This piece was a practice essay I did leading up to the Advanced Placement Literature Exam. I’ve been told that I am skilled at analyzing stories and writing about them in a short amount of time. While I don’t have the reference writing available, here is my reaction to it.

When the mind doesn’t match its environment, the stress it can cause can be devastating. That’s how Inman feels in Charles Frazier’s novel Cold Mountain, where a soldier is recovering from war only to be sent back to that hellscape. Inman’s once quite mind is plagued by stress and PTSD from the Civil war and has turned to reading to save him. The author of Cold Mountain used a book passage to reveal Inman’s inner desires, whimsical diction that contrasted with the final paragraph revealing the source of the stress, and analogies that describe soldiers as objects to convey the importance of Inman’s internal and external conflicts.

On the surface, Inman is reading a book to calm his mind so he can sleep. His book, Bartram’s Travels, is written in the first person, where Cold Mountain is written in third person. It is clear that Inman adores the book, and it makes it clear that he longs for the “winding banks of a large rapid brook” which “convey[…] streams of fertility and pleasure to the fields below.” According to Inmna, this book can be “opened at random,” almost like the book is one of a continued peace that relaxes him, as if Inman is longing for an eternal sleep in heaven.

The first part of the passage highlights Inman’s inner workings, and the whimsical diction used to describe his thoughts illustrates the peace he wishes he-and the world-was in. He didn’t just read the book, the “first sentence[…] fell under his eye,” as if it flouted down peacefully like a magical fairy. He viewed places he missed as “spells and incantations to ward off the things one fears most,” such as suffering, or returning to war. It is no coincidence that this sentence is followed by the final paragraph that is much more sour than the rest. There was something naggina at Inman so he couldn’t achieve the internal peace he wanted, but what was it?

The final paragraph of the passage used metaphors that explained his fears, the external conflicts that prevented Inman from achieving his goal of peace. It actually worried in Inman that his legs were healing because he didn’t want to fight again. He felt pain as he walked, as if “a red cord running from [his neck] to the balls of his feet were yanked quivering tight at each step.” The cord is read, the color of panic and pain, mentally and physically. He was sick of feeling like an object that must heal so he could be “shipped back to Virginia.” He didn’t want the war, the external conflict that didn’t coincide with his health.

In this passage by Charles Frazier, a healing soldier desires peace, but the stress of the war prevents it, the stress prevents the “man of leisure” he wishes to be. These conflicts are portrayed through the use of a book passage from a different viewpoint, whimsical diction to outline Inman’s goals, and analogies that highlight the damage of the war on his soul.