Cold Mountain
Chapter 19: Analysis of the far side of trouble
Frazier opens his chapter with Stobrod waking up, but falling back to unconsciousness because of his injuries from Teague, and Inman following suit because of his fatigue. Ruby and Ada are left to build a fire and cook on their own. When Inman wakes up, he assists the wounded Stobrod, and goes to eat the chicken stew Ruby made. Now alone with the new Ada he hasnt fully met, he tries to bring up conversation. Inman reads a passage from Bartrams Travels, and gets embarrassed when the passage turns out to include sex. They start to talk of the past, to catch up on what happened when they werent together. Inman brings up marriage to be something not so possible now that he has been damaged so much, emotionally and spiritually. But Ada, from her experience of herbs and nature, concludes: I know people can be mended. I dont see why not you. (420) While they continue talking, their conversation of past and future is interrupted by Ruby who says Stobrods fever is down right now but still keeps rising and falling. The next morning, Inman and Ada go hunting. Though they dont find any game, they discover an old Indian arrowhead stuck in a tree, and they dream of returning there in the future with their family. When they return to camp, Ruby tells them that Stobrods fever is back up. Night will be the crisis, I believe. Hell stay or go, but tonight will be the deciding of it. (428) Ruby stays with Stobrod to care and heal him, so Ada goes into Inmans hut to sleep with him. The world was such an incredibly lonely place, and to lie down beside him, skin to skin, seemed the only cure. (429) Later in the night, they discuss once again their past experiences and hopes for the future.
This chapter incorporates love and time as its major theme. Inman and Ada sit in the hut feeling uncomfortable and awkward because they dont really know how to respond to each other now that each individual has grown into a different person over time. But it is their love for each other that keeps them interested and together, which is ironically shown by Bartrams passage of sexual love. Their love for each other pushes them to talk about their past and future another relation of love and time. While hunting, they find an old Indian arrowhead - a symbol of history and past life - and they decide to bring their family to that spot in the future. Ada and Inmans sexual actions not only represent their love for each other, it also literally creates future with Ada having a child. They were also in an old Indian hut when this took place, symbolizing the past that is all around them. The Time and Love motif is intertwined throughout the chapter, each concept depending on the other. It is through Adas and Inmans love that they can conquer time: They could think in one part of their minds that their whole lives stretched out before them without boundary or limit. (434) But if it werent for the time that wasnt spent together but spent in growing and becoming better individuals, both characters would have never reached the balanced and perfected humans they now are: Ada finding peace in both art and nature, Inman conquering battles both physically and morally. It is only through Time and Love that they become whole as individuals and one as a couple.
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