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
Night has nearly fallen by the time the rest of the family have come in from the fields. Tom and Bill happily greet their cousin Wilse while Nancy and Jenny finish preparing a dinner of chicken, sweet potatoes, and honey-stewed apples. At first, Wilse catches Ellen up on family news from Kentucky. But after a while, the talk turns to the political situation. Matt asks Wilse if he thinks Kentucky will secede. Wilse thinks it will, and he asks Matt which way southern Illinois will go; after all, family connections and lifestyle align this region more closely with its southern neighbors than the rest of the northern states.
Thus far in the book, Jethro has seen war as a straightforward conflict between the North (on the side of good) and the South (on the side of evil). But the conversation at the dinner table with Wilse reminds him (and readers) that the conflict has many more nuances. This seems to suggest that the better path forward is to pursue compromise, working together to resolve issues rather than fighting for dominance. But attempted compromises on the issue of slavery have only served to increase division, since little middle ground exists between accepting and denying the right of some people to own and exploit others.
Themes
Matthew replies that he finds the whole business of secession troublesome; he believes that the country should remain united. Wilse angrily retorts that the benefits of the union have fallen unevenly toward the rich and arrogant North. Ellen timidly interrupts—with John’s support—to ask Wilse whether people ought not take a stand against slavery. But this, to Wilse, simply offers a distraction from South’s real issues: economic and political sovereignty. He does admit to an uncomfortable sense that he can’t justify owning other human beings (as he does) before God. But he’s content to leave the moral question of slavery for God to decide. And he alleges that Northern abolitionists harbor unspoken discomfort at the idea of formerly enslaved people suddenly becoming their equals.
Matt suggests that compromise is a better path forward for the country But neither Wilse nor John seem interested in subtlety, nuance, or compromise; both insist on the rightness of their own viewpoint and refuse to engage with each other’s arguments. Wilse provides a rationale for Southern secession based in the quintessentially American right of self-determination. To a certain extent, Wilse seems to recognize the contradiction between his passionate desire for Southern sovereignty and his explicit denial of the right of enslaved people to life free lives of self-determination. His willingness to leave that question to God suggests that he )and other Southerners like him) truly believes in self-determination only for white people like themselves. Insofar as the state’s rights argument that Wilse ignores the issue of slavery, it can and has been used to absolve slaveholding states from the moral responsibility for slavery. But, as Wilse rightfully points out, the issue of abolition—which can end an institution like slavery far more easily than it can address complex issues like racism and prejudice—proves to be far more complicated than many Northerners would like to admit.
Themes
Bill interjects for the first time. Slavery has been a fact in America for generations. Given this, he wonders whether recent Northern agitation to end the institution is sincere or whether it’s a cynical ploy to cover up Northern greed and make their cause seem more virtuous. Wilse readily agrees that it’s the latter. This conversation troubles Jethro, who had been so eager for war just a few hours earlier. Now he’s starting to understand that war means something more than the “excitement of guns and shouting men,” but he can’t quite understand what. Meanwhile, John, Wilse, and Bill continue to argue until Ellen forbids talk of politics for the rest of the meal.
This conversation at the dinner table forces Jethro for the first time to confront the fact that difficulty and ambiguity characterize most issues in life. He finds it profoundly disconcerting to try to think about the nuances that may exist even in cases of right and wrong—for instance, slavery is wrong, but the North may also have mixed motives for war. But while Jethro follows Bill into uncertainty, Wilse demonstrates a more typical attitude by latching onto the parts of Bill’s argument that align with his own beliefs, rather than taking the opportunity to critically examine his thought processes. Unfortunately, it’s impossible to apply the strategy that Ellen imposes at her table—simply avoiding divisive issues—to the country as a whole.
Themes
After dinner, Jenny and Bill wash the dishes while John and Nancy take their children home. Everyone else drifts into the yard to wait for Shad. Jethro curls up next to Matt and drifts off to sleep. He wakes when the teacher drives the team into the yard with the news that a few days earlier, the Confederates fired on Fort Sumter to prevent the federal troops there from receiving provisions. After a 30-hour siege, the federal troops surrendered. Tom expresses horror that “our” men gave in, while Ellen asks how many casualties occurred among “the boys.” Almost unbelievably, the papers report no deaths. Wilse angrily contends that Abraham Lincoln couldn’t have asked for a better excuse to declare war than manipulating the Confederate troops into firing the first shots. Congress may not have officially declared war, but everyone knows that it has begun.
Jethro’s falling asleep reminds readers that he is still a child, too immature and inexperienced to appreciate the coming storm of war. The differences in Tom’s and Ellen’s reactions to the news of Fort Sumter also suggest an uncritical glorification of war—Tom feels upset that “his” side lost the initial battle—and a weary understanding of its cost in lives. Notably, while Tom worries about sides, Ellen worries about people—note that she doesn’t ask about “our” boys or Northern boys but the number of casualties in general, all of which represent a lost future and a bereaved family somewhere.
Themes
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