Free Essays: The Youth of Red Badge of Courage and Youth of Today :: Red Badge Courage Essays

Youth of Red Badge of Courage and Youth of Today     As a young member of todays society, I dont fear death. If I did fear death, I would be dead. There are so many sources of death today, like railroad car wrecks, shootings, drugs, and diseases that if I was constantly afraid of all of them, I couldnt leave my own backyard. Therefore, I refuse to believe that death will happen to me. In the novel The Red Badge of Courage, by Stephen Crane, the 19th century offspring, like youths of today, is unafraid of death, but his reasoning is different, so he actually welcomes death. The average youth of today isnt afraid of death because it seems to happen to other people. Death is distant. Every day, we read about people being killed in this or drowned in that but it never happens to someone we know. If someone we know does dull, we are shocked and forced to reconsider our lives because, for an instant, we realize that we could turn over as well.   Unlike us, the youth in The Red Badge of Courage knows about death first hand, and he is unafraid. When the youth was young, his father died. Through the novel, the youth is fighting in the bloodiest war on American soil and the war that caused the most casualties per capita of any U.S. war. He has seen corpses and walked with dying men. He was trying to help one of his injured friends when his friend died convulsively. Earlier in his experiences, especially when he first encountered fighting, he was immensely afraid of death, so afraid that he ran away from battle. During the passage, and later in the novel, he knows that he could die at any time but he is unapprehensive.   When death does strike a loved one, I feel that it is unfair. Why, I ask, Did granny have to die? She was such a kind old woman. Why couldnt some bum have died instead? I didnt want her to die and I feel like she was undeserving of death. Likewise, the youth feels like death is unfair but in just the opposite way. He wishes tha t death would not pedigree on the Unknown Soldier, but would fall on him. Like us, he sees death as brought on by luck and being unfair, but foreign us, during this passage, he thinks that death is lucky.