The novel The Red Badge of Courage by Stephen Crane, is a story about a man, who could be in and army in any war. He is a young man who sets off from home to join the union army. He sets of as a self conscious immature man, and at no point during the story does he every change; he shows that he is immature from beginning to end of the story. At the start of the story while Henry is sitting around with his fellow soldiers he is questioning himself constantly, then later in the story Henry justifies his worries and runs from the battle, the final showing and biggest specticle of immature Henry shows is when he grabs the confederate flag from a dead flag boy.
The story begins with Henry and the rest of his regiment sitting around waiting to finally move into battle. However something is tugging on Henrys mind; Henry is wondering if the other men are worried like he is about running away. This thought in itself shows that Henry is too immartue to have enough self confidence in himself to know weather or not he will be able to withstand the battle that is to come. This is a matter of pride and honor to Henry he wants to become a man, and is worried that he will find that he is accually more of a coward. The time for him to tell weather or not he will be able to stay comes within days.
When Henry goes into battle after the regiment has finally moved in on the confederates; he finds that his adrenialine kicks in and he tries to become a hero by killing everyone out on the battlefield. This is a childish thing to do because it is exactly what his mother told him not to do. The union army wins the battle and in Henrys mind they have won the war, and he will no longer need to fight. However when the next confederate regiment comes to engage the union Henry is filled with surprise and fear; He and many others flee the battle. While Henry is running he is trying in his head to find an explenation to verify his going awol.