Realist, Naturalist, Impressionist Narrative Techniques and Themes in Crane’s the Red Badge of Courage

Abstract

The distinguished American novelist Stephen Crane has been regarded as one of the pioneers of naturalism in American Novel. In his novel The Red Badge of Courage, naturalism occurs through the whole story, realism and impressionism also play an important part in his work. Cited for its fresh narrative style and naturalistic, realistic and impressionistic depictions of combat, the novel made him a celebrity. Naturalism sometimes depicts the relationship between individual and nature, focusing on the characters in their environment. Nature’s indifference to humanity’s fate is such naturalistic element explored in this novel. The reality of war is shown in its brutality, boredom and injustice. Crane carefully uses imagery that reflects the perspective and state of the protagonist. In this study, it is aimed to examine Stephen Crane’s novel as a non-traditional war narrative, where he reflects the inner experience of its protagonist, a soldier fleeing war from the perspectives of realism, naturalism and impressionism. In this thematic and descriptive study, text analysis was used and examples of naturalism, realism and impressionism were interpreted. In this work, which is close to the naturalness of daily language, the use of images and colour is important. The author has managed to convey the civil war in the most effective way, even though he did not live during the war years. This work, which reflects the American Civil War through the internal transformations experienced by the soldiers, provided a different perspective as well as general topics such as the north-south conflict.