Thesis

Thesis Statement: In the book The Red Badge of Courage Henry, the main character in the story, doesn’t fight to his whole potential, he runs instead of fights, he questions the orders of his superior officers, and he also let his men die.

1st point: Henry runs form battles instead of fighting them.
Sometimes Henry thought that his regiment would lose a battle that they where fighting, but they never would and he would only find that out after he had already ran away. One time that really sticks out is after he and his regiment fought and won a battle, but then when they came back Henry ran because he thought that they would lose. But when he was running away he heard the general say, "Yes, by heavens, they 've held 'im! They 've held 'im!"(Crane 6.49) When he said this he means that they had won the battle.

2nd point: Henry and some of the other men question the orders that they where given.
When an officer gives you an order you follow it because they know what they are doing and even if they tell you that you probably won’t make it through the next battle, which Henry heard from one of the generals. The general had said “I can spare them best of any." (Crane 18.14) What he meant by that was that he could sacrifice the 304th, Henrys regiment, for the good of the army. But even if you get an order like that you go and fight anyway because your life will help save the lives of many more soldiers.

3rd point: He let his men die in a way because he didn’t fight and some of his soldiers die or get wounded.
When you don’t fight you take away some of the chance that you will win the battle. You take away your gun, and when you aren’t shooting you can’t kill anyone. And when you’re not killing anyone they can kill your fellow soldiers. So Henry in a way kills some of his own soldiers by not fighting. They might not die but they could get wounded. And you don’t lie and say that you fought when you didn’t. Like when he was talking to Wilson and said, "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 13.7) That was a lie he had been running over there.