Echoes of Conflict: Exploring the Parallels Between The Red Badge of Courage and the Socioeconomic Dynamics of Post-Civil War America

Year 2024, Volume: 9 Issue: 1, 57 - 74, 29.04.2024

İbrahim Koç , Kemal Çapoğlu

https://doi.org/10.29110/soylemdergi.1413158

Abstract

This article is an attempt to analyze The Red Badge of Courage as a socio-political allegory of the period in which it was written. Two facts cannot be ignored when characterizing post-Civil War America: one of them is the rise of industrial production with the support of scientific developments and subsequent economic expansion. The other is the increasing migration due to the economic destruction in the South and higher standards of living promised by the industrial cities of the North. In this period, changes in production techniques created an advantage in favor of employers in wage competition. Therefore, factory owners began to prefer unskilled migrant workers instead of skilled workers and this also increased the intensity of urbanization. While rapid population growth turned the cities into industrial jungles, life for the rural migrant workers, who were destitute of supportive social networks, was no different than a battlefield of problems. It was at such a time that the novel was written, and the 304th infantry regiment, made up of young and inexperienced soldiers in the story, is in many ways reminiscent of young industrial workers.

Keywords

Stephen Crane, Gilded Age, Sociopolitical Allegory., allegory, post-Civil War Amerika

Çatışmanın Yankıları: Kanlı Madalya ile İç Savaş Sonrası Amerika'nın Sosyoekonomik Dinamikleri Arasındaki Benzerlikleri Keşfetmek

Abstract

Bu makale, The Red Badge of Courage'ı yazıldığı dönemin sosyopolitik bir alegorisi olarak inceleme girişimidir. İç Savaş sonrası Amerika'yı karakterize ederken iki göz ardı edilemez gerçekten söz edilebilir. Bunlardan ilki, bilimsel gelişmeler ve akabinde gelen ekonomik genişlemenin desteğiyle yükselen endüstriyel üretimdir. Diğeri ise Güney'deki ekonomik yıkım ve Kuzey'deki sanayileşmiş kentlerinin vaat ettiği daha yüksek yaşam standartları nedeniyle artan göç olgusudur. Bu dönemde üretim tekniklerindeki değişiklikler ücret rekabetinde işverenler lehine bir avantaj yaratmıştır. Bu nedenle fabrika sahipleri vasıflı işçiler yerine vasıfsız göçmen işçileri tercih etmeye başlamış ve bu da kentleşmenin yoğunluğunu artırmıştır. Hızlı nüfus artışı şehirleri birer vahşi sanayi ormanına dönüştürürken, destekleyici sosyal ağlardan yoksun kırsal göçmen işçilerin hayatı türlü sorunlarla boğuştukları bir savaş alanından farklı değildi. Roman böyle bir dönemde yazılmıştır. Hikâyedeki genç ve tecrübesiz askerlerden oluşan 304ncü piyade alayı birçok bakımdan dönemin genç sanayi işçilerini çağrıştırmaktadır.

Keywords

Stephen Crane, Yaldızlı Çağ, Sosyopolitik Alegori, alegori, Amerikan İç Savaşı

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