Cold Mountain

The effect created in the passage from Cold Mountain leaves a profound effect on the reader. The author uses a multitude of connotative diction and specific word choices to describe setting, characters and moods. The mood is set off from the start and flows well into the end. Charles Frazier uses detailed imagery when describing the house, the 3-legged dog, the knapsack and the smokehouse. When describing the house, he mentions that it is slanted, indicating that things are out of balance. The 3-legged dog also signifies an unbalance in the setting.He gives the home â€Å"toadlike† characteristics, describing that it is nasty, slimy and unpleasant. From this description, it gives the reader a mysterious and timid feeling from the beginning of the passage. To further emphasize this feeling, when describing the dog, Frazier explains that’s it comes out of its den like a wild animal and â€Å"snatches† its bone like a wolf. He further elucidates that it is a wild pl ace with savage creatures that dwell within it. Further in the passage, Frazier tells how Inman follows the dog to the back of the house onto the porch.Immediately, Inman begins to rummage around for a gun. He â€Å"thrusts† his arm through a wood stack to find the LeMat pistol. This gives the reader the impression that Inman is very angry, and wants to do something with the gun, such as seeking revenge. While the gun was in Inman’s hand, Frazier explains that it was like a tonic to feel the weight of the pistol. This also gives us an insight to how furious and angrily unstable Inman is. The author proceeds to describe the smokehouse, where Inman in headed to.He describes the bayonet â€Å"stobbed† into the dirt floor, how packed the room was and how there was so much grease everywhere that the flame cast glints off it. This could easily be depicted as a parallel to describing hell in another fashion. Frazier details every action in this scene. For example, he e xplains how Inman steps into the light to be seen purposely, but how Junior doesn’t fully recognize him. The mood given to the reader in this section of the passage is suspenseful, as we know that Inman is furious and has a gun, unknowing of what will happen next.Frazier then tells how Inman instead of shooting and killing Junior, hits him repeatedly with the butt of the gun until he lay motionless. This has a profound effect on the reader giving insight that Inman was so enraged, that he felt the need to physically kill Junior to satisfy his revenge. The mood quickly changes to brutality and malicious. The reader feels a sense of shock due to the viciousness of the murder. Frazier wraps up the passage by describing how the blood gathers in a pool around Junior on the â€Å"black earth† of the smokehouse floor.What can clearly be identified within the text is that Charles Frazier does just about everything perfectly to create the effect that the reader experiences. Fro m the use of connotative diction to the vivid imagery created, Frazier excels in setting the tone of the passage to the reader. The sentence structure that the author chooses sets up the passage by separating up the three main events. Each event leads to the other cleanly and flows seamlessly. Charles Frazier’s style of writing not only leaves an intense effect on the reader, but also manages to illustrate his work using words to make a clear visualization. Cold Mountain On the surface, Cold Mountain is the tale of a man trying to find his way home. However, once looked at in more detail, it is seen as a story of a man looking for faith. From the very first step, Inman’s journey is one of faith, a faith that he has lost in the Civil War and is on the road to recovering. We know little of Inman's life prior to his journey, but what we do learn tells us that he was at one point a Christian. In his youth he had been taught, and he believed in, the basics of the Christian faith. Specifically, he believed in heaven, the immortality of soul, and that we are all children of God. Cold Mountain is the story of a man who has undergone a traumatic experience, the likes of which has stolen away from him all optimism and hope for a better tomorrow. However, as Inman plans to step out the window of the hospital and begin his journey home, his faith in God seems to wither away. The horrors of what he has experienced in the war have â€Å"burned away† (page 36) his Christian faith. He no longer believes in the easy answers to the problems of life given by Christians. His faith is further questioned when he meets Veasey, the preacher who has impregnated his lover and who attempts to murder her in order to cover it up. Even after Veasey is discovered and thrown out of town, claiming to be a changed man through God, his life does not show evidence of this. He goes on to rob a store and sleep with a prostitute. Upon these activities, Inman states that many preachers are just like Veasey. They claim to be able to save the worst of sinners, and yet can’t save themselves. This hypocritical lifestyle was a major contributing factor to Inman losing his faith. Inman's spiritual struggle is not merely a battle with his own inner demons. Inman's main struggle is with God himself, claiming to feel like an abused child of God. In a conversation with a blind man, he was stunned to discover that no person had put out the man's eyes. He had been born that way. He then asked himself, â€Å"How did you find someone to hate for a thing that just was? â€Å". (page 82) Throughout this story, we learn that when faced with situations like this Inman blames God. He holds God responsible for the way things are. For example, when Inman travels through the woods and sees a meteor shower, he is convinced that it has been aimed at him. He looks at any unfortunate situation as a deliberate attempt by God to bring him pain. Throughout Cold Mountain, Inman faces many obstacles that question his faith. Having lost it from the beginning, these obstacles only further convince him that God is not now or ever looking out for him. Only after facing all of these obstacles does he finally find redemption in his faith through the trials of life. Cold Mountain On the surface, Cold Mountain is the tale of a man trying to find his way home. However, once looked at in more detail, it is seen as a story of a man looking for faith. From the very first step, Inman’s journey is one of faith, a faith that he has lost in the Civil War and is on the road to recovering. We know little of Inman's life prior to his journey, but what we do learn tells us that he was at one point a Christian. In his youth he had been taught, and he believed in, the basics of the Christian faith. Specifically, he believed in heaven, the immortality of soul, and that we are all children of God. Cold Mountain is the story of a man who has undergone a traumatic experience, the likes of which has stolen away from him all optimism and hope for a better tomorrow. However, as Inman plans to step out the window of the hospital and begin his journey home, his faith in God seems to wither away. The horrors of what he has experienced in the war have â€Å"burned away† (page 36) his Christian faith. He no longer believes in the easy answers to the problems of life given by Christians. His faith is further questioned when he meets Veasey, the preacher who has impregnated his lover and who attempts to murder her in order to cover it up. Even after Veasey is discovered and thrown out of town, claiming to be a changed man through God, his life does not show evidence of this. He goes on to rob a store and sleep with a prostitute. Upon these activities, Inman states that many preachers are just like Veasey. They claim to be able to save the worst of sinners, and yet can’t save themselves. This hypocritical lifestyle was a major contributing factor to Inman losing his faith. Inman's spiritual struggle is not merely a battle with his own inner demons. Inman's main struggle is with God himself, claiming to feel like an abused child of God. In a conversation with a blind man, he was stunned to discover that no person had put out the man's eyes. He had been born that way. He then asked himself, â€Å"How did you find someone to hate for a thing that just was? â€Å". (page 82) Throughout this story, we learn that when faced with situations like this Inman blames God. He holds God responsible for the way things are. For example, when Inman travels through the woods and sees a meteor shower, he is convinced that it has been aimed at him. He looks at any unfortunate situation as a deliberate attempt by God to bring him pain. Throughout Cold Mountain, Inman faces many obstacles that question his faith. Having lost it from the beginning, these obstacles only further convince him that God is not now or ever looking out for him. Only after facing all of these obstacles does he finally find redemption in his faith through the trials of life.