In chapter six of The Red Badge of Courage by Stephen Crane, the protagonist Henry Fleming flees from battle in a panic. When, in the next chapter, he hears that the remaining members of his regiment have defeated the enemy without his help, he suddenly feels resentful. As demonstrated by his self-deceiving ways, Henry avoids his latent feelings of shame and inadequacy by reassuring himself that their actions were foolish, as any sensible man would be primarily motivated by self-preservation, and would therefore run away. In an attempt to escape the chaos of the fighting, Henry enters the forest, deep in thought. In the comfort of nature, he throws a pine cone at a nearby squirrel, which in turn runs away. Henry interprets the squirrel's reaction as evidence of man's instinct to survive regardless of circumstances. Soon after, he wanders into a chapel-like grove, within which he discovers the corpse of a soldier in a blue uniform. Henry stares at the body, his eyes fixed involuntarily on the horrible place, and then staggers out of the clearing in horror. Say no to plagiarism. Get a tailor-made essay on "Why Violent Video Games Shouldn't Be Banned"? Get an Original Essay Overall, the examples of direct and indirect characterization along with the metaphor and symbol allow the reader to gain insight into Henry's psyche and establish the overall meaning of the chapter. By exploring concepts of self-deception as a means of dealing with an unfavorable reality and especially the unfavorable reality itself – that nature provides a final resting place for all people alike, heroic and cowardly alike – Crane creates meaning for the reader. Rather satirically, Crane uses diction to indirectly characterize Henry at the beginning of chapter seven. When Henry finds time to analyze his actions after fleeing the battle, Crane writes of him: "[His] actions had been sagacious. They had been full of strategy...2And [He was] the far-seeing enlightened man “in the darkness, he had escaped because of his superior perceptions and knowledge” (Crane 82) intends his portrayal of Henry to be quite ironic, so he uses three powerful and even exaggerated words – “shrewd,” “strategy,” and “superior” – in the passage above. The terms “shrewd” and “strategic” (from “strategy”) connote superior discernment, foresight, and cunning, and “superior,” in turn, connotes extreme and utmost excellence he justifies his escape from the battle by convincing himself of his supreme "perceptions and knowledge"; however, the reader is well aware that in reality Henry flees because he is inexperienced and panicked figurative "enlightened man looking far into the darkness", Crane once again achieves the opposite effect. This is demonstrated by another metaphor, from the second paragraph of the chapter, which reads: "[Henry] stood on tiptoe and looked in the direction of the fight. A law of yellow mist wallowing in the treetops." The word "yellow" denotes not only the actual color Crane refers to, but also baseness and cowardice. Furthermore, Crane's kinesthetic image of the fog "wallowing" or rolling idly over the treetops heightens the sensation since the term also indicates a condition of degradation and baseness. Crane shows that when Henry physically stands on tiptoe and scans the horizon, the first image he sees is a yellow fog, representing abject fear, darkening the sky; therefore unenlightened, the exact opposite of the man who "looks away into the darkness". With the help of Crane's indirect recognition of the.