Inman’s Spiritual Journey In Cold Mountain by Charles Frazier

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Cold Mountain is a popular book and movie written by Charles Frazier. Cold Mountain is a book about two lovers, Inman and Ada, during the Civil War, who depart on separate journeys in hopes of reuniting with one another. The novel is viewed as the physical journey of Inman from the Civil War to Cold Mountain and the inner journey of Ada, but people neglect the sheer importance that Inman’s spiritual journey has on the book. Inman’s physical journey is really non-connected episodes that are linked together by the thread that is Inman’s spiritual sense. Inman regains his spiritual sense, gradually, through the entire novel ending where he achieves redemption and self-completeness with his death. Inman’s journey is that of a spiritual sense where he crosses the void from the world of war to the world of spiritual belief which he left behind at Cold Mountain. Evidence of Inman’s spiritual journey is found throughout the book. Inman’s spiritual journey is really a journey of recovering his spiritual beliefs that he lost from the Civil War. For instance, he states that General Lee, “made it clear he looked on war as an instrument for clarifying God’s obscure will” (12). Inman tries to distance himself from Lee’s belief as it troubles him the most. He also believed that “following such logic would soon lead one to declare the victor of every brawl and dogfight as God’s certified champion” (12). Thus both the horror of war and the inconsistency of the Christian witness he has received leads him to reject what he had been taught without having anything to put in its place. His journey then becomes clearly spiritual as he tries to find something, if anything, to replace his rejected beliefs. Inman begins his journey as both p... ... middle of paper ... ...ecret lover, but he intervened and saved the woman. He also saved Sarah, a widow of a Confederate soldier, from grief by giving her the comfort of having someone to hold on to as well as saving her from three Federal raiders. And in the end, in an attempt to save Ada, Ruby, and Stobrod, he dies. This is his final act for redemption. He finally is released into a spiritual realm away from war. These acts and examples show that Inman is developing back to his former self from before the war where life had meaning. Inman is on a spiritual journey rather than a mere physical journey back home. Inman’s journey is a deep part of the novel, and it is a key ingredient to the storyline. All of the examples in this paper point to the underlying conclusion that Inman is ultimately trying to redeem himself and fill in the empty beliefs that the war erased from his body.

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