Inman's Poem: The Soul Of Man

"Swimmer knew 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. Inman found this notion dismal indeed, since he had been taught by sermon and hymn to hold as truth that the soul of man never dies”(14).

Inman is remembering a Cherokee boy he met in his youth. He recalls the stories we would tell about how animals and other things came to be the way they are now. He tells Inman about how the spirit is frail, always under attack and always threatening to die. This is significant because Inman was taught differently. He was taught that the soul of a man never dies.

“Cold Mountain nevertheless soared in his mind as

If you marry a woman for her looks you may end up with an unhappy life. If you eat a bird for its singing you may not get a good bird, or you may get sick.

"And she thought that you went on living one day after another, and in time you were somebody else, your previous self only like a close relative, a sister or a brother, with whom you share a past. But you are a different person, a separate life”(335). Inman has accepted to put the past behind him, bear its scars, and move on. He is not the same emotionless empty soul he was before. He is a separate life

"Not one idea crosses my mind, though my senses are alert to all around me. Should a crow fly over, I mark it in all its details, but do not seek analogy for its blackness. I know it is a type of nothingness, not metaphoric. A thing unto itself without comparison”(258).

I think the meaning of this quote is to not over think things. “Should a crow fly over, I mark it in all its details, but do not seek analogy for its blackness” is saying that everything is the way it is for a reason, and not to question