Cold Mountain (1997) (edit title/settings)

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Summary edit see section history

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Characters edit see section history

• Inman: He is the main male protagonist. He got a neck wound from fighting in the Civil War and is making his way back to Ada, the female protagonist. He is very cynical towards other people, the war, religion, and organized society in general.
• Ada: main female character - Ada loves reading, painting, thinking, and writing. She lived a sheltered upbringing, and when her father Monroe dies, she is left orphaned and unable to care for herself. She is stubborn and optimistic and free-spirited.
• Tim: guy gets neck wound
• Stobrod Thewes: Ruby's father. A laze about that never really took care of Ruby and then went off to fight in the war which he later ran away from.
• Monroe: Ada's father. He is dead when the novel starts out, but the reader learns all about him throughout the novel.

Quotes edit see section history

• “We have against all odds arrived at home, Monroe had said. At the time, it was a sentiment Ada took with a great deal of skepticism. All of their Charleston friends had expressed the opinion that the mountain region was a heathenish part of creation . . . Ada’s informants had claimed the mountaineers to be but one step more advanced in their manner of living than tribes of vagrant savages.”

  This passage is from the second chapter of the book, “the ground beneath her hands,” and it depicts Ada recalling what her father, Monroe, said the night they first arrived in Cold Mountain.

• “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.”

  These lines come from the first chapter of the novel, “the shadow of a crow,” in which Inman convalesces in an army hospital before setting out on his epic journey home to Cold Mountain.

• “But what the wisdom of the ages says is that we do well not to grieve on and on. And those old ones knew a thing or two and had some truth to tell. . . . You’re left with only your scars to mark the void. All you can choose to do is go on or not. But if you go on, it’s knowing you carry your scars with you.”

  This passage comes from the chapter “the far side of trouble,” when Inman and Ada have been reunited and are hiding out with Ruby and the injured Stobrod at the old “Indian” village.

• “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?”

  As Ada and Ruby lay down roots at Black Cove in the chapter “a satisfied mind,” Ada’s identification with the natural environment intensifies.

• “But what the wisdom of the ages says is that we do well not to grieve on and on. And those old ones knew a thing or two and had some truth to tell. . . . You’re left with only your scars to mark the void. All you can choose to do is go on or not. But if you go on, it’s knowing you carry your scars with you.”

  This passage comes from the chapter “the far side of trouble,” when Inman and Ada have been reunited and are hiding out with Ruby and the injured Stobrod at the old “Indian” village.

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• Our minds aren't made to hold on to the particulars of pain the way we do bliss. It's a gift God gives us, a sign of His care for us.

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• What would be the cost of not having an enemy? Who could you strike for retribution other than yourself?

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• 'We mark some days as fair, some as foul, because we do not see that the character of every day is identical.'

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• Everything added meant something lost, and about as often as not the thing lost was preferable to the thing gained, so that over time we'd be lucky if we just broke even. Any thought otherwise was empty pride.

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• Every vile deed he had witnessed lately had been at the hand of a human agent, so he had about forgot that there was a whole other order of misfortune.

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• Marrying a woman for her beauty makes no more sense than eating a bird for its singing. But it's a common mistake nonetheless.

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• Anyone could be oracle for the random ways things fall against each other. It was simple enough to tell fortunes if a man dedicated himself to the idea that the future will inevitably be worse than the past and that time is a path leading nowhere but a place of deep and persistent threat.

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• To Ada, though, it seemed akin to miracle that Stobrod, of all people, should offer himself up as proof positive that no matter what a waste one has made of one's life, it is ever possible to find some path to redemption, however partial.

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• So he held to the idea of another world, a better place, and he figured he might as well consider Cold Mountain to be the location of it as anywhere.

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• And then she thought that you went on living one day after another, and in time you were somebody else, your previous self only like a close relative, a sister or brother, with whom you shared a past. But a different person, a separate life.

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Setting & Locations edit see section history

• Charleston

First Sentence edit see section history

Table of Contents edit see section history

Themes & Symbolism edit see section history

• Forked Roads and Crossings: Forked roads feature prominently in the text. Inman is often required to choose a direction or to take some course of action directed by the road ahead. Crossings symbolize the boundaries Inman traverses between the realms of the terrestrial and the spiritual.
• The Crow: Remaining true to its own cunning, the crow is a shifting and ambiguous symbol. Inman strongly identifies with this bird, looking to it with envy as a creature of independence, freed from the constraints that the world imposes. Ruby highlights the crow’s merits when she points out its resilience and tremendous capacity for survival. While the crow suggests doom and destruction, it also demonstrates the dark instincts troubling man’s soul.
• Seasonal Changes and Rotations: Frazier uses seasonal variation as an allegorical device to reflect the development of his characters. Ada, Inman, and Ruby seem to evolve in connection with nature’s changes and cycles. Inman recognizes that his path is not strictly linear as he heads toward a place where past and present will meet. He even notes that his journey will be “the axle of my life.” The revolving motion Inman experiences is underscored by the novel’s treatment of time. Ada and Inman are haunted by memories—of themselves, each other, and their past—that bind them together and sustain their hope for the future.The cycles of time are mirrored by nature’s rhythms. The night sky represents a cosmic map that might foretell future events. Inman frequently observes Orion’s path across the heavens and plots his own course by the location of sun and moon. As winter comes around, death settles on the landscape with an intensity that foreshadows Inman’s own death.
• Isolation in the Search for Meaning: The loneliness that many of the characters in the novel experience informs their search for meaning in a world torn by war and hardship. For example, Ada and Inman bury their feelings of isolation, just as they internalize their grief, regret, and hope for the future. Ada grows to feel content and secure at Black Cove but recalls the alienation she felt both on first arriving and immediately after her father’s funeral. She also recollects her sense of estrangement from Charleston society. Similarly, Inman feels a sense of profound loneliness and growing misidentification with the human world because of his war experiences. His spiritual desolation is suggested when he listens to many people’s tales of hardship but rarely shares details of his own past. Through his loneliness Inman cultivates an otherworldly spirituality, similar in many ways to the goat-woman’s, that encourages people to talk. Frazier shows how Inman’s solitude is not simply a physical state—it is a psychic introspection born from a need to find meaning in what appears to be a senseless existence.However separated Inman feels from the human world, his character is not alienated from society. Even while he searches nature for some overarching spiritual truth, Inman recognizes that he seeks the solace of Ada’s company. His journey becomes a solitary spiritual quest for communion with a greater power.
• Knowledge and Intuition: The novel examines the area where intuition and knowledge overlap, particularly as this intersection touches on peoples’ religious beliefs. The intellectual dictates of Christian society are seen as haughty and somewhat artificial in comparison to the oral traditions and cultural wisdom of more ancient civilizations and those with a connection to the land. Although he is not conventionally religious, Inman follows the Cherokee belief in a spiritual world. Inman uses these tales to intuit truths from nature—as demonstrated by his identification with the crow and the mountains of his homeland. Thus, Frazier shows Inman shaping his own conception of personal faith with reference to both received wisdom and intuition.Ada re-evaluates both her intellectual and religious life in order to understand the relationship between objective knowledge and spirituality. Initially, she questions the merits of intellectualism in light of knowledge gleaned from sensory understanding. As the novel progresses, Ada embraces all that the land offers. She renounces the absolute authority of books in favor of intuition. Ultimately, she starts questioning her father’s religious beliefs, concluding that the world around her is all that there is.Generally, the characters balance an awareness and appreciation of received wisdom with intuition. They share a belief in their land and express this belief with reference to Christian doctrine, Cherokee tales, or their own personal creeds.
• Dark-haired Women: For Inman, dark-haired women symbolize Ada, the woman to whom he is returning. Each dark-haired woman is brave, self-sufficient and captivating. These women seem to act as beacons or markers along Inman’s journey, leading him home to Ada.

Series & Lists edit see section history

Preceded by The Partner, and followed by The Ghost.

Preceded by The Great Gatsby, and followed by The Assistant.

Authors & Contributors edit see section history

1. Charles Frazier (Author) - Charles Frazier is also the reader of the unabridged audio cassette edition from Books On Tape

First Edition edit see section history

Awards edit see section history

• National Book Award (1997: Fiction, Winner)
• National Book Critics Circle Award (Finalist, 1997: Fiction)
• Exclusive Books Boeke Prize (1998)

Classification edit see section history

• Library of Congress: PS3556.R3599 C6 1997
• Dewey: 813.54

Subjects edit see section history

• Books › Literature & Fiction › Genre Fiction › Historical
• Books › Literature & Fiction › Literary

Movie Connections edit see section history

• Cold Mountain (IMDb): 2003