Parallelism In Cold Mountain

The book Cold Mountain was written in 1997 and won the author Charles Frazier U.S. National Book Award for Fiction. Frazier used his knowledge of the land surrounding his North Carolina home to create scenery for the entire novel. Frazier also took inspiration from the works of Ralph Waldo Emerson, William Faulkner, and Walt Whitman. Along with writing styles of other authors, Frazier alluded to countless titles throughout the book to connect/show how the character was feeling in correlation with the book, poem, or play being alluded to. The story incorporates Greek and Latin classical literary techniques which help justify the book as being called an odyssey. The storyline which tells the viewpoint of the two main characters, Inman and

The combination of parallelism and antithesis along with symbolism littered throughout the story help transform the novel from a story of war and defeat to a tale of peace and triumph in romantic literary tradition (McCarron and

While these are all legitimate approaches to the story of a Civil War deserter trying to get back to his love and his home at the base of Cold Mountain in North Carolina, they are also mainly literary and text level in form, using traditional critical methods and techniques (Gifford). Charles Frazier wrote this civil war era love story based on much of his own research. The landscape, language, and events that take place within the story reflect his idea of what the time was like. His work is full of allusions, symbolism, and double meanings. The parallelism included within the novel helps to connect the books and stories being alluded to, to the characters and their actions and feelings during the story. The way the story was written with alternating chapters to show the disconnect and difference between Inman and Ada’s lives, as he travels a treacherous journey to reunite with his true love. Frazier also seems to downplay much of the major issues of the time. Slavery is hardly mentioned, and when it is it appears insignificantly. Instead he decides to highlight the relationship between