Irene Hunt's Across Five Aprils: A Literary Analysis

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Bella Guerra March 16, 2011 Literature Rough Draft War brings out the worst in human nature. Families and communities are divided when people take different sides. The deaths of loved ones affect entire communities and leave people feeling hopeless. Children are forced to grow up and deal with the harsh realities of adulthood. Innocent children become aware of the sadness and the evil that come with war. With this loss of innocence, a child’s outlook on life is changed forever. In Irene Hunt’s Across Five Aprils, Jethro Creighton comes of age during the Civil War. He is forced to become the man of the house and assume responsibilities for the farm, deal with tragic death in his family, and come to terms with national crisis. The war takes away…show more content…
John, Tom, and Eb are all proud to fight for the Union, but Bill joins the Confederate Army out of his frustration with the North. “I don’t know if anybody ever ‘wins’ in a war, Jeth. I think the begginin’s of this war has been fanned by hate till it’s a blaze now; and a blaze kin destroy him that makes it and him that the fire was set to hurt” (Hunt 41). Bills talks to Jethro about the war as if he was an adult and not a ten year old boy. He wants Jethro to understand the hatred that the war brings and how everyone loses in the end. Jethro faces the desertion of his cousin Eb and is forced to fight his own inner battle when he finds him hiding in the field. “Then a skeleton came out from among the trees. It was a skeleton of a Union soldier, though the uniform it wore was so ragged and filthy it was difficult to identify” (Hunt 149). Jethro wants to help his cousin, but knows that he is putting his family at risk by helping a deserter. More adult responsibility is forced upon Jethro as he tries to understand Eb’s desertion. Once again, Jethro is faced with the harsh realities of war at a young
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