Shot 3 Times, Still Lives

Cold Mountain by Charles Frazier
p.370-390

Okay, in my previous blog I told you that Stobrod, Pangle, and the Georgia boy was shot. I take that back. The Georgia boy was not shot because he wasn't with them when The Guard showed up. I do not know where he was though. He was close enough, however, to hear everything that was said and done. Where was he? What was he doing to make him not be present at the massacre? Why didn't he jump in to try and save his buddies? I realized that he did not die because he was talking to Ada and Ruby about how Stobrod and Pangle lay dead up in the mountains. Ada and Ruby packed up to go find and bury them. It was winter out! Anyways, they made it to the place where the men were shot and found only Pangle. They found Stobrod underneath an overhung cliff with three wounds and still breathing. He was barely alive. How he survived? I have no idea. One of the bullets got lodged in his back and Ruby cut into him with a knife to get it out. They then strapped Stobrod to the horse and took him to an old, abandoned community of huts to rest.

 This is about how big the bulge in his back would have been from the bullet round lodged in his back.

This picture resembles that Ada and Ruby could not find Stobrod so they had to go look for him and Ada found him under a ledge, still alive!

Cold Mountain by Charles Frazier

p.358-369
Not much happened in this short chapter. Stobrod (Ruby's dad), Pangle (the man who plays the banjo), and Georgia (a boy they met at their hideout), climbed through the mountains. What for? I don't really know. On this very cold, blistering day, they came across a split in the trail. They decided to make a fire and eat first. They dozed off and when Stobrod opened his eyes, he was staring at The Guard. The Guard claims that they didn't care that Stobrod and the other two were ex-soldiers, they just heard that there were outlaws up in the mountains who were stealing from others. Stobrod claimed that he knew nothing about it. The Guard said alright and ask to join them at the fire. They joined and prior to leaving, they told Stobrod and the others to stand by a tree. As they did, The Guard shot the ex-soldiers down. I thought that The Guard actually believed that Stobrod didn't know about the outlaws and therefore was going to let him go. It was funny though because Stobrod and the others ARE the outlaws in the mountains stealing from others. So, I guess they got what was coming to them.


I used this picture of a dream catcher to resemble Stobrod's first thought when he woke up and saw The Guard. Even though it doesn't mention it in the book, he had to think it was a bad dream/nightmare. The Guard is sent out to capture ex-soldiers and maybe even kill them. Have you ever had something bad happen and hope that it was just a bad dream? I have.

This resembles the death of Stobrod, Pangle, and Georgia because as we all know, vultures search for lifeless things to eat.

Cold Mountain by Charles Frazier

p.345-357
Inman is continuing his adventure back to his home. On his walk, he comes across a little lady who is bawling her eyes out over the fact that she lost her daughter. Inman offered to help build a casket for the lifeless girl and bury her. The lady accepted his offer and near sunset, they were done. The lady cooked him dinner and told him how she was the last survivor out of nine (six boys, one father, and one grandma). After he was done eating, she sent him on his way. The next few days, he walked through the mountains and it started becoming familiar to him. One morning, he awakened to a sow bear and her cub looking at him. The sow charged and Inman side-stepped the attack. The bear ran right off the cliff and ended with a splat. Inman walked over to the cub who was now crying and shot it. To not waste meat, he fried it up that night to eat. This chapter didn't make a lot of sense to me. There was a lot of description of the woods and I just got confused/lost. However, I still like the book. I do not get how a man, shot once in the neck and in the shoulder (if I am correct) can walk day and night back to his home. Why didn't he just stay in the hospital until his would was healed?



 This picture symbolizes loneliness. That lady who lost her daughter is on her own now.

Inman sure had regret after he shot that cub. Especially when he was frying it up.

Cold Mountain by Charles Frazier

p.323-344
Ada and Ruby are picking apples to make apple butter, apple cider, and the like. After making cider, Ruby takes a jug of it into town to try and trade for beef. She leaves Ada with the job of splitting an oak log in the field, and then burning a brush pile from a neglected field. After burning the brush, Ada sat in a chair to enjoy the fire. She heard a rustling in the woods and found it to be Ruby's father, Strobod, and his friend. They came to hang out and play their instruments. Shortly after their arrival, Ruby shows up with barely four pounds of beef. She accompanies the fire and listens with Ada to the playing of the banjo and fiddle. Then, Strobod asks for help in regards to a personal place to stay. Ruby said no, but Ada sent Strobod and his friend back into their "house" in the mountain with some hope.
I am liking this book. I think it is interesting and I would recommend this book to people.



 A banjo


 





                                   
                                                                       A fiddle

Cold Mountain by Charles Frazier

p.298-322
Inman is wandering through the woods. He has lost direction in the horrible storm, he finished all the medicine that the indian-lady gave him, and he is out of food. While on his walk, he felt like he was being followed and he turned around to see a man. He asked him what he wanted and the man said that there is a nice lady 3 miles down the road that would give him food and a place to rest. Inman listened to Potts, the man, and began walking to the house. He reached it and was allowed food and a place to stay. He was awakened early the next morning by the lady, Sara, and told to hide outside. There was the noise of horses coming to the house and it could be The Guard or raiders (Federals). Inman hid from a distance and watched the raiders tie up her only hog and take some chickens. Inman then followed the Feds to a spot where they camped for the night. Inman shot all of them down and brought the animals back to Sara. The next day, Inman helped her butcher the hog because the winter was coming and she needed food. He then stayed another night and before he left, he ate the hog's brain and eggs. That is pretty interesting. I cannot believe he would go out at dark and stalk the Federals. What if they caught him and shot him? That would be a stupid reason to die.



                                                  That would be fun to butcher a hog.

Cold Mountain by Charles Frazier

p.284-297
In this short segment, Ruby goes outside to check the corncrib and she finds a man in a suit caught. She goes in to grab the loaded shotgun and walks back out to the thief. She finds that it is her lost father, the one who went to war and never showed Ruby any affection. She then talked to him and made him breakfast. However, she made him eat outside and then leave. She said that if she caught him back over here, she would put a round in his back. Later, he came back however for dinner. She let him in to eat. While at the dinner table, he told a story of how he played his fiddle well at army camps and how he was paid to play for a girl who was about to pass away. Then, he played a tune for Ada and Ruby. He was suprisingly good. When Ruby said that she'd shoot her own father, I was shocked. I could never shoot somebody in my family, no matter what they put me through. But, whatever she wants I guess. Oh, Ruby's father told how he cut a rattler off a rattle snake for extra tuning in his fiddle. Weird.


                                             He had to battle this for a rattler. Not worth it.

Cold Mountain by Charles Frazier

p.243-283
Ada recalls a moment when Inman and her were down by the crick. Inman was about to go to war and he was saying his farewells. It did not go good, however, and he left on a bad note. The next day, Ada talked her father into riding to town to go for a ride. When they came into town, Monroe gave Ada a $20 gold piece to buy some clothes, bookes, and music notes. After, she went to Inman's shop to say a better farewell to him. She recalls this moment as she is holding one of his letters in her hand. It states how he will be on his way home. It is dated from when he was in the hospital. Then the story jumps to Inman's adventure. He got a ride from some man to a road. Inman then walked down the road and climbed a mountain. Up it, he met a Cherokee woman setting a trap. She offered him a meal and a spot to stay. He didn't deny it. While at her house, he rested and before he left, she gave him medicine for his wounds. Inman saw a caption on her caravan that said, "Our personal lives are brief indeed." I found this caption really cool and interesting. It is just pretty deep in my opinion.




                                    A $20 gold piece from this time that Ada received from her father.

Cold Mountain by Charles Frazier

p.203-242
This book just got ten times better in my opinion. Inman and the preacher set out the next day walking. Up the road, they find a man by the name of Junior. He has a bull that is upstream from his house and is laying in the river dead. They help him get the bull out of the river so that Junior's water is not contaminated. Junior greatly appreciates their help and ask them to go to his house for dinner and a place to stay. They decide to go there and when Junior goes to attend to some business, Inman finds himself sitting in a kitchen chair with Junior's "wife" on the table straddling him. Junior walks in and immediately blames Inman even though his wife is a whore. When Junior arrives, he takes Inman and the preacher outside to where The Guard is waiting for them. They are chained up along with about ten others. The Guard sets out on a walk and a couple days into the journey, they decide to shoot their prisoners. The Guard then throws the prisoners in the ditch but Inman wasn't dead. Inman decided to go and get revenge on Junior. He set out and walked back to Junior's house, opened the kitchen door, and beat him over the head with a LeMat. I like reading that kind of stuff. Violence in books catch my eyes. I mean I don't blame Inman, I'd go hunt somebody down too if they turned on me. But, with Inman being injured from The Guard's firing squad, what is he going to do now? Is he going to make it? I do not think that I would be able to walk miles with a wound in my neck and a gouge in my head from a grazed bullet.


This is a LeMat revolver. Inman knocked this over Junior's head a couple times for payback. Ouch.

Cold Mountain by Charles Frazier

p. 162-202

This book isn't really as gory and violent as I thought it would be. It is kind of a different style of book that I cannot really explain. I find it pretty interesting though. So far, this book as jumped back and forth between Inman, the injured, ex-confederate, and Ada. The story mentions how they met and what they are now doing. Inman has been on a very long walk, trying to get back to home while avoiding The Guard. The Guard is Confederate watchman, I believe, who patrol the area looking for run-away-from-combat Confederates. While Inman is partaking in this extravagant game of hide and go seek, Ada is trying to take care of the farm. Ada's father died and she needs to survive. Hide and seek is a pretty fun game though. But anyways, a woman named Ruby walked up to the farm one day and said that Mrs. Swanger said that Ada might be in need of some assistance. They reached terms for this agreement and all is working out. That is basically the storyline of the book so far. In these pages that I just read, Inman is still accompanied by that preacher along his walk. It started to storm so they set up camp as a roadside "inn." Here, it was a dark and gloomy place. They sat in the "dining room" and drank. Then, a prostitute came over to the table, and the preacher, being the man that he is, said he was looking for a good time. They left Inman and went somewhere to "get to know each other." As it gets late, Inman went up to the loft right above the barn to go to bed. Up there, he met a by the name of Odell. In the light of the lamp, Odell told Inman of his life story and how unfortunate it had been. Then, the story jumps over to Ada. On they're way to town, Ada and Ruby stopped by Mrs. McKennet's house. She was a wealthy widow who had once had a crush on Ada's deceased father, Monroe. They talk about their take on the war as they eat ice cream. I didn't know they knew what ice cream was. That is about all I got. It is a pretty descent book, so I'd read it if I were you.
This would be the flag of The Guard.

Up that ladder would be the room Inman and Odell slept in at that shelter.

Cold Mountain by Charles Frazier

p.122-161

So, Inman doesn't kill the preacher. Instead, Inman took out a piece of paper and wrote on it the story of what had happened with the preacher. He stuck this paper in a branch just out of the preacher's reach (who was tied up to a tree). We all have those moments where we just want to get back at somebody for something they did. It usually isn't as extreme as taking someone's life. It is more along the lines of just embarrassing them so they learned their lesson, payback you could say. Inman then continued on and came across a Gypsy camp. He stayed there for a while, talking with some and getting to know them. The story then goes back to Ada and Ruby, who are working on the farm. Currently they went up to their apple orchard to have a picnic. If you didn't realize it yet, this story jumps back and forth between Inman's adventure and Ada's. When it goes back to Inman on his walk, he comes across his biggest annoyance, for lack of a better word. It was the preacher! He was looking rough from being beaten up by the community for his act, but he thanked Inman and walked with him. How bad would that suck? Meeting up with somebody you didn't like in the middle of nowhere and not being able to escape.

This was probably the community beat down on the preacher. These were probably some of the weapons used too. haha

Cold Mountain by Charles Frazier

p. 81-121
Well, Ada and Ruby are doing a lot of work around the farm. Ada even decided to barter her piano and cabriolet for goods. While this is going on, Inman was walking still and he came across this man with a motion-less body in his arms. It was late at night and the man could only see what he was doing by the light of his torch. Inman approached the man with his metal gun sight on the man. The man claimed that he was a preacher and he had done an extravagant sin with this lady, especially since he was married to another. He was going to toss the alive, drugged-up woman over the cliff and down into the river to get rid of her. Inman told him to take her back to her house and set her in her bed. The man listened and I stopped reading before I found out what Inman was going to do with the preacher. Inman mentioned killing him. In these 40 pages, the author also takes us back to when Inman attended a party at Ada's house. In the kitchen, they had a "thing" going on for eachother and they flirted. That is all that was mentioned. I actually like the book a little bit. There is a lot of stuff going on and I never know what is going to happen next. I am looking forward to see what Inman does with that preacher. Will Inman kill him? I'll have to read to find out.
It is wrong to cheat, no matter what the circumstances are. I can not believe that the preacher cheated on his wife. I would not be suprised if Inman hurt him.
On Inman's walk, he came to a river that he needed to cross and he saw a sign saying that if you wanted a ferry ride, yell very loud. He shouted and a lady came out with a canoe and they started going across the river. While crossing, they were fired upon by the men that jumped him earlier on his walk in that one town. They escaped and he paid the lady extra because of the destruction of the canoe.

Well, that is all I have.

Cold Mountain by Charles Frazier

p.42-80

Wow, this book is still a little boring. I have finished two or three chapters so far and Mrs. Clemons mentioned that after the first couple of chapters, it would pick up. So, I am going to stick with it. In these pages, Ada, after losing her father, has returned back to her house near Cold Mountain. While out on her porch, a young lady by the name of Ruby walked up to Ada and told her that Mrs. Swanger, the lady who brought Ada in after the loss to get her back on her feet, said she would and could use some help around the farm. Ada tried to say that she needed a man to do it but, Ruby replied all the men are at war (Civil War). Then, the story jumps back to Inman who has now abandoned the hospital and is walking to a place not mentioned. On the way, he is hiding from The Guard (Confederates?) who might bring Inman back to the army he fought for. Walking through a town, he gets jumped by three men but, manages to survive and kill them all. Then the story mentions about how Inman went to church only to see Ada. That is as far as I am and I'm pretty pumped to read more because I think it will get better. I'll continue to keep you guys updated on this story.

Check that image out. I picked it because it refers to how Ada needs help to survive and run the farm with her father, Monroe, now dead and gone.

These would be scythes. When Inman got jumped by those three men, one of them weilded a scythe. But, he wasn't very skilled at the art of swinging it so, Inman managed to take it from him. Using this weapon, he took down his enemies.

Cold Mountain by Charles Frazier

p. 1-41


To be honest, this book is a little boring off of the start. But, Mrs. Clemons told me that it would be and that I should stick with it because it is a good book. So far, it is about a Confederate man by the name of Inman who is in a hospital trying to heal from a neck wound that he suffered in a battle during the "ongoing" Civil War. He describes a battle that he partakes in at Fredericksberg, and me, being into war books, found it interesting. He also mentions to a blind man of his experience with a Cherokee indian by the name of Swimmer. They, the white men and Cherokees, played a game in which you would have to throw balls from a raquet through a goal. They would bet on this game with meat, weapons, clothing, etc. When I read this, I thought, "wow, they did have fun back then." After, the story jumps to a lady who lives in Black Cove. She has just recently lost the life of her father. Personally, I cannot relate to this lady because I have been fortunate enough to have not lost a loved one. However, I can relate to Inman because I have been in a hospital before with a injury in which it hurts to move your head as he experienced. It makes for a long recovery process, but it is all worth it.
   
These are bullets that would have been used in the Civil War. Imagine getting shot in the neck by one of those intimidating bullets!

This picture is related to the death of the father of the lady, Ada. Her father's name is Monroe. He died on a May day late in the afternoon.


So I think the game that Inman and the Cherokee, Swimmer, played is similar to the modern-day game, Lacrosse.

That is about as much as I got so far out of this book. Mrs. Clemons said it would get better and I hope it does. So, I'll keep you posted on this book. Later.