The Red Badge of Courage Study Guide

Summary and Analysis of Chapter 13-16

Chapter 13 Summary:

As the youth approaches the fires of his regiment, he fears the men will welcome him with jibes and insults. In his tired state, he cannot invent a story to explain his actions. He might have run away, but was too tired for that. He had to brave their insults in hope of rest.

Suddenly, a guard comes running at him with a rifle, yelling for Henry to stop. It is Wilson, the loud soldier. After recognizing the youth, Wilson is glad to see him, expressing happiness that Henry is not dead. This is not what the youth expected. He still thinks the conversation may turn toward his cowardice; and so, even in his tired state, he tells Wilson a fragmented story about fighting on the right, getting shot in the head, and then getting separated from the regiment.

The corporal of the regiment comes up, demanding to know to whom Wilson is speaking. When he sees it is Henry, he also expresses joy at his return. Before Henry can tell his tale, Wilson finishes the story for him. Both me are exceedingly nice to the youth. They wrap him in their blankets, give him coffee to drink, and examine his wound. He feels weak and finally sits down.

After the corporal leaves, Henry is left to contemplate the fire and his surroundings. Shadows flicker from the firelight. Men circle the fire and seem fleeting and tired. An officer is asleep sitting upright, looking exhausted. Other soldiers sit around in the rose and orange light. The fire crackles, and overhead the trees sway softly, with silver hued leaves edged in red. The soldiers occasionally change position, moving with grunts and groans.

Wilson, once he goes off duty, comes over and bandages the wound. He compliments Henry on not crying out as he clumsily applied his first aid. He then gives the youth a blanket and leads him to open ground to get some sleep. When Henry protests that he is using the loud soldier's blanket, Wilson tells him to just be quiet and go to sleep. Henry does, soon thereafter.

Chapter 13 Analysis:

For all of Henry's worrying about his return to his regiment, the men who are awake when he arrives welcome him back. They are happy to see him return. Despite this, and because of the constant questioning of the tattered man, Henry makes up a story about getting shot. He still cannot face the reality of his situation, cannot retell it for what it was. His juvenile nature is still in effect.

However, his actions are counter-balanced by the more mature and self-less actions of Wilson, the loud soldier. He takes care of Henry and his wound, trying to make him comfortable, complimenting his toughness, making sure he gets to sleep. There is little bragging about the loud soldier's actions. He does them, it seems, out of his joy to see Henry.

The imagery of the chapter suggests that he also may do this out of weariness for battle himself. Pictures of exhausted, sleeping soldiers dominate this chapter. While we do not know what the regiment has gone through exactly, all the men are asleep by the time Henry arrives. The youth has had a longer day than the rest of the soldiers. Perhaps this is driving Wilson's desire to take care of Henry‹he is a member of their regiment, of their group, who was given up for dead. Now that he has returned, he needs a little extra care.

The color images, so strong and bellicose before, take on a much more placid feel as Henry takes in the sights caused by the fire. The dark shadows and sleeping soldiers dominate the forms. These men are exhausted and weary. They need the rest they are getting. However, the same fire that bathes them in warm orange and red is the fire of the regiment. These fires also make the trees overhead seem to be those same colors of war‹gray and red. While the regiment is a place for comradeship, it is also a fighting force. This gray and red of the trees foreshadows the happenings of future chapters. The day may have been extremely tiring, and yet the men's hardships are not done. There are still more battles to be fought.

Chapter 14 Summary:

As the youth awakes, a gray mist is coming in over the fields, bending the initial sunlight. In the distance is the noise of fighting. He and the rest of the men are trying to get the last bits of sleep before awaking. The light makes them look like corpses. The youth, in this forest, thinks that he is in a house of the dead. He gradually comes to his senses and sees the scene for what it is.

Soon there is the rumbling of drums and a bugle call. Heads begin to move and turn upward. The men curse softly as they are roused. Once an officer calls out, however, the men straighten up. Henry does the same. As he rises, his friend Wilson calls out to him if he is feeling okay. His head feels like a melon. He tells Wilson: "Pretty bad." When Wilson tries to examine the bandage in an attempt to help, Henry yells at him to be more careful. He is angry, but Wilson persists in being calm. He leads Henry over to get food.

As Henry eats, Wilson continues to take care of him. The youth notices how much he has changed. He no longer seems concerned with his personal prowess. He is not angry at little words against him. He is no longer a loud soldier. He seems reliable and confident. Henry used to think of him as swaggering and headstrong. He knows seems to have garnered wisdom from somewhere.

Wilson asks if Henry thinks they will win today. Henry tells him that yesterday he would have bet on beating the whole rebel army himself. Wilson replies that he was indeed a bit of a fool "in those days." As they continue to talk, Henry informs him of Jim Conklin's death.

An argument breaks out between some soldiers. Wilson, now referred to as "the friend," goes over, and breaks it up. When he returns, Henry remarks at his change. Wilson replies that it is true, he has changed. He tells Henry that the regiment lost half its men the previous day. It was believed that they were dead, but they keep coming back from wherever they had scattered, just like Henry. To this, the youth replies, "So?"

Chapter 14 Analysis:

This chapter deals mainly with Henry's changing maturity and self-perception. As the youth awakens, the gray mist is back again, with all of its meaning of mystery and conflict. In the early light, Henry thinks that the forest is a house of the dead. Before this point, this reflection might have led him on a mental flight of fancy, thinking over and over about the implications of this image. In earlier chapters, Henry often gets caught up in these thoughts and ideas, perceiving something to be one thing and applying it directly to his own condition. This first view of the soldiers around him would lead in a similar direction. He thinks he is in a house of the dead, perhaps he himself dead because of his wound. However, he quickly realizes that this is not the truth. He is just in a forest with his regiment. He sees that his idea was "not a fact of the present, but a mere prophecy." This is not to say that these men will become corpses in any certain amount of time. This does show, however, that Henry's perception of the outside world and his place in it is changing. He is not getting so carried away by his thoughts.

Another element of prophesy in this chapter is the developments of Wilson. "The loud soldier" is no more. Something in the battle yesterday and his reflections on it lead him to an increase in wisdom and compassion. The narrator renames him "the friend." This shows that he has been fundamentally changed in some way, so much so that he needs a new name. Henry even notices these changes to himself. Wilson no longer gets angry at slight words, is not so interested in demonstrating his prowess. He is far more concerned in helping people get along and survive, as evidenced by his stopping a fight between soldiers and taking care of Henry.

Henry, however, has not changed enough. It is true that the first words of this chapter show some of a change in his character. But he is still eager to avoid drawing attention to his flight. He yells at Wilson as the latter tries to change his bandages. Wilson does not get upset at this. Furthermore, even after he has noticed the changes in Wilson, he cannot restrain his own expressions of irritation at small things. He does not recognize that others are glad to see that he is alive. When Wilson talks about troops coming back and how they were thankfully not dead, Henry says, "so?" in a very callous way. He has not learned the same lessons that Wilson has, because he has not been through the same experiences as Wilson. Notice, also, that he still bears the title "the youth." Until he matures more, this name still sticks.

Chapter 15 Summary:

The regiment is standing at order, waiting for the command to march. The youth suddenly remembers the packet of letters that Wilson, the friend, gave to him the day before. He calls to Wilson. However, when the latter turns to him, Henry merely says, "Oh, nothing." He had been gathering fear about his friend, certain that he will ask him questions about his wound and what happened on the previous day. The packet is a kind of a small weapon against his embarrassment.

He remembers his friend, speaking with sobs about his own death. He had not died, and thus he delivered himself into the hands of the youth. Henry feels superior; his self-pride is restored. His actions happened in the dark. Therefore he was still a man. Wilson let his heart spill out to another and was vulnerable. Henry could talk like a veteran, for he saw enough on the day before. It is only the unfortunate people, he thinks, that yell out with sincerity.

He is still not thinking of the battles before him. What he learned from the previous day's events was that retribution is blind. His faith and confidence is blossoming out of this. The dragons he encountered were not so hideous. He had fled, unlike the others, with dignity and not wildness.

During these ruminations, Wilson turns to Henry and sheepishly asks for his packet of letters back. Henry attempts to think of something to say to demonstrate his presumed nature but cannot, and gives the letters to Wilson unmolested. His friend seems to be shamed. Henry reflects that this is too bad. He has enough stories to tell people at home of the stories of war. His laurels are small, he thinks, but they would still shine where there were none before. His mother and the girl that flirted with him will drink up his words.

Chapter 15 Analysis:

Henry's immaturity is all too obvious in this chapter. He still fears Wilson, who has been so kind to him since he returned to the regiment. He fears his ability to ask questions, to use words to shame Henry. The youth is still insecure about his having fled battle.

As he sees it, he has a weapon against this‹Wilson's packet of letters. With these, he can remind Wilson of his own insecurities and fears. It makes Henry feel haughty and proud. We now see him go on another of his flights of fancy, where his thoughts and imagination get the better of his emotions. He holds all those in contempt who complain. Retribution for his actions, which he feared almost as much as death the day before, he dismisses as being "laggard and blind." He even goes as far to say that those dragons he saw yesterday were not so bad. From his previous actions, we know this is not true. Those same dragons threatened to eat him earlier‹this is why he ran in the first place. The zenith of his ridiculous, prideful thoughts come when he even holds those others who fled in battle in contempt, because they ran with wildness. He, on the other hand, fled "with discretion and dignity." We know, from the earlier chapter, that this is not the case. He fled because others were fleeing. He fled because he too was afraid. And he fled wildly.

Wilson, however, interrupts these silly thoughts by asking for the letters back before Henry can dangle them over his head. Though Wilson feels embarrassed by this and Henry continues to feel superior, what is most important is that Henry cannot say anything to further shame his friend. Despite all of his thoughts of combatable dragons and war stories for home, Henry is still the youth. He dreams of speaking, but when the time comes to put his thoughts into action and ridicule Wilson, he cannot. His actions betray his thoughts. Words once again fail for the youth.

Chapter 16 Summary:

The fog-filled air is full of the noise from muskets and cannon. A new day of battle is starting. The regiment is to relieve men in trenches. They sit with their backs to the trenches, listening to the occasional pop of a skirmisher's rifle. Henry peers over at the trees up and down the trench line. Cannons on the right begin to roar with such volume that no one can say a sentence and have it be heard. They eventually stop, and then the rumors begin to fly. They are not good. Their commanders are said to be hesitating and uncertain. Disaster stories are concocted. They ask themselves what more can they do.

Soon the men are marching through the woods, away from the trenches. The lines of the enemy can be seen through the groves. Now the youth joins in the condemnation of the generals. His words are long and elaborate. He asks rhetorical questions about the strength of the regiment and their fighting ability. The friend, Wilson, attempts to placate his words, saying that maybe the generals should not be fully blamed. Henry asks passionately if the regiment does not fight better than any other, as the general had said yesterday. The friend replies sternly that they do, but they just have bad luck. The youth says that therefore, this must be the general's fault. A sarcastic soldier replies to Henry that maybe he thinks that he fought the whole battle yesterday.

Henry is afraid that he is found out. He replies calmly that he did not think that. He then, however, realizes that there was no extra meaning in the man's question. He still feels threatened and grows quiet and modest.

The regiment comes to halt in a clearing. From the woods in front of them, the sounds of firing resound. They simply wait. The gray shadows of the woods stand still. A battery shells the distance from behind them. The youth launches into a protestation of wandering around just to be led into a bad place and beaten by the enemy. The friend says that it will all turn out all right in the end. Henry begins to respond with venom and volume, when his lieutenant lashes out himself. He says the men should shut up and quit talking and to get ready for a battle. As the sun rises more, there is a scent of battle. Sure enough, a few rifles flash in the groves in front of them. The regiment stands still, hesitant and tired. They look like men tied to stakes.

Chapter 16 Analysis:

The grayness of war peppers this chapter. As the regiment goes on into a potential battle, they still do not see any actual fighting. They only hear it‹from down the line of trenches and through the forest. Anticipation is building once again, but it is different from the previous day. Now the men are not fresh. They are tired and frustrated. Officers spit insults, and the troops are sullen.

Henry, however, is full of words for one of the few times in this book. While on the trench line, he tries to tell a joke. He complains about the generals to his friend. Later, he complains about being marched around only to eventual defeat. Each time, he is prevented from finishing his thoughts. In the trenches, the cannon above drown out his words. The sarcastic man bites off his comments while marching with a simple insult about his own battle prowess‹"Maybe you think you fought the whole war yesterday, Fleming." This quiets Henry for a time. Instead of the dread issue of his actions on the previous day coming as a question about what he did, this man shoots him down with a statement. Henry definitely did not fight the whole battle. He knows exactly how much of it he did fight‹very little. This keeps him quiet for a while. However, he later begins to rail out again. When Wilson, now matured, tries to say that everything will turn out okay in the end and think positively, Henry snaps at him that it will not. The lieutenant cuts him off, angry at all the words being uttered.

Henry tries to express himself with words, but his thoughts are not deemed to be worth listening to. He tries to appear to others and himself as if he knows some truth of battle. The only truth he does know is that it is frightening. This is not the truth that he describes. He goes on rants about the inability of the generals, whose job he knows little about. He, in fact, knows little about what it is to be a soldier. Those around him cut down his own thoughts, now brought out into the open. However, the grayness of the forest begins to be cut with muzzle flashes. Another battle is coming. The youth may indeed be able to prove himself.