Throughout the novel, A Red Badge of Courage, Stephen Crane used many different colors. These colors all had significance and/or symbolism of an important event in the novel. The colors in the novel also often symbolized the mood of the events.
One of the many colors that Stephen Crane used in the novel was yellow. Crane used this color to often describe the sun, sky, or even the road. When Crane described the sky he quoted, "In an eastern sky there was a yellow patch like a rug laid for the feet of the incoming sun." The color yellow was used to paint a mental picture of what Crane was describing into the reader's head. The color was also used to make the description of the object "stand out". The mood that Crane used with the color yellow was usually to describe the excitement that Henry Fleming often felt. The color yellow was often used at the end of the chapter so that the reader would have a mental picture of the last scene while they began to read the next chapter. It often set the mood for the next chapter.
Another color that Stephen Crane used in the novel to symbolize an object was red. He often used the color of red to describe blood or the sky. When Crane described the wound of a soldier, he usually referred to their red badge of courage. Many of the times that he used red it was used just to reflect the title of the novel. When Crane described the sight of the men leaving the battle scene, he quoted, "A scetch in gray and red dissolved into a moblike body of men who galloped like wild horses." Crane also used the color red to describe the fires that the wounded men sat near. This was to also help the reader picture the men lying painfully trying to get warm.
Another color that Stephen Crane used in this novel was black. The color black was mainly used to set the mood of the scene. The mood of the scene was often dark or gloomy. When Crane was describing the tall soldier swearing in a loud voice, he commented, "From his lips came a black procession of curious oaths.
