Your Email:

Your Name:

To:

Subject:

Message:
from Polson High School <a href="http://www.flatheadreservation.org/index.php/phs"> Michael L. Umphrey website</a> <h2 class="title">Red Badge of Courage Resources Realism: Reading Steven Crane</h2> By Michael L Umphrey Reading Study Guide Chapters 1-2 1. Obliged 2. Despondent 3. Obscurity 4. Ominous 5. Sullen 6. Blithe 7. Dauntless 8. Indignantly Reading Check Questions 1. What news did the tall soldier bring from the river? 2. What was the reaction of each (the tall soldier, youthful private, and loud soldier) to the news? 3. What question caused the youthful soldier great concern? 4. From whose point of view is the story written? 5. What made Henry feel like a “mental outcast”? Chapters 3 - 5 9. Ponderous 10. Placidly 11. Formidable 12. Facetious 13. Menacing 14. Annihilated 15. Exasperation 16. Contortions Reading Check Questions 1. Why does Henry think “it would be better to get killed directly”? 2. What did the loud soldier give the young soldier at the end of Chapter 3? What do we learn about the loud soldier in that scene? 3. [The Officers] “neglected to stand in picturesque attitudes.” What do we learn from this detail? 4. What was the outcome of the youth’s first battle? Chapters 6 - 9 17. Vanquished 18. Orbs 19. Impending 20. Chaos 21. Perfunctory 22. Sardonic 23. Specter 24. Ague Reading Check Questions 1. What was the youth’s opinion of himself after the first battle? 2. What “impossible thing” happened after the first battle? 3. Did the youth retreat at the second attack? 4. Why did the youth feel wronged? 5. Why did the squirrel’s running make him feel better? 6. What did the youth find deep in the woods in the “chapel”? 7. Identify the tattered man. 8. Why didn’t the youth want to talk to the tattered man? 9. The youth “wished that he, too, had a wound, a red badge of courage. “Why? 10. The youth meets Jim Conklin, the tall soldier, again in Chapter 9. What does Henry promise Jim? 11. What is the significance of <blockquote>a . the location of Jim’s wounds? b. “The red sun was pasted in the sky like a wafer?” c. Jim’s initials?</blockquote> Chapters 10 - 13 25. Imprecations 26. Sinuous 27. Malediction 28. Vindication 29. Heedless 30. Altercation 31. Audacious 32. Reproof Reading Check Questions 1. Why did Henry leave the tattered man again? 2. Why did Henry wish he were dead? 3. What did the tattered man want from Henry? Why did he keep talking to Henry? 4. The main conflict of this chapter is Henry vs. Himself. Explain. 5. Henry is finally wounded. By whom and how? 6. How did Henry get back to his regiment? 7. Identify Wilson. 8. What was Henry’s lie? 9. Why did Henry “fumble with the buttons on his jacket”? 10. Why is it significant that Henry asks Wilson where he’s going to sleep and what he’s going to sleep in? Chapters 14 - 17 33. Reliance 34. Disconcerted 35. Condescension 36. Denunciation 37. Abject 38. Denoted 39. Repose Reading Check Questions 1. What change did Henry notice in Wilson? 2. What does Crane mean when he says, “Apparently the other [Wilson] had now climbed a peak of wisdom from which he could perceive himself a very wee thing”? 3. Why does Henry say “So?” at the end of the chapter? 4. Why and how was Henry’s self-pride restored? 5. Henry thinks “he could leave much to chance.” Explain. 6. Back in Chapter 10, Henry wished he were dead. Here at the end of Chapter 15, what is his attitude? 7. Why was Henry “dumbfounded” at hearing himself say, “Well, don’t we fight like the devil . . . .”? 8. What made Henry “suddenly a modest person”? 9. “He had slept and, awakening, had found himself a knight.” Explain. Chapters 18 - 21 40. Interminably 41. Delirium 42. Discerned 43. Dilapidated 44. Ludicrous 45. Proximity 46. Impetus 47. Smitten Reading Check Questions 1. What information did Henry and Wilson bring back to the regiment after they had gone to look for water? 2. “The youth stared at the land in front of him. It’s foliages now seemed to veil powers and horrors. “What does that mean? 3. Henry grabs the flag. “Because no harm could come to it, he endowed it with power. He kept near, as if it could be the saver of lives . . . ."Explain how Henry can think this as he grabs the flag from the dead color sergeant. 4. “The retreat of the mule drivers was a march of shame to him . . .He presently wrapped heart in a cloak of pride and kept the flag erect.” What does this tell us about Henry’s character now? 5. After retreating, the regiment faces yet another chance battle, which it wins. What does this do for the morale? 6. This chapter ends with “And they were men.” Explain. 7. What did the officer tell Col. MacChesnay? 8. How did the men react to the conversation between the officer and the Colonel? 9. What did Thompson tell Henry and Wilson and what effect did it have on them? Chapters 22 - 24 48. Prodigious 49. Perpetually 50. Obdurate 51. Morose 52. Incorrigible 53. Elation 54. Bedraggled Reading Check Questions 1. In the battle in Chapter 22, Henry was “deeply absorbed as a spectator” with “serene self-confidence.” Contrast this with his attitude in earlier battles. 2. What was Henry’s goal in Chapter 23? Did he achieve it? 3. In this chapter, Henry evaluates himself. What does he decide about his public deeds in battle? His treatment of the tattered soldier? 4. “Yet gradually he mustered force to put the sin at a distance.” What is the “sin”? Why is it important for him to put it at a distance? 5. “He was a man.” Why? How is “man” defined in The Red Badge of Courage? <a href="http://www.flatheadreservation.org/images/phs/The_Red_Badge_of_Courage_StudentStudyGuide.pdf">Printable PDF of this Study Guide</a> <a href="http://www.flatheadreservation.org/index.php/phs/red_badge_of_courage_resources/">Red Badge of Courage Resources</a> sent from Michael L. Umphrey's website