Like many of his fellow soldiers, he has volunteered in a temporary fit of patriotic passion; like many soldiers and sailors, his enthusiasm is quickly lost in the mindless routine of army life. Henry is an unremarkable, average boy who grew up on a farm, but he is a bit more thoughtful than many of his fellow soldiers, and he worries about whether he will run or fight when he faces enemy fire for the first time.
Crane is generally considered to be the foremost English-language writer of the naturalist literary movement. This movement, most notable in French literature, was a reaction to romanticism and symbolism. Among its most famous proponents were Emile Zola and Guy de Maupassant. Crane's first novel, Maggie: A Girl of the Streets (1893), was praised as one of the first English-language attempts at naturalism. The book, gritty and somewhat scandalous for its time, is based on Crane's own observations of poor people in New York City.
Naturalism is an attempt to portray the world in a realistic way. Where romantic literature could be compared to the idealized forms found in a traditional parlor painting, naturalism was like the unglamorous truth of a candid photograph.
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