Red Badge of Courage

Name: _________________________________________________________ Date: ________________

SHORT ANSWER STUDY GUIDE QUESTIONS - The Red Badge of Courage

Chapters 22 - 24

1. In the battle in Chapter 22, Henry was "deeply absorbed as a spectator" with "serene self-confidence."

   Contrast this with his attitude in earlier battles.

2. What was Henry's goal in Chapter 23? Did he achieve it?

3. In this chapter, Henry evaluates himself. What does he decide about his public deeds in battle? His

    treatment of the tattered soldier?

4. "Yet gradually he mustered force to put the sin at a distance." What is the "sin"? Why is it important for

     him to put it at a distance?

5. "He was a man." Why? How is "man" defined in The Red Badge of Courage?

Vocabulary - The Red Badge of Courage Chapters 22-24

Part I: Using Prior Knowledge and Contextual Clues

Below are the sentences in which the vocabulary words above appear in the text. Read the sentence. Use any clues you can find in the sentence combined with your prior knowledge, and write what you think the underlined words mean on the lines provided.

1. Having stirred this prodigious uproar, ... the brigade, after a little time, came marching airily out again.

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2. . . . he saw wild and desperate rushes of men perpetually backward and forward in riotous surges.

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3. But at one part of the line there was a grim and obdurate group that made no movement.

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4. The third captive sat with a morose countenance.

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5. For a time this pursuing recollection of the tattered man took all elation from the youth's veins.

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6. The procession of weary soldiers became a bedraggled train, despondent and muttering, marching with

    churning effort in a trough of liquid brown mud under a low, wretched sky.

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Part II: Determining the Meaning

You have tried to figure out the meanings of the vocabulary words for Chapters 22-24.  Now match the vocabulary words to their dictionary definitions. If there are words for which you cannot figure out the definition by contextual clues and by process of elimination, look them up in a dictionary.

___ 48. Prodigious                   A. continually

___ 49. Perpetually                  B. enormous; extraordinary; marvelous

___ 50. Obdurate                     C. intractable; not giving in

___ 51. Morose                       D. Made wet and limp

___ 52. Incorrigible                  E. melancholy

___ 53. Elation                         F. unmanageable

___ 54. Bedraggled                  G. Exalted feeling arising from a sense of triumph power or relief