1. Color Symbolism
Red – The title The Red Badge of Courage refers to a wound earned in a courageous battle.
Crimson – The crimson field represents the bloody corpses who have died for unification.
Grey & Navy Blue – Opposing sides.
Red, White & Blue – America, Freedom
John Larson

2. Romanticism / Realism / Naturalism
Naturalism – the view of the world that takes account only of natural elements and forces, excluding the supernatural or spiritual. Ex. The squirrel running from the battle.
Romanticism – An artistic and intellectual movement originating in Europe in the late 18th century and characterized by a heightened interest in nature, emphasis on the individual's expression of emotion and imagination, departure from the attitudes and forms of classicism, and rebellion against established social rules and conventions. Ex. The bodies returning back to nature.
Realism – a theory of writing in which the ordinary, familiar, or mundane aspects of life are represented in a straightforward or matter-of-fact manner that is presumed to reflect life as it actually is. Ex. The events are very realistic.
Impressionism – A literary style characterized by the use of details and mental associations to evoke subjective and sensory impressions rather than the re-creation of objective reality. Ex. Henry fearing death.

3. Stephen Crane
“The Open Boat” – The characters are caught in a tempest and end up washing a shore after their boat capsizes this causes them to have a near death experience and thus fear death.
“The Blue Hotel” – The three main characters meet in a motel in Nebraska, when one of the characters is accused of cheating at cards and murdered they realize that they are all equally responsible for his death.
“The Bride Comes To Yellow Sky” – This short story is another example of realism because the characters are very down to Earth.

4. Gettysburg Address
Lincoln’s purpose in writing the Address is to bring about the unification of the Union and to uphold the Constitution. Lincoln’s purpose was not to free the slaves it was to unify and protect and preserve the union. The style of the Gettysburg Address is very similar to The Red Badge of Courage because they both emphasize the sacrifice of the young soldiers who engage in the actual fighting. Stephen Crane’s novel was first interpreted as a patriotic novel but it is actually about the sacrifice of the young people that fight in wars. The Gettysburg was also similarly misinterpreted.

5. Impressionism
Impressionism began in the 1800’s it was named for the Claude Monet work, Impression, Sunrise. Characteristics of Impressionist paintings include visible brush strokes, open composition, emphasis on light in its changing qualities (often accentuating the effects of the passage of time), ordinary subject matter, the inclusion of movement as a crucial element of human perception and experience, and unusual visual angles.

6. Lord of the Flies
The corpse scene in Lord of the Flies parallels the corpse field in The Red Badge of Courage because it shows the concept of naturalism because the corpses as they decompose and become one with nature. The boys in left for dead don’t know how the corpse they find died where as Henry knows the corpses were killed in battle. Henry knows that death is around the corner and that he can end up just like the corpses he sees in the fields prompting him to rather get killed sooner.

7. Gone With the Wind
Gone With the Wind is about love during the civil war. It takes place in the south in contrast with The Red Badge of Courage which takes place in New Jersey. This makes the two viewpoints and goals of the main characters almost polar opposites. However both characters want the war to end.

8. Civil War Posters

9. Battle Maps
This map displays all of the battles of the Civil War.

10. The Emancipation Proclamation
The Emancipation Proclamation freed the slaves after the Confederacy's defeat at the hands of the Union it was significant because it effectively abolished the mindset of slaveholders. This speech effectively distanced the south from the north because without slavery there was no one to harvest crops. The south could not survive on their own as a result of their economic struggle and became economically dependant on the north.

11. Abraham Lincoln, Martin Luther King Jr. and Mahatma Gandhi
Lincoln, Martin Luther King Jr., and Gandhi all helped humanity by giving people hope and freedom. Martin Luther King Jr. and Gandhi practiced the philosophy of non-violent resistance. Lincoln is known for strongly believing that all governments should be operated “By the People, For the People.” Gandhi helped his people in India fight colonial oppression by the British. Martin Luther King Jr. urged his fellow African Americans to resist civil injustices in 1960’s America.

12. Point of View.
Stephen Crane’s point of view in The Red Badge of Courage is one of an omniscient entity who observes the battlefield in a naturalistic way. While most of the book is told from the point of view of Henry. It is in some parts told from the view of an omniscient