The Red Badge of Courage is NOT one of my favorite books to read. If I were to rank the books that I have read from the most liked to the least, Red Badge would be close to the bottom of the list.
Why is this novel then included in the curriculum for ENGL 223? Why did the juniors at West Central High School read it for many years? The answer is simple.
It is teachable.
Picture this.....a class full of junior boys, after lunch, after a morning of Building Trades or Auto Mechanics at the Vocational School. They all trek into English class, ready for......a nap. How does the English teacher keep their attention? Involve them in the class? Make the 90 minutes fly by?
Read The Red Badge of Courage. With parts. With acting. The tallest boy in the class played Jim Conklin, the tall soldier. The boy with the youngish looking face, the one who never said much of anything became The Youth, Henry Fleming. The loud kid who always cracked jokes and couldn't sit still took on the role of Wilson, the Loud Soldier. Any number of other soldiers were played by any number of other students on the brink of nodding off during normal class time. Add some blood and guts plus ants creeping over a dead guy's face and they were hooked.
From the teacher's standpoint, Red Badge held a wealth of elements that were easily explained and understood. How can even the toughest students not understand the scene where Henry and Wilson run up the hill with Jim, Jim's death, and the wounds in his hands and his side depicting the crucifixion? How can students read about all of the RED and the GREEN and the BLACK and GRAY and not recognize the color symbolism?
The story is simple, yet complex. The action covers a short amount of time. The characters and the setting are both universal. Red Badge is really about any war at any time with any characters or any nationality.
So, no, this is not one of my favorite books to read for pleasure. However, it is one so craftily written that it is a logical choice to include in a course curriculum and an easy read for those who don't necessarily enjoy spending their time with a book.
I have to admit, it was very difficult to read this as a book, I think that it would be much easier to read as a play. I really like how you broke it down and explained how you (I assume you are referring to your own days as a high school teacher) used this book in you classroom and how you made it engaging to your students. I suppose that with enough creativity, a great teacher can make any lesson interesting and engaging to the students.
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