Across Five Aprils Literary Elements

Young adult, historical fiction

Southern Ilinois in the early 1860s, when the American Civil War has just broken out

Third-person limited point of view from the perspective of Jethro Creighton, a young boy living with his family on a farm when war threatens to break their family and their country apart.

Matter-of-fact, sentimental, vaguely hopeful

Protagonist: Jethro Creighton, a young boy with strong ideals living on a farm in Southern Illinois. Antagonist: the forces of strife in the Civil War, along with Guy Wortman, a bully-like character who makes life miserable for the Creightons.

Jethro's brothers are off at the war, which is the major conflict of this novel. They are on different sides, so the lines of loyalty and morality become a bit blurry.

The Civil War is brought to a close by the signing of a peace treaty, but a few days later, President Lincoln is assassinated. To soothe Jethro's sadness, his sister and her husband let him know that he will be staying with them and getting a proper education.

The confrontation with Guy Wortman and his men is foreshadowing for the trouble they will cause for the Creightons later, burning down their barn and just generally causing a ruckus.

“There may be war in the land at this minute for all we know.” - Ellen, Ch. 1

The novel alludes to contemporary figures such as President Lincoln and the generals of the opposing armies during the Civil War, as well as to the Civil War itself, although it assumes that the reader is already familiar with the conflict.

This novel concerns the American Civil War, and in accordance with the theme, the novel contains a substantial amount of war imagery. Two of Jethro's brothers are involved in the war, and the soldiers are often accompanied by descriptions of battle and wounds.

One of Jethro's brothers fights for the Union Army while another fights for the Confederacy; this creates the paradoxical situation of Jethro not being able to pull for both sides at once.

The killing of Jethro's brother Tom during the war parallels the assassination of Lincoln at the end; Jethro looked up to both of them, and his sadness is evident in both cases.

“... southern Illinois at that hour was pink with sunrise and swelling redbud and clusters of bloom over the apple orchard across the road.” (10)

“A south breeze brought the scent of lilacs and sweet fennel to his nostrils and set all the frosty-green leaves of a silver poplar tree to trembling.” (11)