*Thesis*

In book, The Red Badge of Courage Henry is extremely self-centered. Everything he does, is for himself. If it doesn’t help him or make his life easier he forgets about it.

• Running away-
Henry survives the first battle, but when he hears the enemy is coming back he freaks out. He sees the mob of people running towards him, and then he starts to run. He doesn’t seem to care about anyone else. He runs to save his own life. “He ran like a blind man. Two or three times he fell down. Once he knocked his shoulder so heavily against a tree that he went headlong.” (Crane, 6.27). Henry could care less about what happens to the other soldiers. He wants to get away from the battle because he isn’t serious about fighting. He is someone taking up space. He isn’t trying to defend his country. The only fighting he takes a part in would be when his life is in danger.

• Feeling betrayed-
Henry feels that he is always right. Whatever he does is what everyone else should do. If he has an idea, they should follow it. When Henry realized that he was the only one who ran away, he felt betrayed he wanted everyone to follow him. He didn’t think it was fair that the rest of the regiment stayed to defeat the enemy. “It seemed that the blind ignorance and stupidity of those little pieces had betrayed him.” (Crane, 7.5). Henry needs to understand that war is not focused on one person. He needs to stop being such a baby and realize that there are other people in this world. Other soldiers are actually dying, but he is just putting on an act, wanting everyone to feel sorry for him.

• His lying-
Henry is always changing his story. He wants people to think of him as a brave individual, but really… he’s the exact opposite. Henry gets a rifle smashed to his head, but when he returns to the regiment he tells Wilson that he was separated from the regiment so he went to fight with the others. During the separation, he says he was shot in the head. ‘‘‘Yes, yes. I've--I've had an awful time. I've been all over. Way over on th' right. Ter'ble fightin' over there. I had an awful time. I got separated from the reg'ment. Over on th' right, I got shot. In th' head. I never see sech fightin'. Awful time. I don't see how I could a' got separated from th' reg'ment. I got shot, too.’’’ (Crane 13.8).