When the Jessamine Grows

“What he never brought up was no matter how virtuous he made it, winning should never be assumed. Men were not invincible. War was anything but how he depicted it with his elaborations on the cause and seeking justice, the grandeur of a righteous struggle. He left out the misery of exposure to extreme temperatures, hunger, thirst, disease, horrific injuries, and the ultimate price, death. He treated it like some fanciful fairytale life.”

Joetta is concerned about Rudean’s glorification of war and how he is only showing Henry and Robert the greatness and excitement of war rather than showing the brutality and suffering that war creates. She is right and his encouragement eventually leads to Henry’s volunteering and Ennis’s departure to find him. This also foreshadows that Rudean will learn this lesson himself as well, not just his grandsons. After Rudean’s death, Robert’s reveal that Rudean regretted glorifying war after Ennis’s presumed death shows the development that Rudean overgoes in the novel, going from being completely dismissive of criticisms of the Confederacy and being excited about the war, to understanding the flaws of the Confederacy and wishing for the war to be over, highlighting The Impact of War on Families.

“Joetta knew it to be a cockade. They had appeared suddenly to show who supported the South seceding from the Union.”

The passage introduces the cockade as a symbol for loyalty to the Confederacy and a motif driving The Moral and Social Implications of Neutrality in Conflict. The cockade turns Henry against Ennis, leading to him leaving. Later on, the cockade would be used by others, and then by Joetta, in an attempt to keep her family safe by pretending she is pro-Confederacy.