American Literature / Unit 12 AML 1109 short lesson, about 20 seconds
Henry Fleming and the Question of Courage
Captions available
The idea
Henry runs from his first engagement, receives a head wound from a fellow soldier that everyone reads as a battle wound, and returns to fight well. Whether he has become brave or merely lucky and unreflective is left open, and the novel's irony sits there.
In practice
A wound taken as proof of courage.
Where people slip
The book withholds the verdict on him.
Your place on the trail
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