Across Five Aprils - Itasca Middle School

Summary and Analysis 17
that a relative of Ellen’s sides with the South shows how common it is for not only the
country, but for families, friends, and small communities as well, to be divided on this
issue. Hunt uses Wilse Graham to foreshadow all the families that will be pulled apart by
disagreements regarding the war.
In Chapter 2, Jethro has an insight into what war means. As a boy it is understandable
that he associates war with fanfare and shining patriotism. He soon realizes—a realization
that becomes deeper and graver as the book proceeds—that war is neither a show nor a game.
He begins to understand just how serious war is if it brings a family to boiling arguments at
the dinner table. Shadrach’s news that shots have been fired and that the Union general has
surrendered drives home two points: that the war has indeed begun and that the North is in
for a tough fight.
In a sense, Chapters 1 and 2 are a small-scale version of the book in its entirety. Hunt
gives us a sense of who the characters are and what roles they fill in the context of the
family. From here on out, we see those characters function not so much within the context
of family but within the context of war, which means they struggle to keep the family intact.
The realizations they have in the beginning of the text sink in deeper and deeper—for some
characters, they become physical, every day realizations and for others they remain topics
for mind dwelling and brooding. For everyone, these realizations of war bring fear and
uncertainty. At the end of Chapter 2, as they gather around Shadrach for the news, it is the
last time they are all together as a family. The end of Chapter 2 is the brink, and none of the
characters is the same from this point on.
Chapters 3–4
Summary
Chapter 3
That summer, largely to distract themselves from the burgeoning war, people in southern
Illinois convene on the weekends for parties and balls. They hear about the battle of Bull
Run, and everyone realizes this will be a longer, harder battle than they thought: "no more
confident statements of ending the whole affair in one decisive swoop." Tom and Eb want
to join the war effort as soon as possible, and John and Shadrach plan to join in mid-winter.
Tom and Eb leave in late summer, amid news of more northern defeats, specifically
one in Missouri. A Union commander and many soldiers from Illinois died there. Jethro
absorbs all this information, particularly news of a brilliant Union general named McClellan.
After Tom and Eb leave, Jethro sleeps in the same room as Bill and often wakes up having
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