Novel Cold Sassy Tree example essay topic

Cold Sassy Tree, a novel by Olive Ann Burns, is an incredible story about the southern town of Cold Sassy, and a young man named Will Tweedy. In 1906, fourteen year old Will Tweedy is just starting to realize what it means to be a man, and all the responsibility that comes along with growing up. In Cold Sassy GA, the town is filled with gossip surrounding the town's newest newlyweds. Will Tweedy finds himself eyewitness to it all.

Grandpa E Rucker Blakeslee has 'tied the knot' with the young milliner, Miss Love Simpson. With it being only three weeks after the death of his last wife, the family and town alike are shocked. Confused but curious about it all, Will observes what it means to be husband and wife and what it really means to love. Puzzled by the secrets shared between the two, he tries to figure out just why Grandpa Blakeslee asked Miss Love for her hand in marriage and why she even agreed.

While Grandpa Blakeslee is experiencing his second adolescence, Will is trying to make it through his first. When Will gets hit by a train and is still alive to tell about it, Grandpa Blakeslee gives him a lesson on God's Will. And Will starts to realize not everyone interprets things the same way. When the mill child, Lightfoot crosses Will's path his heart skips a beat. With all Will's new found attractions and desires he decided to try his luck with the girls. That's when he experiences his first kiss, and also his first heartbreak.

After the innocent Uncle Camp kill's himself due to Aunt Loma's constant criticism, Will starts to question how he treats people. He starts to wonder if maybe he helped his uncle pull the trigger. Soon after that Grandpa Blakeslee's store isn't doing all that well. Two unidentified strangers come and rob Grandpa Blakeslee blind, in the process beating him up 'something awful'.

With his weakness effecting his immune system, he catches a bad case of pneumonia and soon passes away. But not before Miss Love could tell him what he had been waiting to hear his whole life... He would soon have a son to carry on the family name. Not at all scared of death or the unknown, Grandpa Blakeslee orders a letter to be read concerning his funeral and remains. But to everyone's surprise he orders the cheapest and lowest class funeral and orders himself nothing, but a wooden box.

Wanting no one to mourn over him and everyone to know that he was dead, he ordered a party. Will Tweedy surprised by the quickness of it all learned to accept his new way of life, and looked forward to caring for his new baby uncle. Mr. E Rucker Blakeslee's marriage to Miss. Love caused a big conflict in the small town of Cold Sassy GA. People weren't sure how they should act around a widower how got married 'before his wife was hardly cold in the grave. ' This external conflict the author created was enough to stay through the whole story.

Mr. Blakeslee and Miss. Love's marriage kept the whole town talking. And when the family found out not only that he was engaged to his wife so soon, but also that they had eloped, the whole family became upset about what their church and town would think, and the terrible reputation that would be bought upon the family. While everyone else was outraged at the whole ordeal, Will Tweedy believed it was a great idea 'the sooner the better'. Mr. Blakeslee wanted a wife, someone to cook and care for him in his older days, so he wouldn't be a burden upon his family.

He wasn't about to let someone tell him he couldn't have what he wanted so badly. As you progress through the story you come to find that not only did he want a maid but also someone to love. He cared for Miss. Love even before his other wife was dead he noticed her. Toward the end of the book before the death of Mr. Blakeslee people come to realize that maybe Miss. Love could become a respectable member of the family.

And the family and the town finally came to accept the marriage that was once so looked down upon. When Mr. Blakeslee died the town mourned for her as a widow, not just as a woman who would inherit a wealthy man's property and money. This is a wonderful novel if you wanted to know how people lived in the south during 1906, a great reenactment of the southern culture. I enjoyed this book fairly well. While I am usually not interested in stories set in the past, I believe this one was well told so that people of all ages could enjoy it. From a girl's point of view, I liked watching how a boy grows up through his own eyes, thoughts, and actions.

I even agreed with most of the main character's thoughts and could even relate to some parts of his life. He had a more modern way of thinking unlike his parents and some of the town. I believe, like Will, that it was time again for his grandfather to get married. I think that it should be his grandfathers time when to choose to be wed again, not the town or even his family. "The sooner the better", if you ask Will and me. Olive Ann Burns has written only one other novel, Leaving Cold Sassy.

That, like Cold Sassy Tree was written on her deathbed soon before she died of cancer in 1994. She never finished Leaving Cold Sassy. Burns was born in 1924 on a farm in Banks County GA. Her childhood school was what modeled in her novel Cold Sassy Tree.

She received a degree in journalism from the University of North Carolina, and later went on to join the Sunday magazine staff of Atlanta Journal and Constitution, were she stayed for ten years. Her marriage of the magazine's editor, Andy, soon produced two children, Becky and John. The novel Cold Sassy Tree was based on the stories her father told her as a young child. This book left me with the impression that life in the south in 1906 maybe wasn't as bad as it seemed. Even without all the modern technology there is today, people had fun in other ways. In a lot of ways life was better back then.

But there was still some of the crime and injustice we still see today. Religion seems to be a big part of their everyday lives. I believe other's should read this book if they want to relive life in the south, and watch how a young southern boy finally grows up.