Cold Mountain
The book, Cold Mountain, by Charles Frazier is a story of tragedy and the overcoming of adversity set during the American Civil War. W.P. Inman is a confederate soldier, who like many confederate soldiers is reconsidering the “cause” and whether or not his sacrifice was warranted. We learn that when he ventures away from Cold Mountain, his home in North Carolina, for the first time he see the persecution of blacks in way he had not before. This compounded with the longing for his love, Ada Monroe, and the death that surrounded him compels him to risk death and desert the army and to return home to his love. I've always found this scenario Shakespearean but it also reminded me of the Roseanna McCoy and Johnse Hatfield love story that is so familiar to Appalachian culture.
The story goes back and forth between Inman on his travels to return to Cold Mountain and Ada who is left to attend her farm, Black Cove, by herself after her father dies. She is somewhat helpless as the things she is educated in prove useless in running a farm. She is soon comforted by a woman named Ruby who was sent by Ada's neighbor Mrs. Swanger to help Ada make a go of running the farm. Self-reliance has always been a trait among Appalachian people and the skill sets that mountain people have are far more useful than that of the erudite when it comes to survival. Ruby's first contribution to the farm being the killing, skinning and eating of a troublesome rooster.
As Inman travels home he is accosted by the Home Guard, confederate militia who are just as feared as the dreaded Yankees. The voyage is much more difficult than he imagines and narrowly escapes being killed by three men. As he travels on, he meets a preacher who i...
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...and I was right. The basis for a lot of stories in Appalachian culture is that of a central character trying to overcome a task that seems overwhelming, this is true for most stories. However, I feel the journey is more important than the end. Inman truly found himself when he was waking a long, endless journey. He clarified his own views on the war, what he considered right and wrong and his own vision of justice. Cold Mountain is a healthy representation of Appalachian culture as it depicts people who are strong willed, versatile and unrelenting in their own aspirations. Whether that aspiration is to run a farm or to find a way home. If anything, mountain people are hard fighting people. They live in areas that can only sustain the most hardy among us. Maybe to them hardship is only one more hurdle to leap in a journey that is what it is....and that is simply life.
It is 1865, and the war between the states has just ended. Booth’s rage is peaking as he recalls Union General Ulysses Grant’s participation in the fall of the Confederacy….
More than 25,000 letters and 250 private diaries from men on both side of North and South. Talking about the soldier's ideals for which they fought over conflicts and beliefs of each side. McPherson took all of the soldier’s ideas and beliefs and made this powerful and important book on an often-overlooked aspect of the Civil War. Also, it brought great honor and powerfully moving account for the men that fought in the civil war.
A central theme in Frazier’s “Cold Mountain” is solitude/isolation, the loneliness that many characters in the novel experience guides them in their search for meaning in a world that is torn by war and hardships. Inman (a soldier/warrior that is battle fatigued and is trying to get home) feels a sense of overwhelming loneliness and growing confusion with the human world because of his war experiences. He is also plagued by a spiritual desolation that is suggested when he listens to many talk about their tales of hardships, but he rarely shares details of his own past. But through his loneliness he cultivates an otherworldly spirituality, similar to the goat-woman, (an old lady Inman meets in his travels that feeds him and gives advice) that
There are many ways in which we can view the history of the American West. One view is the popular story of Cowboys and Indians. It is a grand story filled with adventure, excitement and gold. Another perspective is one of the Native Plains Indians and the rich histories that spanned thousands of years before white discovery and settlement. Elliot West’s book, Contested Plains: Indians, Goldseekers and the Rush to Colorado, offers a view into both of these worlds. West shows how the histories of both nations intertwine, relate and clash all while dealing with complex geological and environmental challenges. West argues that an understanding of the settling of the Great Plains must come from a deeper understanding, a more thorough knowledge of what came before the white settlers; “I came to believe that the dramatic, amusing, appalling, wondrous, despicable and heroic years of the mid-nineteenth century have to be seen to some degree in the context of the 120 centuries before them” .
In the world of Appalachia, stereotypes are abundant. There are stories told of mountaineers as lazy, bewildered, backward, and yet happy and complacent people. Mountain women are seen as diligent, strong, hard willed, and overall sturdy and weathered, bearing the burden of their male counterparts. These ideas of mountain life did not come out of thin air; they are the direct product of sensational nineteenth century media including print journalism and illustrative art that has continuously mislead and wrongfully represented the people of Appalachia. These stories, written and told by outsiders, served very little purpose to Appalachian natives other than means of humiliation and degradation. They served mostly to convince readers of the need for so-called civilized people and companies to take over the land and industry of the region, in particular the need for mineral rights, railroads, and logging as the mountain folk were wasting those valuable resources necessary for the common good.
Truman Capote establishes respect and trust in what he writes from with audience, ethos, through the use of an extensive variety of facts and statistics, logos. Capote uses so many dates, times, and other facts about the crime committed in the book and the subsequent investigation that the reader has to believe what the author is writing. The use of all these facts shows that Capote did his research and he interviewed, questioned, and obtained the opinions of every person that even slightly important to crime itself and the investigation/trial. The author is obviously very meticulous when it comes to dates and times; every important event in the book has a date and sometimes even a time of day to go with it. Some examples of dates included were the day of the murders (November 15th, 1959), dates of when Perry and Dick were here or there (December 31th, 1959- a small restaurant in Texas or noon on December 25th, 1959- beach in Miami Florida), date when the two criminals were apprehended (January 1st, 1960), dates when they were brought from this prison to that one and finally when they were brought to death’s row (April, 1960). Other small facts are also used by the author, like facts about the criminal’s early lives or experiences that they had, which could only have been obtained through extensive interviews with Perry and Dick. The use of all these logos by Capote establishes strong ethos, showing the reader that the author did more than enough research to show that he has the knowledge to write a whole book on the subject.
Many people dream about leaving everything behind and starting a new life, but it’s not as easy as it seems. Learning how to adapt to a new environment may be a challenge. In the book Into the Wild by Jon Krakauer, Christopher McCandless has no knowledge of the conditions he’s going to face when he arrives in Alaska. I would classify Christopher McCandless as a fearless crazy guy, because he leaves his well-shaped life behind. McCandless is not prepared for his expedition to Alaska, because he’s not familiar with the different lifestyles. Making all of these changes to his life like, detaching himself from his family and changing his name to Alexander Supertramp was a bad idea; because losing all of his connections means that he has no help from the people who really know him.
Dennis Covington writes about a unique method of worship—snake handling, in his memoir, Salvation on Sand Mountain. He begins as a journalist, looking in on this foreign way of life; however, as time progresses he increasing starts to feel a part of this lifestyle. As a result loses his journalistic approach, resulting in his memoir, detailing his own spiritual journey. Upon the conclusion of his stay in this world, Covington realizes the significance of this journey, and argues in his memoir that we cannot entirely know ourselves until we step outside of our comfort zone and separate ourselves from our norm.
In James McPherson’s novel, What They Fought For, a variety of Civil War soldier documents are examined to show the diverse personal beliefs and motives for being involved in the war. McPherson’s sample, “is biased toward genuine fighting soldiers” (McPherson, 17) meaning he discusses what the ordinary soldier fought for. The Confederacy was often viewed as the favorable side because their life style relied on the war; Confederates surrounded their lives with practices like slavery and agriculture, and these practices were at stake during the war. On the other hand, Northerners fought to keep the country together. Although the Civil War was brutal, McPherson presents his research to show the dedication and patriotism of the soldiers that fought and died for a cause.
The Appalachian mountaineers have been discovered and forgotten many times. Their primitive agriculture disrupted by foragers and incessant guerrilla warfare, thousands of them straggled out of the mountains in search of food and shelter. Their plight was brought to the attention of President Lincoln, who promised that after the war a way would be found to aid the poor mountain people whom the world had bypassed and forgotten for so long. The war ended, President Lincoln was assassinated, and so therefore Appalachia was forgotten. Appalachian people are considered a separate culture, made up of many unique backgrounds - Native Americans, Irish, English and Scotch, and then a third immigration of Germans and Poles - all blended together across the region. The mountains also figure into the uniqueness of Appalachia. The mountains kept Appalachia isolated from the rest of the country and from other people's involvement in their lives that they developed a distinctive culture. (arministry.org)
Much to the surprise of the author who knew that there were a few Yankee relatives that had come from the north after the war, the assumption that all the southern based families fought for the south was quickly dispelled with a little research. Interestingly enough the family stories were never very clear on issues of the war and the Yankees hidden in the history of a family that helped to tame the Arkansas, Texas and Oklahoma territory.
In Cold Blood is a true account of a multiple murder case that took place in Holcomb, Kansas in 1959, written by Truman Capote. Capote’s attention to detail causes the reader to gain an extreme interest in the Clutter family even though they were an ordinary family. The suspense that is a result of minimal facts and descriptive settings was an elaborate stylistic technique that gave effective results throughout the book. His ability to make this account of a horrid crime more than just a newspaper description was a great success as a base of his many literary devices, not just is great focus to small details.
Ultimate freedom is an odyssey everyone, at least once in their lifetime, tries to conquer. Chris McCandless did everything in his power to try and capture that freedom he was searching for. He ultimately gave up his own life during that quest. Did he find what he was searching for? We may never know. Very many people have diverse opinions on this character. Chris McCandless was not selfish. He was a young, well-educated boy. His parents handed him everything on a silver platter; he wanted to prove not only to himself but to everyone else he could do things on his own. His possessions did not define who he was as a person. He thought towards everyone else he was just another brick in the wall, a pretty rich boy, and that did not “fly” with him. He had to prove his worth.
Is society too egotistical? In Hunters in the Snow, Tobias Wolfe gives an illustration of the selfishness and self-centeredness of humankind through the actions of his characters. The story opens up with three friends going on their habitual hunting routine; their names are Frank, Kenny, and Tub. In the course of the story, there are several moments of tension and arguments that, in essence, exposes the faults of each man: they are all narcissistic. Through his writing in Hunters in the Snow, Wolfe is conveying that the ultimate fault of mankind is egotism and the lack of consideration given to others.
The death of one character, June, Albertine’s aunt, unites the Kashpaw and Lamartine families and shows the issues within them. As a young woman, Albertine witnesses situations involving domestic violence and poverty. The desperate manner of the lives of many Natives living on Reservations is shown throughout the novel. In White Men Fear to Tread, the life of Russell Means on and off of the Pine Ridge Reservation in South Dakota portrays many of the issues of Reservation life, especially today. Means describes his life experiences from growing up as a young man to being grown and going to find a job and later being a leader in the AIM movement and the struggles he experiences there. Works of literature such as these open the eyes of many people to the issues that exist on many Native American Reservations today, specifically to those who aren’t Native and are ignorant to what is happening really. For example, some people think that all Reservation Indians lack motivation and therefore don’t do anything in order to make something of themselves, but this isn’t necessarily true. There are various situations that Natives are exposed to and the conditions on many Reservations account for the habits which some people