Inman

Charles Frazier’s //Cold Mountain// tells the story of Inman, a Confederate soldier, and his journey home after being wounded during the Civil War. The novel is seen through Inman’s journey and the life of Ada, the woman that Inman loves who awaits him at Cold Mountain. Both characters struggle to redefine their role in society; however, Inman’s readjustment proves to be drastically more difficult than Ada’s. Inman’s journey home is filled with philosophical questioning and inward strife as her attempts to comprehend the horrors he has committed and seen. The quest Inman participates in is cleansing in nature as he focuses solely on reaching Cold Mountain and being with his true love Ada. His journey, however, ends in tragedy as Inman is shot shortly after reaching his home and he dies in the lap of his lover. Inman functions throughout the novel under the archetypal role of a flawed hero, similar to Gawian. Inman fits the first criterion of the flawed hero in that he is simply human. He is subject to the same devices as those who share his trials and tribulations and Inman, by no means, receives preferential treatment from deities. Inman constantly falls victim to human emotion and rational, and he uses his humanity as the basis of his philosophical questioning. Inman has witnessed an astounding number of atrocities, and he displays his humanity be questioning the purpose behind such horrific events. Inman’s humanity is represented by his relative purity amidst a world defined by violence and hate. The physical location of his home is representative of a personal heaven in the midst of hell. Inman has the human quality of a longing for home. To Inman, Cold Mountain is as escape from a world he describes as “frequently foul,” and this description shows that Inman is down-to-earth and relatively base in nature (Frazier 23). All he wants in life after being subjected to participate in the incessant fighting during the Civil War is to go home to a women he loves. This wish is a key aspect of humanity that allowed for the development of civilization to occur. God’s wishes are never so low as to simply go home, because they have the gift of immortality, in most cases. Inman is a simple man who is thrust into an epic journey home only so he can reunite with the women he loves in the place he loves. While Inman’s humanity proves to be the driving force behind his journey home, Inman’s humanity leaves him susceptible to flaws that almost prove to be deadly. Inman begins his journey by running from death and murder; however, Inman’s flaw is that his flight from violence is often facilitated by violence on his own part. Inman is so driven to escape the horrors of the war and reach his “heaven” that he is willing to use whatever means necessary to reach Cold Mountain and Ada. Inman worries that his heart had been too often “touched by the fire” of death and murder that he may never be able to cleanse his memory (Frazier 230). The internal struggle that occurs when choosing between killing someone and not killing someone has been diluted within Inman, leaving him to see few moral issues with the taking of a life. Inman’s humanity leaves him susceptible to this lack of regard for human life. He was trained to kill, and through training he became proficient at killing- no different than a fisherman becoming proficient at catching fish through repeated practice. Inman’s flaw is displayed as he attempts to overcome the many mental and physical obstacles he faces as he on his journey home. Inman’s life is consistently threatened as he encounters dangerous men along his journey home, and Inman is successful in overcoming all obstacles he is faced with. The disregard Inman shows for the taking of a human life for the sake of reaching his home allows him to approach many situations with courage and resolve to overcome them. The mental struggles Inman faces are often approached with more fear. The mental obstacles Inman must overcome are the complex in nature because Inman wants to forget the horrors he has seen yet at the same time those horrors help to make him the man he is. The trepidation Inman shows when confronting his mental obstacles is evident in his thoughts as he states that you “carry your scars with you” (Frazier 421). The fear Inman shows toward conquering his internal struggles is representative of Inman’s faith in himself faltering; however, Inman overcomes both mental and physical obstacles because his faith in a better world never falters.

How to Think Like Inman:

Hero Type: Flawed Hero Role: Philosophical and Metaphysical Questioning of Society and the World as a Whole

1. Question the devices of Society.

“He had grown so used to seeing death, walking among the dead, sleeping among them, numbering himself calmly as among the near-dead, that it seemed no longer dark and mysterious.” (Pg. 229-230)

Inman is immersed in death and he begins to wonder why these men must die, and what exactly they must die for. The death Inman sees is unnatural and he has no answer as to why people kill one another at the command from so-called superiors. The example above shows that Inman often questions the motives of society because he is consistently surrounded by the effects of the devices of men.

2. Entertain long, complex thoughts that contemplate philosophical topics such as life vs. death, right vs. wrong, and heaven vs. hell.

“But he could not abide by a universe composed only of what he could see, especially when it was so frequently foul. 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.” (Pg. 23)

The entirety of Inman’s internal struggles consists of thoughts similar to the example above. The philosophical nature of Inman’s thoughts show that Inman has a deeper side to him, and the external actions that he displays do not necessarily coincide with his internal sense of right and wrong. The complexity of Inman’s internal struggles give his journey meaning and purpose and make Inman’s life story significant in a thematic sense.

3. Employ short, transitional thoughts that aid in returning metaphysical contemplations to reality.

“All your grief hasn’t changed a thing.”

While Inman does delve into deep philosophical questions, his thoughts are always returned to reality by very short sentences the snap the reader back to the natural world. These short thoughts allow the longer, more complex contemplations to be applied to the situation at hand. The shorter sentences are transitions because they aid in showing how Inman’s philosophy applies to his life and the current situation that he is attempting to conquer.

4. Use vivid diction.

“He feared his heart had been touched by the fire so often he might never make a civilian again.” (Pg. 230)

The word choice of fire makes Inman’s situation appear to be all the more dire because the “fire” of death is burning his soul. The negative association used in the sentence shows Inman’s internal feelings toward the situation that he is currently in and the effect that it has on his psyche. Inman feels as if the horrors he has witnessed will change him forever and that the damage done to his soul is irreversible.

5. Create effective imagery.

“You’re left with only your scars to mark the void.” (Pg. 421)

The imagery of a scar to represent the visions and memories that Inman has regarding the war shows the impact they have has on his life. The image of a scar shows that the war is forever a part of Inman, no matter what he attempts to do to run from it. The scars that are his memories will forever haunt him because they will never be forgotten.

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