Across Five Aprils - Itasca Middle School

Summary and Analysis 16
cousin, are there. Jenny and Bill are Jethro’s favorites, even though Bill sometimes seems
strange and quiet, preferring a book to anyone’s company. At the table they talk about
Jenny’s affection for Shadrach, which Matt Creighton promptly discourages, saying she is
too young.
Jethro and his mother return to the field. As they stop to rest, they see a team of horses
coming up the road. It is Wilse Graham, Ellen’s sister’s son, visiting from Kentucky. They
anxiously await what news he brings.
Chapter 2
Wilse brings Ellen up to date on her Kentucky family. Matt asks Wilse if Kentucky wants
to secede, and Wilse says maybe and, in return, asks how southern Illinois would feel about
it. Matt says it will be hard for the river states, and Wilse argues that southern Illinois is
part of the South. Matt argues that "separate, we’re jest two weakened, puny pieces, each
needin’ the other." Wilse argues that only half of the country enjoys those benefits. Wilse
says that the South should be able to do what it wants with no interference and adds that
since the beginning of time slavery has existed. Wilse says that the real issue is greed, not
slavery. Jethro listens to this conversation and realizes that any excitement he felt about the
prospect of war was immature.
Ellen calls for the arguing to stop, and Wilse apologizes. Jethro naps on the porch and
wakes up when Shadrach returns. Shadrach reports that there has been firing at Fort Sumter
and that after thirty hours, the Union general surrendered. Jenny asks if this means war, and
Shadrach explains that since Congress is not in session and cannot declare war, it technically
is not war yet. However, Lincoln had asked for 75,000 volunteers to fight. Matt says that
despite Congress not being in session, it is indeed war.
Analysis
These chapters depict the beginning of two slow transformations. First, it introduces the
transformation of years of malcontent and animosity between regions of the nation into a
full-fledged war. And second, the chapters illustrate the deterioration of Jethro’s family from
a single unit into one picked bare by the war and, by consequence, Jethro’s transformation
from a boy into a man during a time of war.
Chapter 2 in particular sets up the arguments between the North and the South. Hunt
shows us how the arguments play out, as the discussion prompted by Wilse Graham’s visit
typifies the arguments of the day. This discussion underscores Ellen’s comment that Lincoln
has to pick between two wrong choices—even though it might be the reader’s tendency to
agree with position of the North, if only for anti-slavery reasons, the arguments from both
sides are convincing—neither side is entirely wrong and neither is entirely right. The fact
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