How we cite our quotes: (Part.Chapter.Paragraph)
Quote #10
The energy failed. He felt himself flicker. But it was a long slow falling, very quiet, very peaceful, rather still, but always the motion, the darkness closing in, and so he fell out of the light and away, far away, and was gone. (4.4.112)
General Armistead's death is like a candle going out—he feels the deep energy of life start to dissolve and finally disappear. Does this passage suggest that Armistead is moving on to heaven, or a better place, or another consciousness… or is it just death, plain and simple?
Quote #11
The train rain came in a monster wind, and the storm broke in blackness over the hills and the bloody valley; the sky opened along the ridge and the vast water thundered down, drowning the fires, flooding the red creeks, washing the rocks and the grass and the white bones of the dead, cleansing the earth and soaking it thick and rich with water and wet again with clean cold rainwater, driving the blood deep into the earth, to grow again with the roots toward Heaven. (4.6.27)
The end of the book finds meaning in death. All the lives lost during the battle help restore the land, with the blood sinking into the earth. Since the next day is the Fourth of July, this imagery implies that the deaths in the battle are going to help bring America back to life—dooming the Confederate Cause and ending their hopes of secession, but also ushering in a new era of unity. Even more importantly, it's going to help in freeing the slaves.