Tolog Review: Cold Mountain

Cold Mountain
by Charles Frazier
reviewed by Julia Powers

Cold Mountain, a novel by Charles Frazier, takes place during the booming Civil War, just after the Battle at Petersburg. Although this story proceeds with the war, it does not focus on it, but instead on the struggling journey of two individuals, Inman and Ada.

Inman’s hopeless journey begins with him waking to flies buzzing around the wound on his neck. The pungent hospital ward holds many, all of them carrying their own dire stories of battle. Tired of the ward and the grief that surrounded it, Inman climbs out of the window and sets foot escaping not only the army, but also the troubling memories imprinted in his being. Along with the escape it provided to Ada, Inman’s journey offers him a chance for spiritual awakening. Inman starts out a tortured and troubled man, and as he progresses he becomes a truly calmer individual. Through Inman, Charles Frazier recognizes the importance of self-growth and positive change and also how much a person can overcome with determination.

The female protagonist, Ada Monroe, a highly educated and literate woman, begins writing a letter on her porch to her beloved Inman not long after her father passed. Because she does not know how to run the farm that her father left behind, food is scarce in the house and Ada is forced to look for hidden eggs among the acres of land. A belligerent rooster attacks Ada and she once again walks to the Swangers’ household in hopes for a meal. Soon after, a stranger, later identified as Ruby, treads up to Ada’s front door sent by the Swangers themselves. She offers her assistance to help Ada run the farm properly with only one condition; she is not treated as a servant. Many chapters later, with the help from Ruby, Ada adapts from her sheltered life to welcoming both the pain and joy of hard work. Over time she shows how being close to nature brings in the world’s cycles of life.

Inman and Ada’s journey of finding each other seems to be completely diverse. Inman learns to overcome his horrific past while Ada learns to pull her head out of a book and put her hands in the dirt. But while their paths seem different, both of the characters share a similar universal idea; loneliness in a search for meaning in a world of war. Both internalize their grief and regret from the past. Because of his haunting memories of the war, Inman starts out in spiritual isolation. In the novel, Inman realizes that he seeks Ada and her company to fulfill his internal loneliness. Through Ada’s journey she realizes the alienation she felt from her father’s passing and from moving from Charleston to her present home near Cold Mountain. She overcomes this by learning about what the world can offer; instead of taking and taking the world can give and give.