April Morning Themes Flashcards
Change
Change is an important theme in the novel “April Morning” by Howard Fast. Change is essentially transition from one phase, place, or even stage of life, to the next. Many changes occur during the course of the novel, and all of them directly affect main character, Adam, who himself undergoes numerous changes (indeed, he comes of age) as a result.
When the novel begins, Massachusetts is at peace. Towns like Lexington and Kentucky are quiet and staid, and the people who live in the towns and villages and farms pray, work hard, and endeavor to give their children a better life than they had. For Adam, his biggest challenge is attempting to transition between boyhood and manhood, and getting his father to see that he is trying to do so. Adam’s relationship with his father is not good, for Moses is strict and has high expectations of Adam. At the same time, the relationship of the American colonies with their mother country, Great Britain, is not good – but like Adam’s relationship with his father, it struggles on. The night of April18-19, 1775, changes everything.
The British pour out from Boston to seize weapons and munitions from Concord, along a route which will bring them directly through Lexington. The Lexington militia rallies, and Adam joins up. As they head off to form up, Moses essentially hugs his son, healing the rift that has grown between them. However, the rift that has grown between mother country and colony is not healed, as the British soldiers, unprovoked, open fire on the Lexington militia, killing many, and driving the others away. It is war. The peaceful Massachusetts countryside has become a battlefield in a war between the American rebellion and the greatest superpower on Earth. The dynamics of the world have changed as a result. The battle throws men who have never fired weapons at another in anger into the midst of war, and is a baptism of fire, and journey into manhood, for Adam.
Indeed, everything for Adam has changed. His home colony is now at war. His father is dead, and he is the man of the family. He must now balance his duties as a man to the colony, and his duties to his family at home – and strive for some sort of ground in between. Things will never be the way they were before, and after Adam views the body of his father in wake at home, he closes the door behind him – a symbolic act of shutting the door on the past, and looking to the future.
Family
Family is an important theme in the novel “April Morning” by Howard Fast. Family, thematically, involves love, compassion, loyalty, encouragement, and support of others who may or may not be blood-related, but who still function and behave in the way of the traditional family unit. In “April Morning”, family means everything, and has tremendously important and positive influence on the plot, and on the character of Adam himself.
Adam, though unhappy with his father’s strictness, is glad to be a part of his family. They are close-knit, stable, and secure. Deeply Christian, they are loving people who have happily brought in Granny to care for her after the death of her husband. Granny, in turn, is grateful for their love and support, and actively participates in daily family activities. This sort of love and loyalty strongly impacts Adam, who recognizes just how important family, in general, is. This will be incredibly important later on when Adam becomes the man of the family, and decides not to go off to war immediately in order to take care of his family. Moses, too, recognizes the importance of family almost too late, and explains just how much he truly does love Adam, and the rift between father and son is healed not long before the death of Moses.
Adam is stunned by the death of his father. Though he did not always get along with Moses, he did indeed love Moses. Moses’s hard work ethic, as well as his faith and reason, have all rubbed off in Moses in small ways. For example, during the running battle with the British as they withdraw to Boston, Adam summons up hardworking courage again and again to go back into the fight with the British –a clear example of his father’s influence, and Adam’s own burgeoning manhood. He will bring this more mature experience of the world to bear in his decision about remaining with his family for the time being, rather than immediately going off to fight.
When the novel ends, Sarah and Granny are beside themselves with worry about the future, and beside themselves with sadness at the death of Moses. Adam gently tends to them both, understanding not only his loyalty for them, but his absolute love for them as well. He sees Sarah off to bed, and then sits up a while with Granny that night. Adam tells Granny that she still has him and Levi, even though Moses is gone. This comforts her to some degree, but she worries that sooner or later, Adam will head off to war. It is a sacrifice that many families are making.
Faith
Faith is an important theme in the novel “April Morning” by Howard Fast. Faith principally concerns Christianity in general, as it is by far the dominant religion in the American colonies at that time, and is the religion of the entire population of Lexington at the time.
In colonial America, faith was central to the daily lives and culture of people and their communities. The church meeting house is the center of the village, and all functions and events – even political activities – occur at the church. There, the Committee meets, which debates town policies and actions related to the militia in regards to potential British action. Here, reason and religion, church and state all blend together perfectly for the people in Lexington. Only Adam at first seems skeptical of all things religious, doubting the importance of Christianity, and the goodness of God.
At the Cooper household, with the exception of Adam who is going through doubts as many teenagers do, and with the exception of Levi, because he is too young to truly understand things, Christianity is essential for Moses, Sarah, and Granny. Moses sees his Christian faith as a blend of faith and reason, and a defining way to practice his life through the examples of the hard work of Christ. Likewise, Granny is devoutly Christian, attempting to sow faith in Adam, which doesn’t take hold until Adam has his own real world experiences that bring him back to God. Sarah, likewise, is deeply Christian, maintaining that the Cooper household is itself a Christian household, and will not tolerate revelry in the face of the death of British soldiers.
Through the day of April 19, 1775, Christianity becomes a bulwark of strength for Adam, whose entire world is rocked, beginning with the death of his father early in the morning with the arrival of the British. Adam then spends much of the day meeting up with other survivors, and rallying with arriving militiamen from all across the countryside, and going into battle with them against the British. At home at the end of the day, Adam brings candles to church on behalf of his mother, and consents to the good advice of the Reverend, who counsels Adam against immediately going off to war in Boston. Here, Adam can be seen in deference to Christian wisdom and common sense. By the time he goes to bed that night, Adam prays to God, thanking Him that the day is over – for all of Adam’s doubts about God have been erased.
War
War is an important theme in the novel “April Morning” by Howard Fast. War is open combat and bloodshed between two or more opposing sides, occurring when peaceful resolution of differences is either not possible, or no longer possible. The war begun in “April Morning” is that of the American Revolution (also known as the Revolutionary War and the American Revolutionary War) in which years of British antagonism, and violation of the rights of American colonists are capped up by the unprovoked British assault on the citizens of Lexington, touching off a war that will last eight years and end in American victory and independence.
War is something that Adam, and nearly all of the other residents of Lexington, Massachusetts, have no desire for. None of them have ever fired a weapon in anger at another man. Even when the British column moves out from Boston to secure a cache of weapons and supplies in Concord, and moves through Lexington, Adam and most of the other men assembled hope that a peaceful resolution can be reached. The British response to efforts by the locals to talk things out – even at so late a stage – are met with rifle fire and slaughter. The survivors scatter, but word of the British atrocity spreads. By noon, American rebel militiamen are pouring in from all corners of the countryside, from Lincoln Town and beyond, growing by the hundreds. The British act at Lexington is a declaration of war, and while most American colonials hoped that war could be avoided, there is no option now but to fight for rights, family, and home.
Following Lexington, a skirmish is had near Concord, followed by a larger battle at North Bridge, at which point the British army breaks and decides to return to Boston. They are now outnumbered in enemy territory, and will must flee to the safety of Boston. As they march back down the road, militia open fire, forcing the British to make a fighting retreat. The British are unable to take battle formations, for the wooded landscape is unsuitable to battle lines, and time is running out. Only a British relief column arriving in Lexington saves the first British column, and even then, both columns are harassed on the return to Boston.
While the morning is a tragedy for the American colonials, the day ends in military victory, as the colonials drive the British back into Boston. The evening brings news that some 5,000 militiamen are now amassing and heading toward Boston to besiege the British – a true rallying of the countryside, and unlike anything ever seen before. The greatest superpower on earth has been chastened by farmers, laborers, family men, and boys. As Joseph Simmons remarks toward the end of the novel, war is not something that they wanted, but was something thrust upon them – and now will not end until the British are driven from the continent. With the day’s battles done, the true loss of war is counted and observed in the number of dead, and in the way that the world has changed forever, for each of the families who have lost loved ones, and for the world at large that peasant colonies could dare to challenge their masters.
Rights
Rights are an important theme in the novel “April Morning” by Howard Fast. Rights are fundamental guarantees and principles of freedoms afforded to human individuals in conjunction with their lives. In the novel, rights form a core component of the American continental case against the British Crown, for the rights of individuals in the American colonies have been infringed and denied by the British.
Early in the novel, Adam learns from Joseph Simmons that the Lexington Committee is drafting a statement of the rights of citizens – rights which have been denied by the British government. Simmons argues that rights are not created by governments, but are natural to men as gifts from God, and therefore cannot be denied by other men. Because these God-given rights are natural, all men have the right – and responsibility – to stand up for them, and to defend them in war if need be. The unprovoked attack of the British is a declaration of war against not only the American colonies, but is a direct affront to the idea that human rights come from God.
Among the many rights the British deny the American colonists are the right to peacefully assemble, and the right to have a say (representation in Parliament) in the laws passed and policies made which concern them. Other rights the British have denied include imprisoning people without just cause or due process, and allowing soldiers to run the streets and behave as bullies. The Reverend explains that the British have wiped away every vestige of freedom as the British have seen fit to do. As many of the colonials argue, a man’s land and home are his own, and no one else’s – and he has a right to live freely there, and to defend them when that freedom and that right is challenged or denied. The British troops who shoot down the men peacefully assembled at Lexington common, and who loot and burn homes, deny the rights of the people –and the people respond accordingly by setting out after the British, and laying siege to Boston. The defense of their God-given rights becomes known as a cause for which men are willing to die through the novel, and ultimately becomes “The Cause”.
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