Inman's Nature In Cold Mountain

For a portion of Charles Frazier’s novel Cold Mountain, a preacher named Veasey accompanies the male protagonist, Inman. Frazier uses Veasey’s reckless and spontaneous nature to contrast Inman’s well thought out and war torn traits. Veasey’s actions represent the way that the Civil War has affected even people who were not in it, and allows the audience of the novel to view Inman’s morals and understand how they may have been altered by his experiences in the War. The audience follows Inman’s personal thoughts on Veasey’s actions, which highlight the overall idea of Cold Mountain that the War is changing the people and environment around it. When Inman finds Veasey holding a drugged and impregnated young woman over a river, Inman’s first thought …show more content…
Irritated by Veasey’s lack of compassion for the man who might own the saw, Inman tries to persuade Veasey that a man of the church would not steal under the eye of God. Veasey avoids Inman’s comment and justifies his answer by saying that God doesn’t care much for material things. Inman is not pleased that Veasey is willing to reinterpret the meaning of the bible to make it a better fit for his actions, and it reminds him of how men reinterpret the War to justify their fighting. Frazier uses this to represent the way that men in the Civil War must attempt to justify their fighting. During the end of the war (around the time of the book) it was becoming very difficult to understand what each side was fighting for. In addition to becoming more chaotic and generally disorganized the war was also becoming more of a battle for home rather than for a cause. Some men felt that they needed to fight in the war to protect their own land not for right or wrong. Again Frazier is accentuating the fact that the war is devastating and that Inman cannot escape it because it affects everything around him and it has scarred his inner conscious. Another incident where Inman and Veasey contrast heavily is when Veasey tries to catch the giant catfish by hand. Veasey is pleased that Inman shoots the fish, but the mentality Inman brought to the fight was unfair and violent. Frazier is