“He suffered that disappointment which we would all have if we discovered that we were ourselves capable of those deeds which we most admire in history and legend.”
Stephen Crane, 1895, referring to Henry Fleming, the main character of The Red Badge of Courage and "The Veteran."

Welcome to Benjamin Sorrell’s web page about “The Veteran” by Stephen Crane!  This page is hosted by East Tennessee State University.  It was assembled and published as part of a literature class assignment.  The author hopes you will enjoy the information presented herein.  Please feel free to email comments to the author at:  zbls2@etsu.edu

Benjamin Sorrell is a thirty-three year old undergraduate student at East Tennessee State University.  He is a Pre-Business major and intends to become an accountant.  Mr. Sorrell is noted for his raw brilliance and uncanny problem solving skills.  Basking in the adulation of his peers, he continues to gather widespread acclaim for his academic prowess and his unparalleled skills at writing contributor's notes.

Simply click on the links below to explore this page:

About Stephen Crane

About "The Veteran"

An excerpt from “The Veteran”

Works Cited page
 
 

Stephen Crane was born on November 1st in Newark, New Jersey in the year 1871.  His father was a Methodist minister who died when Stephen was eight years old.  He wrote his first story, “Uncle Jake and the Bell Handle”, when he was fourteen.  After dropping out of Lafayette college in 1890, he enrolled at Syracuse University in 1891.  He worked on the college newspapers, and played varsity baseball, but attended few classes.  In the fall he moved to New York City and in December his mother died.
Crane began publishing in 1892 with five “Sullivan County Sketches” in the New York  Tribune and one in Cosmopolitan.  In 1893 his first book, Maggie: a Girl of the Streets, was refused by all of the major publishers and was published at Crane’s own expense.  It had been considered overly honest and somewhat fragmentary.  Furthermore, it contained profanity which was considered unpalatable.
By 1895, Crane had published The Black Riders and The Red Badge of Courage and had become famous.  The traits which had blocked his publication two years earlier now added to his success.
Crane wrote extensively on the subject of war, and sought out real life experiences to provide accuracy and veracity for his stories.  In this vein, he volunteered to cover the Greco-Turkish War in 1897 and the Spanish-American War in 1898.  He was also once shipwrecked off the coast of Florida while running guns to Cuba.
Unfortunately, in 1899 Stephen Crane suffered a severe tubercular hemorrhage while attending a Christmas party.  He died in a sanitorium on June 5th, 1900 in Badenweiler, Germany.  He was buried in Hillside New Jersey.
Stephen Crane has left a legacy of deeply moving, finely wrought fiction.  Part of this legacy is the short story “The Veteran.”

In “The Veteran,” Stephen Crane revisits one of  his previous characters.  Henry Fleming is the protagonist of  The Red Badge of Courage.  In that book Henry went into battle with strong preconceptions  about what the experience would be like.  Expecting to find glamour, he instead finds chaos and destruction.  He succumbs to his fear and flees, only to later come to grips with his fear, learning to stand and fight.
  In “The Veteran” we see Henry grown old.  With his battles all seemingly behind him, Henry is content to sit and tell stories about his war days.  He is forthcoming about the fear he felt when he entered battle, and does not claim great heroism to bolster his self esteem.  He is respected in his community, and takes time to talk to his grandson.
When disaster strikes, however, Henry shows that those old harsh lessons were not lost with the passage of time.  Clearly, Henry is not one to be paralyzed by fear.
In “The Veteran” Stephen Crane gives us a very human story, and another look into the nature of courage.  Readers who have read The Red Badge of Courage and do not read “The Veteran” are missing half of the story.

Out of the low window could be seen three hickory trees placed irregularly in a meadow that was resplendent in springtime green.  Farther away, the old, dismal belfry of the village church loomed over the pines.  A horse meditating in the shade of one of the hickories lazily swished his tail.  The warm sunshine made an oblong of vivid yellow on the floor of the grocery.
“Could you see the whites of their eyes?”  said the man who was seated on a soap-box.
“Nothing of the kind,” replied old Henry warmly.  “Just a lot of flitting figures, and I let go at where they ’peared to be the thickest.  Bang!”
“Mr. Fleming,” said the grocer--his deferential voice expressed somehow the old man’s exact social weight--“Mr.  Fleming, you never was frightened much in them battles, was you?”
The veteran looked down and grinned.  Observing his manner, the entire group tittered.  “Well, I guess I was,”  he answered finally.  “Pretty well scared sometimes.  Why, in my first battle I thought the sky was falling down.  I thought the world was coming to an end.  You bet I was scared.”
Everyone laughed.  Perhaps it seemed strange and rather wonderful to them that a man should admit the thing, and in the tone of their laughter there was probably more admiration than if old Fleming had declared that he had always been a lion.  Moreover they knew he had ranked as an orderly sergeant, and so their opinion of his heroism was fixed.  None, to be sure, knew how an orderly sergeant ranked, but then it was understood to be somewhere just shy of a major-general’s stars.  So when old Henry admitted that he had been frightened, there was a laugh.

Benfey, Christopher.  The Double Life of Stephen Crane.  New York:  Alfred A. Knopf Inc., 1992.  This source provides insights into the relationship between Crane's life and the stories he wrote.

Crane, Stephen.  The Little Regiment.               ,1896.  The excerpt was drawn from this source.

Gibson, William M., ed.  The Red Badge of Courage and Selected Prose and Poetry by Stephen Crane.  New York: Holt, Rinehart and Winston, 1950.  This source is a fine collection of some of Stephen Crane's other work.

Halliburton, David.  The Color of the Sky: A Study of Stephen Crane.   New York:  Cambridge UP,  1989.  This source is a study of Crane's literary style.