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Chapter 5
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
After hearing about the animosity Jethro encountered in town, neither Matt nor Ellen sleeps well. In the morning, Matt looks pale and drawn. Over cups of coffee, he tells Ellen his plan to ride into town with Ed Turner to talk to Wortman’s friends. Ellen wants him to stop and thank Dave Burdow for protecting Jethro’s life. But a minute after Matt walks out the cabin door, Ellen hears a noise at the gate. Hurrying outside, she finds Matt collapsed and grasping at his heart. Jenny runs for Ed Turner, who helps her and Ellen get Matt into bed and sends his son for the nearest doctor. Matt recovers but seems to have aged at least 20 years.
It seems as if Jethro already has as much adult responsibility as he can handle. He survived the trip to town both physically and emotionally—but readers should recall that he arrived at home weeping with relief like the young boy that he still is. Yet, as the book often reminds readers, life includes plenty of hardship and suffering. And before Jethro can recover from the trip, his father’s heart attack forces him to grow up even faster.
Themes
In March of 1862, Jethro leaves childhood behind. His trip to Newtown showed him how unpredictable people can be, and Matt’s illness forces him to learn how to be the head of a family at the tender age of 10, even though Ed Turner offers as much advice—and help—as he can.
One April afternoon, Ed Turner brings a fresh newspaper to Jethro as he ploughs the fields. Grant has suffered a disastrous loss at Shiloh. The papers, which praised him so recently, now criticize him mercilessly; as Turner observes, it’s easier to be a general in a newspaper office than on a battlefield. Keenly aware that Tom and Eb are in Grant’s army, Jethro asks about the casualties. More than 20,000 soldiers died, including over 12,000 Union boys. Jethro and Turner agree not to mention the battle to Matt or Ellen until they hear from Tom or Eb. As Turner prepares to ride off, he notices how small and young Jethro looks next to the plow horses that Matt and his older sons handled the previous spring. He promises to find some men to help with the farm work—the Creightons still have friends in the county despite Wortman and his ilk.
When Grant loses the Battle of Shiloh, the devastating number of casualties reminds Jethro—and readers—of the tremendous costs of war. And it's important to remember that every dead soldier represents the bereavement of an entire family or community somewhere in the North or South. Tom, Eb, and Jenny all realize immediately that their family may be among this group, although they must wait for word from Tom and Eb to find out for sure. The papers’ fickle opinions of Grant shift based on his success or failure in battle. In contrast, Grant continues to offer steady leadership regardless of how well the war goes, showing Jethro that constancy is an important component of maturity. And Jethro, despite stepping up to his growing responsibilities and adult understanding of the world, remains a boy—a boy almost too small to bear up to what he must handle.
Themes
Together, Jenny and Jethro take on as much of the farm work as they can while Ellen tends to bedridden Matt. Prone to easy tears since his heart attack, he worries often about Tom. Outdoors, the warmth and blossoming of spring cheer Jenny and Jethro, as does the chance to talk with each other. On this day, they discuss the recent Battle of Shiloh and the shifting opinions on General Grant. When Jenny admits a preference for Don Carlos Buell because his name has a better ring to it, Jethro teases her for being a fool. She retorts that he’s “a little ol’ man with a boy’s body” and remarks that, like Shad, he’s too serious. The comparison with Shad pleases Jethro. Still, the siblings worry about the family’s involvement in the battle, especially the idea of Tom and Eb on one side and Bill on the other.
Despite the impending sense of doom the family feels as they wait to hear from Eb and Tom, the beauty of spring works its magic to keep Jenny’s and Jethro’s hearts soft. Their silly arguments and mutual teasing provide brief moments of normalcy in their decidedly abnormal adolescence.
Themes
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Jethro and Jenny grow close over the spring of 1862, despite one last “attack of childish fury” Jethro experiences when Shad sends a letter meant just for her. On the day it arrives, Matt feels strong enough to join the family at the table for the noon meal. Ed Turner’s son brings the letter to the cabin as Jenny and Jethro divvy up the afternoon’s work. Although Shad addressed the letter to Jenny, Jethro fully expects her to share it openly with everyone, like the rest of Shad’s letters. But when Jenny returns from reading it in the privacy of her bedroom, she refuses to hand it over and only reads short excerpts to her parents and Jethro.
Although Jethro takes on adult responsibilities and shows great maturity in handling himself with most of the adults in his life—both those who like him and those who don’t—he remains a child with much growing up to do. The letter from Shad seems particularly hard to bear precisely because he and Jenny grow so close over the summer, and it reminds Jethro how much younger and less experienced he is than his sister or beloved teacher.
Themes
Jethro seethes with burning jealousy; letters are so rare as to be precious objects, and he longs to read the words of his beloved teacher for himself. But it seems that loneliness—or the soft springtime weather—has inspired Shad to pen a love letter meant for Jenny alone. Jethro’s anger impels him to John’s field, where he complains about Jenny’s “selfishness” while he follows the plow team. In the midafternoon, Nancy and her sons come to the field to bring Jethro a snack and to find out if the Creightons have received news from any of their soldiers. He testily answers that the only letter has been the one from Shad which Jenny refuses to share. Anyway, both Shad and John will still be in training, yet uninvolved in any serious fighting.
In response to his anger, Jethro turns to the never-ending work on the farm—yet another sign of his increased responsibilities, since he must fill not just his father’s role but also his brother John’s. Still, once again, Nancy plays a key role in inducting Jethro into adulthood. First and foremost, she continues to treat Jethro as an equal, showing trust in his knowledge of the war and family affairs.
Themes
Nancy also read about Shiloh in the papers. She felt severe distress thinking about the battle and all the battles Tom, Eb, Bill, and John will see. Nancy muses that it must have felt like the end of the world at Shiloh, and she and Jethro solemnly consider the idea that it was for thousands of soldiers. Hearing about such terrible events makes Jethro feels ashamed for his petty anger over Shad’s letter. On that topic, Nancy has one more thing to say before he returns to work. A letter, she says, is a “close thing,” especially between lovers. When a person intends their words only for you, it feels unfair to share them with others. Someday, when Jethro has his own sweetheart, he will understand.
Like Ellen and other female characters, the novel allows Nancy to reflect more directly on the suffering and pain of the soldiers on the front, although her words echo the concerns of the rest of the family. Jethro demonstrates empathy and also his growing maturity when consideration of the massive scale of death at the Battle of Shiloh makes him reconsider his anger toward Jenny and Shad. Nancy continues to nurture Jethro into adulthood as she gently explains to him the importance of the letter to Jenny in a way that helps him gain understanding without talking to him like a child.
Themes
When Jethro returns home, Jenny’s cheerful mood reignites his resentment. When he goes to wash in the big iron kettle by the kitchen door, he remembers Tom and Eb splashing him once. The cold water made him cry, and they teased him for being a baby—until Bill swooped in. Tom, feeling bad, tried to make it up to Jethro later. Jethro hopes fervently for a letter from Tom, who had always been kind to him. After dinner, Jethro sinks into an exhausted sleep plagued by nightmares.
While Jethro understands the lesson Nancy tried to teach him, the path toward maturity isn’t necessarily smooth, and he continues to nurture his childish resentment. Still, he cannot maintain it when he remembers his family and friends and the risks they run at war. Against matters of life and death, Jethro realizes, an unshared letter begins to seem very small indeed.
Themes
When a nightmare makes Jethro cry out in his sleep, Jenny runs to his room to comfort him. At first, he tries to resist her kindness. She apologizes for the letter incident and confesses that she’d kept it to herself because Shad said some things about marriage that she didn’t want Matt to see. She offers to let Jethro read it, but he refuses. Jethro meant his refusal to hurt Jenny, and it does. But after a minute, he relents and tells her that he’s no longer upset after talking the incident over with Nancy.
Jethro continues to wallow in his anger until Jenny apologizes to him. At this point, he realizes he’s gone too far in his anger and accepts responsibility for his own feelings, showing his growing maturity. This interaction also points to the larger context of the war—with so much pain and suffering to go around, it doesn’t seem worthwhile to permit the conflict between the remaining siblings at home to continue.
Themes
As Jenny stands to leave Jethro’s room, they hear hoofbeats on the road. It sounds like three horses running together. Near the farm, the riders slow their mounts and creep quietly up toward the cabin. At the gate, they start shouting about Bill and the family being “Copperheads,” or Confederate sympathizers. From the doorway, Matt dares them to show their faces, but the men scoff drunkenly and ride off, leaving a bundle of switches at the gate with a note of threatening trouble for folks who defend their “reb lovin sons.” Matt sinks to a chair, remarking that the war is a “beast with long claws,” while Ellen loads the family’s gun.
Jethro and Jenny reestablish harmony within the family just as an outside threat arises. It turns out that Guy Wortman’s campaign against the Creightons didn’t end with his frustrated attempt to harm Jethro. Matt calls out the vigilantes’ hypocrisy—by attacking secretly under cover of darkness, they avoid having to answer to others for their beliefs—yet they lack the courage to show their faces as real “men” would, or so the novel implies.
Themes
After this incident, some people turn their backs on the Creightons, but many others volunteer to take turns standing watch over the cabin at night. Nancy and her boys move in with the rest of the family for safety. After a month of inactivity, the defenders conclude that the switches represented an empty, drunken threat. They tell Jethro to tie the dog up near the cabin for protection at night, then they turn their attention back to the hard work of spring planting. Ed Turner installs a dinner bell near the door that Jethro can ring for help if necessary.
Although Bill made his choice to join the Confederates for himself, his choice has implications for his family as well. The Creightons accept these consequences without complaint, in part, the novel suggests, because they have learned to accept the hardships and suffering of life. But their patience also emphasizes to Jethro—and to readers—the importance of having courage in one’s convictions no matter what the consequences.
Themes
Jethro isn’t even very worried when the dog goes missing. But a few nights later, he wakes to the smell of smoke and discovers the barn enveloped in flames. Hay, grain, wagon, and harnesses burn, but the animals—in a field on the warm night—survive. As the fire dies out, Ed Turner tells Jethro to throw buckets of water around its edges. When Jethro draws the first bucket from the well, he smells the rank odor of coal oil. The vandals, as “self-appointed judges,” have punished the Creightons by dirtying their well.
The local vigilantes appoint themselves judge, jury, and punisher of Bill’s desertion to the South. But while they themselves don’t fight for the enemy, neither do they support the Union cause in any meaningful way, instead taking the cowardly path of attacking a defenseless family anonymously, under the cover of darkness. The book criticizes them for their actions and their cowardice, which it places in stark opposition to Bill’s strength of character and the courage he shows in following through on his convictions, even if they lead him to support an unjust cause.
Themes
