Week #5: Cold Mountain

1. Week #5:Cold Mountain Professor Poyner-Del Vento

2. Kindly turn off • All cell phones • The wireless component of any laptop computers

3. Room for Exam • Exam is scheduled on Mon, June 13th, 12:30 to 1:30 p.m. • If your tutorial is D901, you will take your exam in SUR 5240 • If you have any other tutorial, you will take your exam in SUR 5280 • Short lecture about The Ghost Road, 1:50 to 2:20, in SUR 5280

4. Overview of lecture • Thesis statements and argumentation • Music • Order / Disorder • Exam review

5. Thesis statements and argumentation

6. Who is the audience for a scholarly essay about literature? • Other people who have read the novel • Scholars, professors, and students of literature

7. What is the purpose of a scholarly essay about literature? • To advance other readers’ understanding of the novel • To make an interpretation that isn’t obvious

8. A university-level literature essay is an argument • A literary argument • An interpretation • An evaluative judgment • A critical evaluation adapted from OWL Website: http://owl.english.purdue.edu/owl/resource/618/01/

9. An argument has a thesis • Thesis is the main idea and the author’s attitude toward it • Thesis is the main argument adapted from OWL Website: http://owl.english.purdue.edu/owl/resource/618/01/

10. Thesis statement • Specific, detailed • Reveals your perspective • Must be debatable (not everyone agrees with it) adapted from OWL Website: http://owl.english.purdue.edu/owl/resource/618/01/

11. Weak Thesis Statement • Cold Mountain is a historical novel that blends historical fact with a fictional story.

12. Stronger Thesis Statement • Cold Mountain has received widespread acclaim for its “literary” portrayal of the Civil War and its fine rendering of historical details. Interestingly, though, Frazier’s historical novel does not offer much insight into the tumultuous time period of the Civil War: the historical background is frequently subverted in order to emphasize the lack of change over time and the meaninglessness of history.

13. Weak Thesis Statement • In Cold Mountain’s epilogue, Ada is successfully raising Inman’s child despite Inman’s death from the Home Guard. However, she is not the only woman in the novel who has to parent a child alone; there are many other examples, including Laura, Lucinda, and Sara.

14. Stronger Thesis Statement • Cold Mountain’s epilogue could be interpreted as implying that the wounds of war are temporary and that society is always able to recover. However, Frazier undercuts this positive interpretation by providing, throughout the novel, examples of mother-child pairs that are left alone and vulnerable, thus suggesting that violence has far-reaching consequences.

15. A Thesis Need Support (Reasons) • How? • Why? • What are the implications? adapted from OWL Website: http://owl.english.purdue.edu/owl/resource/618/01/

16. Format for Proposal • A paragraph • Possibly format as a formal proposal: “For my essay, I will . . .” • Possibly format as an introductory paragraph • Summarize main argument, including a thesis statement

17. Format for Proposal • One paragraph that summarizes the main argument of the essay (approximately 6-8 sentences) • One Works Cited page, using MLA style • Optional: Acknowledgements page • Due dates are based on your tutorial dates • Mon, June 13 • Tue, June 14 • Also turn in via WebCT

18. Music

19. Stobrod’s music • “He first spent his attention on matters of tuning and fingering and phrasing. . . .By now he knew nine hundred fiddle tunes, some hundred of them being his own compositions.” (Frazier 295-296)

20. Music in Cold Mountain • Many songs are Christian hymns • Some songs are Celtic • Music can be both ancient and ephemeral

21. “Wayfaring Stranger” • “Her ears rang and her whole mind was filled with lines from the hymn Wayfaring Stranger” (Frazier 49) • “Ada tried to listen but could not focus her thoughts on Sally’s voice. In her mind she still saw the dark figure, and the brave phrases of the hymn sang on in her ears: ‘Traveling through this world below. No toil, no sick nor danger, in that fair land to which I go.’ She was sure the figure was important, though she could put no face to it.” (Frazier 49-50)

22. From “Wayfaring Stranger” • This version sung by Jack White • “I am a poor wayfaring strangerTraveling through this world aloneThere is no sickness, toil or dangerIn that fair land to which I goI’m going homeTo see my motherI’m going homeNo more to roamI am just going over JordanI am just going over home”

23. “When I Die” • “The Philadelphians had fallen not far above the cave, so Inman dragged them into it and sat them up together. . . . Nevertheless, he figured this might be a story he would never tell.” (Frazier 317-318)

24. From “When I Die” • This version sung by Doc Watson • “When I die, when I die, I’ll live again,I’ll live again, Hallelujah, I’ll live again.Because I’m forgiven, my soul will find heaven,When I die, when I die, I’ll live again, I’ll live again.The fear of the grave is removed forever,When I die, when I die, I’ll live again.My soul will rejoice by the crystal river,When I die, when I die, I’ll live again.”

25. Hymns • What do these songs have in common?

26. Hymns • How do these religious songs fit with the overall themes of the novel? • What’s their significance?

27. Folk Ballads • Secular, traditional, passed through generations • “Fair Margaret and Sweet William” (Frazier 321)

28. “Bonnie George Campbell” • Later, with twilight settling into the cove, they built up the fire and Stobrod took out his fiddle and played some variant he had made of Bonnie George Campbell, speeding it up and overlaying a dance jig. The children all ran around the fire and yelled. They were not dancing but just running to the music, and the girl waved a burning stick and made cursive shapes in the dim air with the yellow ember at its tip until Ada told her to stop it.” (Frazier 448)

29. From “Bonnie George Campbell” • This version sung by Silver Arm • “High upon Highlands and low upon TayBonnie George Campbell rode out on a dayWell, saddled and bridled so gallant is heHome came his good horse, but never came he. Down came his mother dear, greeting fo'sairOut came his bonnie bride, tearing her hair‘My meadow lies green and my corn is unshornMy barn is too big and my baby’s unborn!’”

30. Order / Disorder

31. Disorder • The U.S. Civil War • Death and loss

32. Attempts at order • Religion / spirituality • Consulting omens • Ancient cultures (Cherokee, Greek) • Music • Solitude • Companionship • Connection to the land

33. War as break from seasons • “Then he told her how this very morning he had found a late-bearing bush of huckleberries, dusty blue on their sunward faces, still green on their shady back halves. . . . So that morning he had looked at the berries and the birds and had felt cheered by them, happy that they had waited for him to come to his senses, even though he feared himself deeply at variance with such elements of the harmonious.” (Frazier 276-277)

34. Ada’s desire to mark seasons • “This evening she marked where the sun dove to the horizon, for over the weeks she had made a practice of noting its setting point on the ridge. . . . It would be an answer to the question, Where am I?” (Frazier 329-330) • Pages 448-449, in Epilogue, Ada has marked seasons by cutting trees in the ridge

35. Inman’s blending of seasons • “When she reached the place, the boy had already gathered up the horses and gone. . . . There was something he wanted to say.” (Frazier 445)

36. Exam review

37. Exam is open book and open notes • Must bring: • Pen or pencil • SFU student ID • Should bring: • Marked copy of the Cold Mountain • Notes from lecture • Close Reading sheet • Specially prepared notes for exam • Scrap paper

38. Exam is open book and open notes • Might bring: • Dictionary • Another book for reference (be sure to cite!) • CANNOT bring: • Anything electronic (e.g., laptop, electronic translator, cell phone) • Anything potentially noisy or distracting • Anything to share with classmates

39. Exam Format • 1 hour long • 2 questions, each worth 50%

40. Passage analysis • You will be given a choice of three passages from Cold Mountain. • Choose two. • For each passage you choose, write one or two paragraphs that analyzes the internal complexities and ambiguities of the material, offering your own interpretations. • Your analyses will probably discuss the passage’s significance to the entire book. • This paragraph should focus on an analysis of the passage, not merely a description of the passage or a list of observations about it.

41. Example passage “But before the dawn of day, feral hogs descended from the woods, drawn by the tang in the air. They plowed at the ground with their snouts and dug out arms and feet and heads, and soon Inman found himself uprooted, staring eye to eye, forlorn and hostile and baffled, into the long face of a great tushed boar. —Yaah, Inman said. The boar shied off a few feet and stopped and looked back at him dumbfounded, his little eyes blinking. Inman prised his length out of the ground. To rise and bloom again, that became his wish. When Inman worked his way upright once more, the boar lost interest and went back to grubbing at the ground. Inman cast back his head to the sky and found it did not look right. There were stars in it, but he could not reason out even one known constellation in the moonless sky. It looked as if someone had taken a stick and stirred it up so that no sense remained, just a smattering of light cast patternless on the general dark.” (Frazier 228-229)

42. Example of a mediocre analysis This passage is about when Inman and the other deserters are shot by the Home Guard and left for dead. However, Inman is still alive, and just before dawn he pulls himself out of his shallow grave. This scene takes place at night, which adds to its spooky tone. The passage contains an interesting simile about Inman’s inability to recognize the constellations: the sky “looked as if someone had taken a stick and stirred it up so that no sense remained” (Frazier 229). The stars look so confusing because Inman has been injured and is disoriented.

43. Example of a stronger analysis At first glance, this passage appears to be about the senselessness of death. This interpretation is supported the description of the night sky, in which Inman could not recognize a single constellation: “no sense remained, just a smattering of light cast patternless on the general dark.” Stars can be used for navigation, so Inman’s inability to recognize the constellations represents that he feels lost, literally and spiritually. Stars are also believed to have supernatural influence over human events; if they are senseless and “patternless,” then it follows that human life also has no meaning. However, this grim interpretation is undercut by the novel’s strong Christian imagery. This passage echoes the situation at the beginning of the (continued on next slide)

44. Example of a stronger analysis (continued from previous slide) book, in which Inman recovers from a wound so bad that his friends and doctors considered him to be dying. In the current scene, Inman’s resurrection is even more explicit; he literally digs himself out of his own grave. This repeated depiction of death and rebirth closely mirrors the Christian teaching that true believers will be resurrected after their deaths. Here, Inman is a representative of the immortal soul. This scene can be understood as a Christian allegory that suggests that there is indeed a divine plan, even if humans do not understand it.

45. Another example of stronger analysis This passage describes a gruesome scene in which Inman pulls himself out of a mass grave, and it greatly resembles Inman’s recurring nightmare in which the dead soldiers from the Battle of Fredericksburg reanimate themselves. However, the language used in this passage is not ghoulish. Instead, it links Inman’s emergence from the grave to natural cycles of death and rebirth. Inman desires to “rise and bloom again,” much like a plant that withers in the winter but is reborn in the spring. Inman’s resurrection is also linked to daily cycles of the sun: he pulls himself out of the dirt “before the dawn of day” and later frees himself from his shackles just as the sun rises. In this way, death and life are associated with night and day—they are presented as cyclical, natural states. In fact, these four paragraphs contain no manmade objects at all—everything is a plant, an animal, or a naturally occurring entity—suggesting that Inman’s “rebirth” is intrinsically linked to the natural world.

46. Tips for the exam

47. Room for Exam • Exam is scheduled on Mon, June 13th, 12:30 to 1:30 p.m. • If your tutorial is D901, you will take your exam in SUR 5240 • If you have any other tutorial, you will take your exam in SUR 5280 • Short lecture about The Ghost Road, 1:50 to 2:20, in SUR 5280

48. The Ghost Road Read until page 46 by next lecture Good luck on your exam! Good luck on your proposal!