John Brown's Body Summary

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to his ruined home in Georgia, where Sally Dupré was waiting. InConnecticut, Jack Ellyat heard stories of strange gypsy travelers whowere going from town to town looking for a soldier who was thefather of the child of the woman who drove the creaking cart. Oneday he was standing beneath the crossroads elms when he saw acart come slowly up the hill. He waited. The woman driving wasMelora.Critical Evaluation:Stephen Vincent Benét’s poem John Brown’s Body is one of the fewAmerican poetic works which reach epic proportions; its length ofnearly fifteen thousand lines qualifies it as an epic in the classicalsense, and ranks it, in form and purpose at least, with the greatepics of Western literature. Although the poem as a whole istraditional in its classic structure, it is distinctly and uniquelyAmerican in its atmosphere, imagery, style, and symbolism. In hisinvocation, Benét calls upon the American Muse to aid him,providing inspiration for what he humbly acknowledges to be analmost impossible task because of the magnitude of its scope. Thepoet’s Muse becomes a symbol of America, his elusive subject: Sheis beautiful and strong, colorful and diverse, a unique, mysteriousoffspring of European and native parentage. Within the poem (line311), Benét describes his work as a “cyclorama,” a series of largepictures of America spread around the reader, who views them fromthe center.The major unifying element in this cyclorama is the spirit of JohnBrown. Based on the historical figure of the man who raided thearsenal at Harpers Ferry, Benét’s hero becomes the focal symbol ofthe epic; although he is condemned and hanged early in the work,his memory grows into the legend that gives hope and inspirationduring the dark days of the Civil War. The second unifying threadthroughout the loosely woven eight books is provided in thecharacters of Northerner Jack Ellyat and Southerner Clay Wingate.Other minor characters help round out the scheme whereby all theregions and social groups of a huge nation are represented: MeloraVilas and her father typify the border states and the expanding West;Lucy Weatherby is the Southern coquette; Luke Breckinridge, the
independent mountaineer; Jake Diefer, the settled farmer; Spade,the runaway slave; Cudjo, the loyal slave; and Shippy, the Northernspy. By tracing the fortunes of such diverse people, Benétdramatizes not only how the war affects their lives but also how theirlives shape the nation.While Benét does not fully explore the complexities of the Northernfamily and their way of life, one of the greatest achievements of JohnBrown’s Body is his accurate and balanced picture of Southern life.With realism and insight, he probes the character of John Brown andof his legend. Judging the raid as foolish, he sees Brown as amurderer and a fanatic, a man so caught in his zealous dream thathe remains coldly unmoved by his son’s horrible death. Brown theman was a failure; but dead, he became a crucial legend andsymbol. Likewise, the Southern slaves are portrayed in all thecomplexity, ambiguity, and irony of their situation, and the Wingatesembody the dilemma of the genteel Southern aristocratic family.!
Page 1 and 2: Jack Ellyat, a Connecticut youth, h
Page 3: Slowly the Confederacy began to fee

John Brown's Body Summary

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