OBJECTIVES:•DEFINE VOCABULARY WORDS FROM UNIT ONE.•CONNECT CRANE’S L IFE TO HIS WORK.•EVALUATE THE TEXT AS AN EXAMPLE OF REALISM.•ANALYZE THE DEVICES CRANE USES TO CONSTRUCT THE RED BADGE OF COURAGE

Friday, September 7th

1. Get out your notes on The Red Badge of Courage/ Stephen Crane.

2. Reminder of poem—how does Nature respond to man’s inquiries?

Today’s Activities:

REMINDER: Vocabulary exercises due on Wednesday

REMINDER: Vocabulary quiz on ThursdayPlagiarism InformationFinish background information and begin

literary analysis of The Red Badge of Courage

Stephen Craneand

The Red Badge of Courage

Get out your notebooksLabel this page The Red Badge of CourageListen carefully as give the directions . . .

“A Man Said to the Universe”Poem from War is Kind & Other Lines by Stephen Crane

A man said to the universe: "Sir I exist!" "However," replied the universe, "The fact has not created in me A sense of obligation."

In your notes, create a paraphrase of this poem.

Why is it important for the man to state that he “exist[s]”? How is that declaration an essential part of our lives? Think about the “big” questions people have about life.

Use three adjectives to describe nature’s response to the man’s statement.

What point is Crane making with this poem?

Our AuthorBorn in 1871 in Newark, New JerseySon of a Methodist ministerDid not embrace the religion, but

was affected by Christian ideasMost notably, he was aware of the

insignificance of human beings in the universe and the guilt and fear that the thought of sin could inspire

Interested in moral issues focused on personal responsibility, conscience, and life as a spiritual journey

Realism“I decided that the nearer a writer gets to life, the greater

he becomes as an artist, and most of my prose writings have been toward the goal partially described by that misunderstood and abused word, realism.”

– Stephen Crane

Worked part-time as a journalist and explored slums and police courts and fraternized with the poor, prostitutes, and homeless

Lost his reputation, however, for socializing with and defending prostituteshttp://query.nytimes.com/mem/archive-free/pdf?res=F30F1

6FF385515738DDDAB0894D9415B8685F0D3

Wanted to emphasize “truth and nature” in his writing Had one law while writing: “be true, not to the objective

reality, but to the objective reality as the author sees it.”

The Novel & Realism Many readers were impressed by RBC’s

unflinchingly honest portrayal of war (even though Crane had never seen a battle, readers insisted he must be a Civil War veteran)

Most war novels by American writers at the time were simply adventure stories or romance

Crane focused on the violence and confusion of the battlefield AND the effects of war on the human mind

Crane said The Red Badge of Courage is a “psychological portrayal of fear.”

BUT is it a war novel after all?

The Novel and ImpressionismA term borrowed from the artsHighly personal way of seeingWriter shows the objects or events as they

seem or feel to an individual at a precise moment in time

Emphasized the “drama of thought” rather than action

Radically new style of writing

The Novel’s SettingUnnamed battleNever mentions the Civil WarDevote relatively little space to the physical

settingMany critics believe the real setting of the

novel is Henry Fleming’s mind

My Novel QuestionsWhat is nature’s role in this novel? What

does Henry want nature’s role to be?To what extent is Henry self-aware? How

does his consciousness change throughout the novel?

With what question(s) does Henry struggle?How does Crane present Henry? Why?Is this a Civil War novel? Is it anti-war? Pro-

war?What is the ultimate irony (presented in the

novel) in our quest to find a place in the universe?

How to Read Like an English Teacher

Guide for close readingStyleToneThemeDictionPOVTimeSettingMotifsSymbolsMood

Close reading passage from RBC

Look at the notes I made on this passage from Chapter 1

Let’s discuss why I made the notes I did