Henry symbolizes naivety because he is unaware of the forces that control him. Through the use of naturalism, Crane shows the reader how small Henry truly is when compared to larger forces. Henry has little control over his circumstances because he is at the mercy of war and nature. Ironically, Henry willingly enlists in the military for fame and glory. As Dr. Ball states, “you join the military and lose your freedom, it seems.” * Following his desertion, Henry enters a “green chapel.” The “green chapel” is a possible reference to Sir Gawain and the Green Knight. In the green chapel, Henry discovers a dead soldier “dressed in a uniform that had once been blue” (Crane 22). Henry witnesses ants consuming the decaying man and when faced with the plausibility of his own death, he flees (22).…show more content… [ *As literary critic Verner Mitchell describes, during Henry’s second interaction with death, he imagines “death as a grotesque, magical ogre.” Following Henry’s experiences during the second day of battle, however, Henry would come to view death as something “that is neither a supernatural horror nor a comforter conscious of an interested in an individual named Henry Fleming.” Nature’s indifference towards Man’s plight is a key feature of naturalism. ]*Another way Crane uses naturalism is to refer to soldiers as animals throughout the novel. As Henry is fighting on the second day of battle, the narrator notes how Henry feels the Confederate soldiers were like tormenting “flies sucking insolently at his blood” (Crane 45). By referring to soldiers as animals, Crane removes all possible romanticism from the battle and places the soldiers into an almost Darwinian fight for survival. Additionally,* nature is indifferent to the ongoing battle. As Henry and the regiment march towards battle on the second day, the narrator describes, “the sun went serenely up the sky, throwing illuminating rays into the gloomy thickets”
