Comparing and Contrasting Red Badge of Courage to Soldier’s Heart Red Badge of Courage and Soldier’s Heart are two Civil War themed books that are very similar and share themes and events that make the stories interesting. However, when reviewing the two novels, it is apparent that there are not many differences between these two books. Meanwhile, there are many resemblances between the themes and events of Red Badge of Courage and Soldier’s Heart which makes it very hard to tell these two stories apart. The amount of similarities, and few dissimilarities, between the two may lead one to believe they are almost the same book just written by different authors during a different time in history. Here are the few contrasts between Red Badge of Courage and Soldier’s Heart that make the stories interesting.…show more content… Red Badge of Courage and Soldier’s Heart have extremely similar themes and ideas. Here are a few of the many comparisons. Both books are set in and during the Civil War with both main characters fighting in the north in the Union army. Soldier’s Heart and Red Badge of Courage share similar themes about how nature was not aware and did not care about the death that was happening during the war, which is a form of irony. Both characters joined the war on their own accord, volunteering for the excitement and honor, instead of wanting to support their country. One of the biggest parallels between these two novellas is that Henry and Charley both suffer mental changes. Both came into the war, innocent, excited, and young. During the war they both became fighting machines and they fought without mercy or feeling guilty. When they left the war, they had aged not in years, but in experiences. Suddenly, they were no longer innocent or excited, but timeworn and exhausted. Both books share various identical themes, ideas, and
