Across Five Aprils

Ironically, the first Creighton brother to die is Tom, the one who was most excited about the war. Tom’s death brings the reality of war home to the family once again, tying into the theme of The Personal Impact of War. From a historical perspective, Tom is just one of the thousands of “shadowy men” that Jethro abstractly imagined as the casualties of war in Chapter 1. To the Creightons, however, Tom is a beloved son and brother who was violently ripped from their lives. In later years, Jethro learns the importance of the battle in which Tom was killed but sees it as “an empty victory” (120).

Confronting death is a major aspect of the theme of Resilience and Growth in the character arcs of both Jethro and Jenny. When they go through the family Bible, the full names of all of the Creighton children are revealed, including the four who had already died. Taking in the dates of the three siblings who died in the same year, it strikes Jethro for the first time just how devastating that time must have been. Mary’s death when he was seven was the first time he began to grasp what death was, and in this scene with Jenny, Jethro’s understanding of death expands even more. This time he not only knows what death means but truly feels it. This is another moment of lost innocence for Jethro and also for Jenny, who must face the fact that her happy fantasies of a life with Shad may never come true.

The theme of The Moral Complexities of Humanity continues in this section when, once again, the greatest threat to the Creightons’ community is not Confederate soldiers but people on their political side. In the previous section, it was Wortman and his gang; here, it is the swarm of former Union soldiers who have deserted. However, the danger the deserters pose to the community is not born from ignorance and hatred, but from desperation and fear. Because the punishment for desertion is so harsh, the deserters have no recourse, and their desperation puts everyone else at risk. The moral ambiguity of the situation is highlighted further with the arrival of the Federal Registrars, who are invasive and disrespectful. These men, authority figures who represent the Union, come across as more reprehensible than Bill or Eb, both of whom could be called traitors to the Union. After the Registrars mock Jethro for his accent, it occurs to him for the first time that his way of speaking might be “subject to ridicule” (132). Here, a sharp contrast is drawn between the Registrars and the Creightons: Although they are all northerners, in many ways the Creightons have more in common, culturally and linguistically, with the South. Again, the line between the two sides is blurred, and it’s clear that, as Matthew told Wilse Graham in Chapter 2, “Human nature ain’t any better one side of a political line than on the other” (31).

Jethro has gone through enough experiences by now to realize that people can’t be reduced to such simple categories. This shows when Jethro chooses not to burden his father to make a decision about Eb and instead takes the problem to Lincoln, the “father” of the nation, who actually has the power to do something, and who, Jethro hopes, will approach the problem with a nuanced viewpoint rather than a punitive one. Jethro’s letter from President Lincoln is one of the most significant moments in the novel, cementing Lincoln not only as someone Jethro deeply respects but also as a friend. Lincoln admits that he might not be making the right decision but believes mercy is more important than punishment. This places Lincoln in contrast with people like Guy Wortman, who uses his blind belief in his own rightness to justify violence.