Courage - "the ability to conquer fear or despair." Courage also comes from peers and from working together. In Stephen Crane's novel, The Red Badge of Courage, Henry Flemming's goal was to prove his courage in the Civil War. Since Henry had not been in battle yet, his ideas of war came from his imaginations and stories he read. He had spent a great amount of time dreaming about the romance of war and the heroic action in them. He simply joined the army to find in real life the adventures he had dreamed about. Instead of thinking that war was great, war brought to his attention the possibility of him running away from a battle. However, it also helped him find his self-identity and maturity. Henry thought that he must discover whether he was brave or not. This was the main issue in the novel, Henry's problem of cowardice and courage. Although Henry was a coward for running from the battle, he was able to conquer his fear and become a hero with courage. .
For the first half of the book, Henry was a coward. Enlisting in the army as a young farm boy, he was greatly troubled when he heard that there would be a battle coming. As his regiment was about to move into action, he was fearful that he would prove to be cowardly in battle. Also, he was doubtful if he was going to run away or fight during the battle. Therefore, he tried to find other soldiers who were as frightened as he was, but he failed. As a result, Henry made up excuses for his doubts to make himself feel better. At one instance, "He tried to mathematically prove to himself that he would not run from a battle" (Crane). At another instance, he tried unsuccessfully again, "To bring forth any statement which looked in any way like a confession to those doubts which he privately acknowledges in himself" (Crane). Both of these excuse convinced Henry that his doubts were normal. In fact, to justify his fear of possibly running away from a battle, he told himself that, "He was not formed for a soldier" (Crane).