Cold Mountain-Charles Frazier: Literature Analysis

1.         Cold Mountain begins by introducing the protagonist of the novel, who the reader only knows as 'Inman'. He is lying in a Virginia hospital ward recovering from a wound he obtained in war. Inman struggles with the violence he has witnessed while fighting for the Confederate Army, both physically and mentally. He wants to go home to a simpler life and reunite with Ada, a woman he had to leave behind due to the war.

   Inman begins his journey to North Carolina. Along the way he is accompanied by a preacher-turned-murderer, until his death somewhere east of where they started. During Inman’s travels, Ada is also introduced. She lives almost alone on an inherited farm, hoping and fearing Inman’s return.

  Inman is found in a shallow grave by a kind slave who points him back to the man who turned him in to the soldiers (the same that killed his first travel companion). After killing him, Inman travels on and comes across a couple of lonely women. Although he identifies with both, he concludes that isolation is not his forte and keeps going.

   Ada and her company continue to be content with their simple, domestic lifestyle. She and her band of misfits occasionally happen across some wayward soldiers, but generally continue on undisturbed.

   Inman eventually reaches Black Cove Farm, but is ambushed in the home stretch of his journey. Ada hears the shots, finds Inman, and holds him in her lap as he dies.

   The epilogue (set a good ten years later) depicts Ada and the family she has made herself from a Georgia farm boy, their three sons, and a daughter by Inman settling down for a night filled with stories and fiddle music.

2.         There are two themes for Cold Mountain: Isolation and Loneliness and Faith and Intuition versus Knowledge.

·        Isolation and Loneliness: The two protagonists experience a extended sense of isolation from their surroundings and culture, and loneliness in the absence of each other. Ada is generally content, but recalls her feelings upon her arrival at Black Cove Farm, directly following her father’s death and consistent separation from others in Charleston society. Likewise, Inman feels a profound isolation due to his war experiences, and feels he can no longer identify with the rest of humanity. Contrary to the identical isolation Inman has in comparison to Ada, his character is not alienated from society. He recognizes his isolated feelings are from missing Ada, because no one can replace her in his mind.

·         Faith and Intuition versus Knowledge: Again, both protagonists show similarity in their views. Inman sees the traditional Christian church as superficial and self-important in comparison to the cultural traditions of the ancient Cherokee Indians. Inman ends up shaping a personal faith taking the best of -in his mind- Christianity, Cherokee beliefs, and personal creed with consideration of gained wisdom and intuition. Similarly, Ada questions the concept of faith practiced through Christianity and her father’s rigid practice. She begins to center her ‘faith’ on nature and tries to mesh it with the concept of a higher power. Ultimately, she concludes that the tangible world around her is all that there is.

3.      The tone throughout the novel changes with the change of character, and with the characters themselves. For the most part, the tone for both perspectives are searching either for peace or belonging:

·        Inman: “Cold Mountain . . . soared in his mind as a place where all his scattered forces might gather. Inman did not consider himself to be a superstitious person, but he did believe that there is a world invisible to us. He no longer thought of that world as heaven, nor did he still think that we get to go there when we die. Those teachings had been burned away. But he could not abide by a universe composed only of what he could see, especially when it was so frequently foul.” Ch1

-“He had grown so used to seeing death . . . that it seemed no longer dark and mysterious. He feared his heart had been touched by the fire so often he might never make a civilian again.” Ch7

·        Ada: “[Ada] believed she would erect towers on the ridge marking the south and north points of the sun’s annual swing. . . . Keeping track of such a thing would place a person, would be a way of saying, You are here, in this one station, now. It would be an answer to the question, Where am I?”