead man, nor do they have an interest in whether Henry himself lives or dies. There is simply nothing out there to help or save him or anyone else. This is a shocking lesson for him, and one that shatters his notions of the way things work.
2.Red
Let’s we discuss this dialogue below:
"From across the river the red eyes were still peering."
“From this little distance the many fires, with the black forms of men passing to and fro before the crimson rays, made weird and satanic effects."
"They were going to look at war, the red animal –war, the blood-swollen god.”
"Then, upon this stillness, there suddenly broke a tremendous clangor of sounds. A crimson roar came from the distance.”
"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."
"He had rid himself of the red sickness of battle."
Well, we can think that red has something to do with things that are scary, bloody, dangerous, and war-related.
3.Animal Imagery
When Henry looks around in "the mystic gloom," he stares at the "red eyes across the river" and imagines they are "the orbs of a row of dragons advancing". Later, in battle, he imagines the enemy as an "onslaught of redoubtable dragons" approaching like a "red and green monster". Mythical creatures aside, there’s plenty of mention of the regiment lines moving like snakes, or the men being killed like pigs, or Henry running forward like a dog or fighting like a wild cat. Remember that the instincts Henry is dealing with – self-preservation, fear, all that biology 101 "fight or flight" stuff – are all animalistic in nature. He’s tapping into the core of his being that he shares with snakes, pigs, dogs, cats, etc. Essentially, there isn’t a big difference between men and animals when they’re put into these sorts of life-threatening situations.
4.Religious Stuff
Crane, who was the son of a minister (but not himself a believer), also uses religious imagery in the novel. The chapter that deals with the death of Jim Conklin (notice his initials), promotes Jim as a sort of Christ-figure who through his painful death helps "redeem" Henry. The final sentence of this chapter ("The red sun was pasted in the sky like a wafer"), is no mere description of nature. In the Christian sacrament of communion, believers eat the "body of Christ" via communion wafers and red wine. Crane seems to be commenting on the concept of men having to die to save other men, whether in war or in spirit. It gets us back to that "part of a larger whole" thing we talked about in the "Why Should I Care." Gosh, almost like a common important thread or something.
4.Syntax.
It is the way in which the writer constructs his sentence. We will discuss the characteristic length of his sentences, the proportion of simple to complex sentences. In this novel, the writer uses a combination: simple and complex sentence to describe everything he wants to inform for the readers. Look out of the paragraphs below that written in simple and complex sentence together.
There were moments of waiting. The youth thought of the village street at home before the arrival of the circus parade on a day in the spring. He remembered how he had stood, a small, thrithful boy, prepared to follow the dingly lady upon the whihte horse, or the band in its faded chariot. He saw the yellow road, the lines of expectant people, and the sober houses. He particularly remembered an old fellow who used to sit upon a cracker box in front of the store and feign to despise such exhibition. A thousand details of colour form surged in his mind. The old fellow upon the cracker box appeared in middle prominence. (chapter V, page 29)
The youth felt comforted in a measured by this sight. They were all retreating. Perhaps, then, he was not so bad after all. He seated himself and watched the terror-stricken wagons. They fled like soft, ungainly animals. All the roars and lashers served to help him to magnify the dangers and horrors of the engangement that he might try to prove to himself that the thing with which men could charge him was in truth a symmetrical act. There was an amount of pleasure to him in watching the wild march of this vindication. (chapter XI, page 57)
The youth, upon hearing the shouts, began to study the distance between him and the enemy. He made vague calculations. He saw that to be firm soldiers they must go forward. It would be death to stay in the present place, and with all the circumstances togo backward would exalt too many others. Their hope was to push the galling foes away from the fence. (chapter XXX, page 111)
The writer of this novel shows her character style through how he tells her story by using third-person narration (limited omniscient), in this case, we can see the action through the eyes of just one character, "the Youth" named Henry Fleming. Though Henry is not the narrator of the story, we are inside Henry’s mind throughout the novel. We are never allowed to know any of the other characters’ thoughts or feelings (unless of course they vocalize them to Henry). In the novel, the storyteller describes things as Henry sees and interprets them. At the same time, because of the slight tone of irony that the narrator employs, we realize that some of the things Henry perceives and recounts may not reflect the truest reality. This type of narration relies on the reader to ferret out which of Henry’s emotions and observations are accurate, and which are merely a reflection of Henry’s temporary state of mind.
TONE
One of the most important functions of style is its contribution to the establishment of tone in the work of fiction. Tone is the sense in which we speak of tone of voice. In written language, including the language of fiction, tone is that quality, primarily a quality of style, that reveals the attitudes of the author toward his subject and toward his audience.
In this novel, the writer uses understatement as a tone. The use of understatement here may be a way to calling on the reader to react with the full power of the moral imagination. Then, through the narrator, the reader can catch and see what the moral value inside the story by themselves. Let’s we see this paragraph:
A little panic-fear grew in his mind. As his imagination went forward to a fight, he saw hideous possibilities. He contemplated the lurking menaces of the future, and failed in an effort to see himself standing stoutly in the midst of them. He recalled his vision of broken-bladed glory, but in the shadow of the impending tumult he susoected them to be impossible pictures. (chapter I, page 9)
The youth of this tale felt gratitude for these words of his comrade. He had feared that all of the untried men possessed a great and correct confidence. He now was in measure reassurred. (chapter I, page 11)
In the paragraph, describing that the youth feel scared with experience of war. Though, a soldier should get courage to fight with the enemies, not fear.
Besides, another tone in this novel is irony. Many have identified in Red Badge a discrepancy between Henry’s thoughts and those of the author. Crane often uses exaggerated language to describe Henry’s visions of glory and valor, so much so that he even seems to be mocking his main character. His descriptions of Henry often force the reader to question the legitimacy of Henry’s perceptions about himself. We realize that what Henry thinks about himself may not be what the narrator – or we – knows to be very accurate.
It’s clear that Crane has a bone to pick with traditional notions of courage, manhood, and warfare; Crane’s realistic descriptions of battle, fear, and horrific death lessen our deeply held beliefs about the glories and honor of fighting for one’s country or belief system. Both Henry’s desire for glory and his embarrassing unwillingness to do what is required for its attainment reveal Crane’s sophisticated sense that gray is the color of most men’s souls – that there is no such thing as true courage, or even right and wrong.
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. (chapter IX, page 48)
BIBLIOGRAPHY
Kenney, William. How to Analyze Fiction. 1966. Monarch Press: New York
Crane, Stephen. The Red Badge of Courage. 1995. Mackays of Chantham:Britain
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