Journal #25 - Red Badge of Courage

I read a critical review written by Harold Bloom himself. He made many valid points about this book, but there are some things that I do not agree with that Bloom had said in his critical analysis. Bloom relates Crane to many different writers that preceded his lifetime, and I do not like this very much because it makes me feel that Bloom is taking away from Cranes originality put forth into that book, Even though he had to attain most of his information fom interviewing people who had actually ought in the Civil War, he did an amazing job at reliving the war and writing about something that he actually was not even alive for. Bloom may have a valid point to get across, but I feel that he could have done it in a much less condescending way. I agree with most of Bloom's analysis however. Bloom makes the comment at one point which says that the story is mostly a story about fear, which is kind of obvious but very true nevertheless. Bloom also made the point that Crane's writting style was impressive because he had not been there during the Civil War, he noted how amazing the imagery had been comparable to the actual events that had happened. I completely agree with Bloom on this sense because while I read the book, I also noticed the great sense of imagery. This was very useful so that we would have the opportunity to relate to the people who were in the battles. I could get a feel for why he was so scared throughout the whole story, because of the great imagery. The amount of fear in the book makes you think about how horrible the war was to people and how greatly it altered the soldiers lives. These people were constantly living in the face of death, and I never even stop to think about that. Bloom says how this book is such a great representation of what really happened in the war and how the real soldiers reacted to the war. I completely agree with this because it is totally true.