What Is The Role Of Spirituality In Cold Mountain
Frazier’s Cold Mountain is a pastoral novel that enters into dialogue to explore the stark contrast between two people on a quest for self-acknowledgement and romantic fulfillment. It encapsulates the spirit of a man psychologically scarred by war and his love who flourishes in his absence by reiterating the pastoral theme of self-realization through nature. The intertwining chapters, alternating its focus on Inman and Ada, are in constant communication with another to examine the bleakest and brightest aspects of their respective journeys to do such. While developing as a woman in her newfound agrarian lifestyle, Ada finds herself. However, far removed from this peaceful and simple life, Inman loses himself. Thus, their search for contentment
…show more content…
Far removed from violence, Ada undergoes a character rebirth as her identification with the natural world intensifies: “Over time, watching [pattern of sunrise/sunset] happen again and again might make the years seem not such an awful linear progress but instead a looping and a return. Keeping track of such a thing would place a person, would be a way of saying, You are here, in this one station, now. It would be an answer to the question, Where am I?” (323). The natural world provides a platform for Ada’s growth. She adapts to a life of manual labor and learns to live in synch with the rhythms of nature. As her connection to the natural world strengthens, Ada reads the signs of nature as Ruby does. She even attempts to locate herself in nature’s cycles, allowing the natural world to guide her actualization and a serve as a marker for her newfound identity. As she becomes more self-sufficient, she relies less on the formal education that sheltered her from the real world. Ada links the events of her life together to match the pattern of the sun, rather than relying on her former education to provide an analytical interpretation. Frazier exemplifies the pastoral truism of nature shaping man. Because she places her experiences in tune with an outstanding cyclical force, she avoids becoming disillusioned with the “linear” one-way path to despair that Inman has accepted as fate. Once a woman who used to study the farm with a pencil and pad, Ada assumes the farm as the basis of her familial existence. Nature provides a safe haven to ease Ada’s misfortunes of loss, a safe haven that Inman so desperately
Far removed from violence, Ada undergoes a character rebirth as her identification with the natural world intensifies: “Over time, watching [pattern of sunrise/sunset] happen again and again might make the years seem not such an awful linear progress but instead a looping and a return. Keeping track of such a thing would place a person, would be a way of saying, You are here, in this one station, now. It would be an answer to the question, Where am I?” (323). The natural world provides a platform for Ada’s growth. She adapts to a life of manual labor and learns to live in synch with the rhythms of nature. As her connection to the natural world strengthens, Ada reads the signs of nature as Ruby does. She even attempts to locate herself in nature’s cycles, allowing the natural world to guide her actualization and a serve as a marker for her newfound identity. As she becomes more self-sufficient, she relies less on the formal education that sheltered her from the real world. Ada links the events of her life together to match the pattern of the sun, rather than relying on her former education to provide an analytical interpretation. Frazier exemplifies the pastoral truism of nature shaping man. Because she places her experiences in tune with an outstanding cyclical force, she avoids becoming disillusioned with the “linear” one-way path to despair that Inman has accepted as fate. Once a woman who used to study the farm with a pencil and pad, Ada assumes the farm as the basis of her familial existence. Nature provides a safe haven to ease Ada’s misfortunes of loss, a safe haven that Inman so desperately