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Chapter 2
Themes
Key
LitCharts assigns a color and icon to each theme in Across Five Aprils, which you can use to track the themes throughout the work.
Coming of Age
The Realities of War
Self-Determination
Personal Conviction
Hardship, Suffering, and Beauty
Summary
Analysis
Throughout the spring and summer of 1861, people gather in the small towns of Jasper County to listen to local grandees and ancient veterans of the War of 1812 stir agitation while pretty, young women raise money for the troops. But belief in an easy victory rapidly begins to fail with news of a Union rout in the battles of Bull Run and Ball’s Bluff. Tom and Eb become downcast and Jethro notices that the boys’ big talk of “taking the South ‘by the britches’” has disappeared. Bill holds his peace. He takes Jethro to the rallies. Tom and Eb leave as soon as they can, while Shad and John make plans to volunteer by midwinter, after Shad’s teaching contract ends and John has helped bring in the harvest that will support his family.
Most people in the North initially approach the war with a casual, excited attitude—like Jethro and his brothers (except Bill) in the previous chapter. But the earliest battles offer a harsh rebuke to this attitude and foreshadow the length and brutality of the war. Nevertheless, Shad, John, Tom, and Eb demonstrate the key virtue of self-determination, as well as the courage and conviction of mature men, when they follow through on their intention to volunteer and place their lives on the line for their belief in the Northern cause.
Themes
Soon after Tom and Eb join the Union forces, news arrives of a Northern defeat at the Battle of Wilson’s Creek. Because many troops from Illinois fought—and died—there, this battle made the war seem much more real for families in Jasper County. Jethro listens to the adults’ talk and gradually understands the roles of men with names like McClellan, Seward, Chase, Sumner, Thad Stevens, Wendell Phillips, Henry Ward Beecher, Jefferson Davis and Robert E. Lee.
The realities of war come into focus when local sons, brothers, friends, and neighbors begin to die. Jethro demonstrates his keen intelligence and growing character as he learns to follow news of the war despite his youth.
Themes
After Wilson’s Creek, Jethro begins to suffer nightmares. One night, Bill wakes Jethro from a nightmare. In the dark, Jethro admits to being afraid. Bills tells Jethro that fear is part of being human. Bill’s own troubled thoughts keep him up late at night, so he offers to talk until Jethro’s fear fades. Most of Bill’s thoughts concern the war. Jethro asks if the North will win in the end, and Bill says he doesn’t think any side can truly “win” a war. And as much as he himself hates slavery, Bill can see why Southerners might have legitimate complaints about their ways of life being threatened or their political power being weakened.
Jethro’s nightmares show his growing understanding of war’s harsh realities. Bill takes this opportunity to model maturity for his brother, encouraging him not to be unafraid but to behave courageously despite his fears. And he continues to teach Jethro the lesson that very few things are as straightforward as people would like to think. He suggests that the truth lies in nuance and subtlety. Bill’s words hint that he will follow his own path, even if it contradicts others’ black-and-white thinking.
Themes
Bill’s thoughtful nature and ability to see both sides of the conflict make him feel isolated; he has far less certainty about things than his father, Matthew, or brother John, and he resents their easy self-assurance. Jethro begs Bill to stop talking about his anger, and Bill apologizes for putting this burden on such young shoulders. Still, all throughout that autumn, Jethro feels the burden not just of extra work he must take on in Tom’s and Eb’s absence, but also of Bill’s heavy thoughts.
Of all the characters in the book, Bill most fully dedicates himself to living out the American virtue of self-determination. He rejects easy answers and platitudes and grapples with the issues until he comes to his own conclusion about them. And while Jethro finds this an admirable quality in his brother, Bill’s anger and loneliness also suggest the difficulty—and relative rarity—of truly living up to this ideal.
Themes
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Despite his worries, sensitive and observant Jethro can’t help but notice that year’s extremely beautiful autumn. Its vivid colors vividly demonstrates nature’s indifference to human tumult. One October afternoon, Jethro visits Walnut Hill, where the Creightons bury their dead. Until the age of seven, Jethro used to chat with his three dead brothers like imaginary playmates. But after he learned the real sting of death with Mary, he began to avoid the hill. Jethro looks over the farm to the distant rail fences, which look to him like bayonets. Absorbed in watching a flock of migrating geese, he doesn’t hear Bill approaching. Jethro turns to Bill only to see his brother’s face covered with cuts and bruises from a fistfight with John. He stares at Bill’s cuts and listens to the distant sound of a neighbor calling to his horses; the echo of his voice sounds like an alarming cry. More and more, Jethro hears wails hidden beneath the familiar sounds of his childhood.
Jethro’s mother—and his experience—has taught him to accept suffering as part of life. But his sense of wonder protects his soul from hardening under the weight of pain; even in dark and scary times, he can still see beauty in the colorful fall leaves. Walnut Hill marks the point of contact between the living Creightons and their dead, so readers should take note when Bill seeks out Jethro on Walnut Hill. Their meeting site foreshadows Bill’s impending departure, and Jethro’s identification of the wind with the sound of wailing suggests that he realizes this on some intuitive level, too.
Themes
Bill sits down next to Jethro and muses about how close he and his older brother John have always been. Jethro asks what caused the fight, and Bill says that weeks’ worth of hard feelings built up until they came out in words. After a brief pause, Bill tells Jethro that, as much as he doesn’t want to, he knows that he must join the fight, and he refuses to be on the side of “arrogance and big money against the southern farmer.” He plans to take his horse, but he knows this will make it harder for Matthew to finish the harvest, so he’s left enough cash to buy another in the cover of the family Bible.
Bill and John literalize the pre-Civil War warnings that a divided nation—like a divided family—would destroy itself. And because one can understand a country as a metaphorical family, the political drama of the Civil War and the familial drama between John and Bill parallel each other. And stories like their split did indeed play out among many American families in the North and South, where many families fought on opposing sides of the war. Ultimately, Bill decides that states’ rights—and the defense of an agrarian lifestyle against the increasingly industrialized power of the North—are the most important issues at stake in the war. And while the book celebrates Bill’s self-determination, it also conveniently avoids the issue of slavery and its abuses of enslaved people’s denied freedom.
Themes
At the prospect of losing his favorite brother, Jethro openly weeps. Bill tells his younger brother that he must learn to withstand the terrible things that happen in life; crying won’t fix anything. Jethro wipes his eyes. Bill plans to go to their cousin Wilse in Kentucky, and from there he’ll join the Confederate Army. He’s finally decided that, although neither the North nor the South are wholly right in their motivations, he feels more strongly drawn to the Southern cause. Although he made his decision and preparations to leave days earlier, he couldn’t bring himself to do it until his fight with John. As Bill walks down the hill, Jethro hides his eyes; he once overheard Ellen saying that if you looked at a loved one leaving on a long journey, you would probably never see them again.
Jethro gets one final lesson from Bill about maturity—adults don’t cry about things they can’t change. While this sounds harsh, it accords with Jethro’s experience that people simply must endure many of life’s unavoidable hardships. Bill has made his choice, even though it wasn’t easy. Ultimately, he follows his conscience even if this means choosing a different path from most of the people around him. And he places his convictions above even the desire to stay with his family. Self-determination is a quintessentially American value, and the book celebrates Bill for his courage in following his convictions, even though they cost him dearly.
Themes
