Across Five Aprils

Across Five Aprils is a bildungsroman, or coming-of-age novel, which follows the life of a young protagonist as they journey from childhood to adulthood. The protagonist, Jethro, grows from a naïve nine-year-old into a thoughtful 13-year-old, shaped by the unique hardships and challenges brought on by the Civil War. The events of the war are all filtered through the eyes of Jethro, who provides a more personal lens through which to view such massive historical events. As Jethro is forced to face horrific tragedy and take on unexpected responsibilities, he learns how to deal with the challenges he faces, taking lessons from those he looks up to, like his father, Shad, Ross Milton, President Lincoln, and even Bill. He learns to handle problems himself instead of relying on his parents or Jenny to relieve him, as he realizes that all of the adults in his life—even the president himself—are all wrestling with the same grief and uncertainty that he is.

A distinctive feature of Across Five Aprils is the characters’ diction, which is closely tied to the setting. Most of the characters speak with a heavy rural drawl, which Irene Hunt represents phonetically in the dialogue. Characters use words like “fer” instead of “for,” “hev” instead of “have,” “git” instead of “get.” The characters’ accent not only ties them to the setting but also emphasizes their relationship to the South. Though the Creightons and their neighbors are part of the Union, their accents highlight the fact that, as Wilse Graham says, “you folks air closer by a lot to the folks in Missouri and Kaintuck than you are to the bigwigs up in Chicago and northern Illinois. You’re southern folks down here” (28).

There are two major characters in the story who speak with less of a drawl: Shad Yale and Ross Milton. Their more proper diction reflects the fact that they are more educated than the other characters. Milton offers Jethro a book to help him learn to speak properly, which Jethro happily accepts. During the scene when the Federal Registrars investigate the house, Jethro is embarrassed when they mock him for his accent, and he has the revelation that people outside of his community may judge him for his speech. After this, Jethro makes a conscious effort to try to speak and write properly, and throughout the book, Jethro’s diction and vocabulary become subtly more sophisticated though he never completely abandons his accent. The change in Jethro’s manner of speaking reflects how he has changed internally.