Shades of Gray

The incidents in this section force Will to recognize his privilege, learn to be grateful, and see things from the perspective of others, again foregrounding The Importance of Other People’s Perspectives. Will notes many differences throughout his time with his aunt’s family, and he gives off the impression that he believes everything was better at home. Will is largely ignorant of his biases, and before moving in with his aunt, he has never really been confronted with any ideas that contradict his own. His outlook was very limited and one-sided. Through his interactions with his aunt’s family and other people in the country, he acknowledges some of his biases, even when he does not immediately overcome them. An example of this is his impression of the river Meg shows him. He expects the river to be as grand as the Shenandoah, and when it is not, he makes note of this. It is Meg who points out his belief that everything back home is better. This does not change Will’s mind, but it does open him up to other viewpoints because he is able to see his own biases.

The differences between having wealth and having less are emphasized throughout the entire novel, and in Chapter 11, the privileges of wealth are shown through the different educations the children receive. While Will’s mother was able to teach his sisters how to read, Aunt Ella was not able to do this for her own daughters for two main reasons: She did not have time to teach them because she spent all of her time meeting her family’s immediate needs, and she did not have any books to use for teaching. Will never considers that his cousin could not read because his mother taught his own sisters without any of these obstacles. Socioeconomic differences allow Will’s family to purchase enslaved people, and their labor provides his mother with more free time. Also, life in the city did not require the amount of manual labor that country living requires, and as such, Will’s mom was able to provide her daughters with an education that Aunt Ella was not able to.

Uncle Jed has a cohesive perspective on violence. He believes people should fight their necessary battles while avoiding those that are either unnecessary or do not involve them. For instance, he earlier refused to fight Mr. Jenkins because he knew it was an unfair fight and was not necessary. He also refused to fight in the Civil War because he did not believe it involved him. Here, however, he maintains that Will needs to solve his own problem with Hank because having someone else interfere will only make it worse. While Will thinks his uncle is a coward, his uncle does not assert that people need to avoid all violence. He merely believes that a person has to weigh whether they should be a part of this violence. As such, he tells Will that Will has to learn to handle Hank on his own if he will ever be free of the boy. Through this, he teaches his nephew the importance of standing up for what is right and fighting one’s own battles, an element of Different Definitions of Courage.

At this point, Will has different views of cowardice and courage than his uncle’s family does. He believes that he had no choice but to fight Hank, which is in opposition to Uncle Jed and his family, who believe that people do have choices. Furthermore, Will maintains that people would have thought him a coward had he avoided a fight, and until he talks to his aunt, he does not consider that just because a person is considered a coward does not make them so. All along, Will never questioned whether his uncle was a coward. The man refused to fight, and as such, he believed he deserved the descriptor. Now, Will is confronted with the idea that a person does have choices and not everybody thinks as he does. This added outside perspective is necessary in helping him develop a more expansive view of people and morality. Where he previously saw necessity, now Will is starting to be confronted with the idea that people always have choices.

The family’s interactions with James, the Union soldier, cause Will to examine his selfishness and long-held beliefs about Northerners. Believing there is nothing redeemable about Yankees, Will is surprised by James’s manners, empathy, and gratitude, which forces him to reconsider his treatment of his aunt. He realizes he has been deficient in expressing his gratitude to her for her well-cooked food. When he complains that the family will have to stretch their food to feed James, he is confronted with Meg’s assertion that Will never thought twice about how they had to stretch to feed him. Both Aunt Ella and Uncle Jed point out that there were good people and bad people on both sides—with the side being determined by where someone was born. Will feels guilt that he wanted his uncle to turn Jim away, recalling that his mother had cared for the sick and wounded on both sides during the war. In his conversation with Jim, he learns how Union soldiers under Sheridan tried to spare barns they were ordered to burn by soaking bales of hay in water. Will doesn’t want to believe Jim’s remorse about what happened in the Shenandoah Valley, especially since the Southern soldier at the mill seemed almost proud of the destruction the soldiers wreaked on the North. Not surprisingly, Will’s emotions are all over the map in this section, as he finds himself facing hard truths about war, his judgment of others, and goodness he didn’t expect to find in those he’d labeled enemies.

Jim’s arrival also leads Uncle Jed and Will to have a tense conversation about cowardice, courage, and the Civil War. Will has labeled his uncle a coward, and he has viewed Union soldiers as evil. When he and his uncle argue about James, his uncle confronts Will about Will’s hatred. This is the first time Will’s attitudes are framed as hate, and the first time Will’s selfishness and self-centeredness are called out in such harsh terms. Will lost everyone he loved because of the war, and because of this, it is reasonable that he would be consumed with grief. While hatred of the Yankees is not noble, it is also somewhat understandable. When Uncle Jed points out these characteristics to Will, however, Uncle Jed allows Will to see himself in a new light. Will then has to decide whether he will open up his perspective and let his hate go or if he will continue to let hatred and self-centeredness rule his life. He is only able to make this decision, however, because he was confronted with these faults in his own character. As such, one of the greatest gifts Uncle Jed, Meg, and Aunt Ella provide for Will is a mirror to show him himself.