d cannon fire of the Civil War, unnatural musings still find aniche in the back of mortals’ minds. Stephen Crane writes The Red Badge of Courage as anaturalistic realist, but, “as if to discharge from [his mind] certain phantasmal shapes whichwould otherwise haunt [him],” he includes that sense of dread that makes a novel trulyunnatural.81 Crane’s brand of naturalism makes his novel ghostly. As the protagonist of thebook, Henry Fleming, is fleeing from battle, “the creepers [catch] against his legs [and] cry outharshly.”82 “The swishing saplings” try to “make known his presence to the world.”83 “It[seems] Nature was not quite ready to kill him,”84 when Henry reaches what looks like a safespot. But there he encounters an eerie sight. “He [is] being looked at by a dead man” from twoglassy, pale eyes.85 He imagines all sorts of things that the dead man might do: get up and chasehim, speak “in horrible menaces” after him, or reach out to grab him.86 On his way back tocamp, he is knocked out by a fellow soldier fleeing from battle, but he gets supernaturalprotection from a ‘faceless man.’ “He [threads] the mazes of the tangled forest with strangefortune” and protects Henry from the sullen surroundings.87 When Henry arrives at his camp, hefeels hope in the “warm and strong hand clasped” to his. Then man leaves, cheerfully whistling,but the sense of something strange comes when Henry realizes “that he had not once seen hisface.”88The early- to mid-twentieth century American fiction is sparsely populated with mysteryand wonders, but the few than remain are jewels of their own kind. In O Pioneers!, WillaCather’s one, extraordinary moment is when Alexandra speaks of her dream. “The phenomenonof dreaming” aids in building up “the notion of an unreal or spiritual world,...
