Cold Mountain Chapter titles

The Shadow of a Crow Inman remembers a moment in history class when he threw his hat out of the window. The hat was caught by the wind and landed at the edge of the field, where it looked like a crow’s shadow. After the teacher threatened him with a whipping, Inman walked out of the room and never returned. This memory foreshadows Inman’s intent to walk away from the carnage of the war. The crow symbolizes Inman’s independence by throwing his hat out of the window and then leaving to get it. Inman is in search of relief and is unable to forget his experience in battle at Fredericksburg. Inman has frequent dreams where human limbs reform themselves and a cadaver speaks his name. “Every morning after that dream, Inman awoke as dark as the blackest crow that ever flew.” In this chapter Inman strongly identifies with this bird, envying its independence.
The Ground beneath Her Hands In this chapter Ada must fight off feelings of despair. Ada is highly educated. She is not used to manual labor and lacks the skills to run a farm. She has a desire to return home but something is drawing her to the farm, whether it is her friendship with the Swangers, memories, or the connection to the woods, ridges, and the creek. In the book it says, “The ground beneath her hands was dry and littered with chick feathers and old chicken shit and the hard dead leaves of the bush.” This describes Ada taking little steps towards living an independent life at the farm until Ruby comes and helps Ada work the farm. “The Ground beneath Her hands” is referring to the ground Ada has to learn to take care of as her father leaves the farm for her after his death. Just as Inman sets out on his journey back home, Ada tentatively takes her first steps towards living an independent life at the farm.
The Color of Despair Inman feels that after days of traveling he has not gotten very far from the hospital. The threat of the Home Guard, plus his wounded condition leaves Inman tired and