Just as Da Vinci was inspired to design from areas around him, authors also 
tend to write complementing their surroundings to create a masterpiece. As an artist 
with words, Stephen Crane carved his own thoughts of life into several generations 
using his novels. Transforming his dreams into words he was able to form a new 
reality. A reality in which he painted the era he experienced with stories from within 
his mind.
	Every masterpiece begins with a source, an inspiration of a topic that comes in 
a form of realization of identity for Stephen Crane. Perhaps his invision and interest in 
war started from birth, when his parents "called him Stephen, the name of the 
ancestor of the Elizabethtown Crane, who was a prominent patriotic laboror and 
counsel during the revolutionary times" (Colvert 1).  At a young age Crane began to 
show his military interest.  He would "..often gather buttons from his mother and 
sisters and march them in little regiments, recreating great battles in history, 
particularly the civil war. (Sufrin 15).  During these years when young boys read 
paperback dine novels, Cranes interest's were on Harper's Illustrated History of the 
Rebellion. During his childhood, Crane attended numerous schools.  Although not an 
exceptional scholar due to his lack of interest in the educatational system, he became 
and exceptional soldier at Caverack College; becoming a "first lieutinant and winning 
the coveted washington's birthday drill prize in 1890"(Colvert 12).  Caverack were 
happy times and enjoyable to Crane.  It was a place to study and learn and also for 
playing baseball and football.  Crane greatly admired Rev. General. John B. van 
Patton, "Professor of his history and elocution and a distinguished veteran of the 
battles of Chancellorsville and Winchester, and they have helped keep Crane's 
interest in war alive" (Colvert 15).
	Crane's life was somewhat synonimous to his favorite topic of war and battles.  
After being brought up religiously by pious methodist parents, "upon the death of his 
father his christian idealism came to a sudden end"(Colvert 9).  From his early 
adolescent age, Crane "smoked, cursed, drank beer, played poker, and pool--and 
certain signs of wickedness and that genteel, pious age"(Sufrin 2).  His actions were,
	"That of a classic american figure--the ministers son who rebelled against his
	fathers puritanical vision of life.  He hated the "nicely laundered" lives of his 
	family and the "best people" in his home town, and often went out of his way 
	to shock them"(Sufrin 2).
After finally leaving the last of his primer schools, Crane moved to Bowery, a section 
of New York infamous for "every forbidden pleasure"(Sufrin 1).  During his stay, the 
opressions of the poor and outcast and the wild Bohemian lifestyle of Bowery's 
inhabitants inspired him to write the Red Badge of Courage.  Crane started his 
research by reading Century Magazine, but ultimately recieved his inspirations from 
Polstoy's Sebaftopol.
	The Red Badge of Courage is a masterpiece alitteration of Cranes life.  From the 
beginning, when Henry Flemmings defiled his mothers wishes and enlists, Crane went against his 
christian upbringing. Both mothers Crane and Henry supports their childrens choice.  Henry's 
life with the soldiers during the pre-battle days symbolize Crane's Bohemian lifestyle at the 
bowery.  When Henry's mother found out about his enlistment in the army she supported him by 
making an ample ammount of shirts and warm socks for his journey.  Raised by matriachal 
parenting Crane would often get his way due to his mothers devotional love for him even in 
times of trouble by sending one of his brothers to his aid.  Henry and the other 
soldiers would play cards to pass the time and talk about the  glories of war.  Their upbeat 
conversations about the war hid the real turbulences of the world 
outside of the camp.  Like Henry's life at the camp, Crane's life at the bowery was that of fun 
and happiness.  He often stated during his stay at the Bowery that it brought out his imagination.  
One of his friends often stated "He was one of very few writers who felt that people and 
concerned other than those of the very rich or the middle class were appropriate subjects of 
literature"(Gibson 2).  "The realities of war hampered Crane's imagination"(Colvert 113). During 
the many years that he traveled around Cuba and Europe, he wrote a plethora of accounts from 
people who had witnessed the horrible nature of war. Crane regarded war as "the deamon 
destroyer of the holy order of creation"(Colvert 114) just like Henry, as he saw the decaying 
body of a soldier outside the church the body symbolized the ugliness and horror of mankinds 
conflicts.  
	The Red Badge of Courage  is full of Crane's own reminisince of his life. He uses 
"heroism as a form of conflict between his ironic skepticism and his pride and the deeds of his 
military ancestors"(Colvert 15).  From his revolutionary war namesake to his teacher, Crane's 
choice of this subject in gorification of war has become the major topic of his work.  War 
creates emotional elements, which helps Crane express himself during the toughest parts of his 
life.  In his school days he played football. In the novel Crane often uses football terminologies 
such as "scrimmage" to represent "a sense of rage and conflict"(Colvert 19) for battle scenes in 
Red Badge of Courage.  Crane also vividly describes each scene with dramatic illustration this
 was due to the numerous lifestyles he grew up with.  Crane has always wanted to describe 
people, especially the wealthy as they appear for it gives a person a true picture of what he 
wrote about.  It was during his time of a newspaper writer for his brother that he wrote about 
the current events of his town.  Many of his writings were repeated for example as he described 
the atmosphere and the feeling of a soldier after a battle when different hues of red, the color of 
blood fades away into the horizon to mark the end of battle and the end of the day.