Violence In Charles Frazier's Cold Mountain

What is violence? Violence can be described and shown in a very wide variety of ways, and can be used for many different reasons. Most of the time violence has something of a negative connotation, but, despite what some people think, violence can be used in a good way, too. In the novel Cold Mountain, Charles Frazier narrates a story from two different perspectives: Inman, the protagonist, and Ada, another protagonist. He describes the journey that Inman goes on through Cold Mountain in hopes of meeting his old girlfriend, Ada. Inman and Ada both face some hardships, but they both handle these hardships close to the best way possible. Throughout the novel, Frazier details several scenes filled with violence to show how it is used for survival,

the good of others, and revenge.
Inman faces many situations that are life-or-death, and sometimes, he survives by using violence. He has seen a lot in his days, and much of what he has seen is not pretty. Brent Gibson, in reviewing Frazier’s novel, shares insight on how “All [Inman] can see when he looks ahead is a world in which everything that makes life worth living is gone. He tells the blind man outside the hospital that he has been turned "hateful" by what he has seen” (Gibson). Even as Inman is just beginning his journey, he faces many challenges just by thinking about what he has gone through up to this point in time. Perhaps the biggest challenge of the novel is the dreadful Home Guard. As described by Inman, “Teague and his Home Guard roaring around like a band of marauders. Setting their own laws as suits them, and them nothing but trash looking for a way to stay out of the army”(Frazier 45). Inman does not like the Home Guard, and that is made quite obvious throughout the book. The Home Guard are a group of “police” who go around making sure people aren’t leaving the war, and if they are, many times the Home Guard will just shoot them on the spot. As Inman made his trek through the mountain, he ran into a preacher who was attempting to murder his girlfriend. Shortly after meeting the preacher, “[Inman] made a motion as if to backhand the preacher, but the man did not run or fight or even try to raise his staff to parry. Rather, he hunched his shoulders to take the blow like a cowed dog, and so Inman pulled up and did not strike. He reasoned that lacking the will to drive the man off, he’d just walk on and see what came about”(Frazier 152). Inman faces something of an annoyance when he meets the preacher for the second time, but instead of focusing on the preacher, Inman decides to let him go and just continue on his route. Although Inman wanted to hit the man, he realized that it would cause him no benefit, and therefore decided against it. Along the journey through Cold Mountain, Inman meets a strange man, Junior, and his family. It turns out that Junior turned Inman into the Home Guard, who “shot him through a number of times” (Frazier 228). Inman got shot by the Home Guard, but somehow managed to survive. At this point in his journey, the will to survive must have been low, but Inman fought through every situation, violent, or not. In this novel, violence can be used to not only symbolize survival, but also the use of it for good.
Although violence is usually associated with killing and other bad things, Frazier shows how it can be used for the good of others.

One night, Inman was walking when suddenly he came across a preacher attempting to kill a girl he had an affair with. Inman, knowing this is clearly wrong, “leveled the pistol at the man’s head and put pressure on the trigger until he could feel all the metal parts of its firing mechanism tighten up against each other” (Frazier 113). Inman walks upon a man attempting a murder, and uses a pistol to ensure this woman lives another day. This is a brave act considering the circumstances, and details a way in which violence was used for good. Inman was a good man at heart, and this was revealed again when he met a young woman named Sara. Sara had just a hog and some chickens to last her the winter, and when the Federals came and took these, Inman knew he had to step in, so he “shot them with the LeMat’s” (Frazier 316). Inman decides that to thank this woman for her kindness, he would hunt down the men who stole her possessions, and steal them back. In order to do this, though, Inman had to use force to kill the men so they would not do the same to him. The phrase a vow to bear meant a lot to Inman, and it can best be described as Inman’s vow to never kill a bear again. The problem with his vow is that in order for him to continue his journey, he had to “pick up the LeMat’s and shoot the cub in the head”(Frazier 354). Although Inman does have a warm

side to his heart, he seems to always be in situations where he either lives or dies. In this case, Inman had to shoot the cub for the good of himself and his life, and he later stated how he now knew the eighth sin, “regret”. In a review of violence in Cold Mountain, a writer for The Independent newspaper stated, “Frazier's upbringing was defined by contradictions. "I remember a little town surrounded by mountains, very few people and a whole lot of land. That was wonderful. But there was also plenty of violence and ignorance.” (Violence). Frazier faced an early life filled with violence, but also filled with a lot of good. This influenced his writing in that he became more prone to include violence in all types of situations, whether it was for the good of the person, or sometimes it was revenge.
In contrast of using violence for good, there were also many times in which violence took place as a form of revenge.

As Inman is about to leave the preacher tied to a tree following the discovery of his attempted murder, he decides to punish the preacher in a worse way than death. Inman writes a note about what the man did, and as he does, the preacher cries desperately “Then shoot me. Just shoot me here and leave me hanging. -- Don’t think there’s no charm in that offer” (Frazier 122). Inman decides that instead of killing the man, he is going to let the town know what the man did so they would beat him. This shows a crude side of Inman as he seeks revenge for the girl that the preacher tried to kill. As Ada’s father, Stobrod, and the Georgia boy are walking down a trail, they come along the feared Home Guard. The Home Guard, once again, shows its relentlessness when they “tripped the triggers and wood chips flew from the great poplar trunk where balls struck after passing through the meat of the two men” (Frazier 369). By deciding to kill the two men, it shows a sign of revenge for them leaving the war. The Home Guard somewhat creates their own laws, and if they discover that you turn your back on “their” country, it is already decided how you will end up: dead. Earlier in the novel, Inman got turned into the Home Guard by a man with the name of Junior. Inman miraculously survived the gunshots of the Home Guard, and decided he wanted to pay Junior a quick visit. During

this visit, of course, Inman “stepped to Junior and struck him across the ear with the barrel of the LeMat’s and then clubbed at him with the butt until he lay flat on his back” (Frazier 234). The violent killing of Junior really allowed the reader to visualize how angry Inman was with this man. The man had gotten Inman’s friend, Veasey, killed, and nearly got Inman, himself, killed by the Home Guard. The battle between the Home Guard and Inman seemed to be one that would never be resolved, but after a very long trek, the rivalry came to an end. In a description of the scene, Bill McCarron wrote, “What again is significant, then, is not that he is killed at the end by the Home Guard, but that he dies in his lover's arms, dreaming "a bright dream of a home" (p. 353), and that he has sacrificed his life--not to the meaningless violence of a politically motivated war hundreds of miles away, but to protect his "family" on the homefront” (McCarron). The end of the Inman’s life came by the very people whom he hated the most. The Home Guard and Inman sort of had an ongoing battle throughout the entire book, which was wrapped up with Birch’s revenge on Inman, who killed his boss. By ending it this way, Frazier tied the knot on both the good Inman did (sacrificing his life for his family), and the battle between Inman and the Home Guard.
Frazier’s novel was filled with scenes upon scenes of violence and war, but he didn’t just use these to show Inman’s power, he used them to detail how it was used in good ways, whether that was for survival or for the good of others, and the bad ways, specifically in terms of revenge. He presents Inman with challenges that were very tough to overcome, but in the end, Inman finds a way to beat these challenges and meet his lover, Ada. Although he doesn’t get to live with Ada, the satisfaction he had with just simply seeing her again made it seem that his journey was complete. Frazier did an incredible job at showing how Inman used violence in many ways, not just for bad.