Transcript Theme “Maintianence” Cold Mountain

Theme “Maintenance”
“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. He feared his heart had
been touched by the fire so often he
might never make a civilian again.” ~180
“Should you still possess the
likeness I sent four years ago, I ask you,
please, do not look at it. I currently
bear it no resemblance in either form
or spirit.” ~194
Can you contextualize these passages?
What theme are they exemplifying?
Photo Citation
http://news.yale.edu/2012/09/11/yale-historian-david-blight-featureddocumentary-death-and-civil-war
One’s soul can be depleted by life’s hardship,
and must be fed and nourished to survive.
“Swimmer knew of a
few ways to kill the
soul of an enemy
and many ways to
protect your own.
His spells portrayed
the spirit as a frail
thing, constantly
under attack and in
need of strength,
always threatening
to die inside you.” ~
14
http://megafish23-blog.blogspot.com/2012_02_01_archive.html
Theme “maintenance”
cont.
“Look there, he said. He tipped his head back to
take in Cold Mountain, where all was yet wintery
and drab as a slate shingle. Inman stood looking
up at the mountain and told her a story about
it… ~196
“She claimed to be 135 years old and to
remember a time before any white man had yet
come to this territory… ~197
“And she worried that she had rudely dismissed
Inman’s story, had not summoned the wit at the
time to see that it had not been about an old
woman but about his own fears and desires.” ~
200.
“He thought on homeland, the big timber, the air
thin and chill all the year long.” ~ 65
Can you contextualize these passages? What theme do they exemplify?
Multiple possibilities here…
“Hands of God
and Adam”
1 – The idea of deliverance is
ever present in the novel, be it
subtly like the help of protective
stranger (the yellow slave), the
voice in the dark (the night Ruby
is caught in the bush), or more
overtly, as in a life-renewing gift
like Ruby (for Ada), or the
prophet-like stranger from the
Shining Rocks (for the village of
Cold Mountain).
Michelangelo.
1509. Sistine
Chapel. Italy.
2 – Home functions as a
sustaining spring for Inman,
the place he draws strength
from, that which he measures
all other settings against.
The Appalachian Trial, Virginia.