Allusion In The Cold Mountain, And Charles Frazier's Cold Mountain

Blood, pouring from the wound, effuses out into the world never to be drawn back into its maker’s corpse. This body will never retrieve that lost blood; one does not consume his own gore. That blood may be lost, but the scar endures.

Charles Frazier, throughout his novel Cold Mountain, employs many allusions to the classic Greek epic The Odyssey, with specific intent of adjoining the two pieces of literature with particular regard for an allegory with scars. Frazier’s text establishes a connection to the epic through a flourish of references both explicit and opaque, however one of the more tender allusions within the two works beholds this regard to the scars worn by both male protagonists: Inman and Odysseus. Both Homer and Frazier tighten

In this situation, Odysseus’ scar not only serves as a marker for the incident which he overcame when he was attacked by a boar in his boyhood, but more so integrates the physical mark with the backstory. Scars universally embody the idea of resiliency and the ultimate overcoming of adversity, which is incredibly fitting for Odysseus seeing that his resiliency essentially drives him back home throughout the entire epic. There is no coincidence Odysseus becomes known to his father by his scar, as for the entirety of the epic Homer epitomizes Odysseus’ resiliency within all shades of danger, challenge, and adversity.

Further, a very similar theme associated with scars is present within Frazier’s Cold Mountain. Much like Odysseus on his journey home, Inman encounters trial after tribulation as he returns back to his home of Cold Mountain from the Civil War. During one of the final scenes of the novel, when Inman and Ada finally gain some alone time within an abandoned cabin in the Cherokee village, at which they talk about the time lost during the war and the grief produced in part. Inman

Through his scarring process, it remains apparent to the reader that Inman truly does pursue to reclaim his humanity throughout the novel and eventually it is Inman’s humanity which acts as his fatal flaw by the final chain of events. In conclusion, both Homer and Frazier deliberately use scars within their works to heighten their texts and provide readers a means to better understand their characters. Through both Odysseus’ scar from the boar and Inman’s scar of war, each character ably regards his scar as an identifier for the man he has grown into. The blood from battle or boar or war is gone now, but, more importantly, the story and the memory and the relic that is his scar remains inherent