Cold Mountain: Living On

Within this time period of the Civil War in Cold Mountain, I noticed a similarity of their situation and ours in present time. Although people are not fighting and killing on purpose there is instead a deadly virus, and there is still a sense of loss of lives that both points in time along with the loss of past lives. During the Civil War, people were afraid to leave their town in fear of getting caught in the middle of a war and now people can’t leave their homes for a different reason out of their control. In the midst of catastrophes like these, we can begin to fear the future. Ada and Ruby explore this idea after hearing of an unlucky and deadly run in with the Home Guard: “the world might better be viewed as such a place of threat and fear that the only consonant attitude one could maintain was gloom, or whether one should strive for light and cheer even though a dark-fisted hand seemed poised ready to strike at any moment” (149). It is easy to fall into a constant state of worry and negativity within such a time of uncertainty but there is also the option to live on in hope of better times. You just need to take on one day at a time: “[Inman] had long since decided there was little usefulness in speculating much on what a day will bring. It led a person to the equal error of being either dreadful or hopeful. Neither in his experience served to ease your mind” (213). There is no reason to dwell on one mistake or unfortunate experience because life will carry on and better times will come so sometimes it is better to let life be thrown at you while you’re ready.