The Red Badge of Courage

Refer to one or more detail in chapter 1 that describe the narrators ideas about the war, both before he joind the army and when he finds out he'll actually be going into battle

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In this first chapter, Henry is unproven even to himself. Before enlisting, the possibility of cowardice does not arise; he assumes battles are unwaveringly valiant struggles of life and death. He does not enlist because of an overwhelming sense of patriotism or even the will to fight, but rather due to his fantasies of heroic deeds. His mother offers a more realistic assessment; rather than instruct him to emulate the Spartans and "return carrying your shield or on top of it" (meaning either victorious or killed in combat), she tells him to do only what he thinks is right. This is a critical moment in both the development of Henry’s character and the plot of the book. The tone here is much more ambivalent and the question of whether Henry will run or face battle becomes the focus of the narrative in the early chapters.