Shades of Gray

“He’d momentarily forgotten his dread of living in the same house with a traitor—or with a coward, rather, since his uncle hadn’t actually helped the enemy.”

Will is ashamed of his uncle, which is one reason he does not want to go live with his aunt’s family. While he previously considered him a traitor, after talking to Doc Martin, he decides his uncle is a coward because he refused to fight. This belief causes Will a tremendous amount of distress.

“‘Well, around these parts, a man takes pride in doing things for himself’…Will had never thought about taking pride in hard, physical work.”

These words show some of the cultural differences between Uncle Jed’s family and Will’s family. Will feels morally superior because his father fought in the war and because, while his family enslaved people, they treated these people better than those on big plantations did. Here, Will is being exposed to a different value: one of doing hard work for oneself and taking pride in the job. Will never had to do physical work because his family had enslaved people, so this is a new concept to him.

“He hated having to defend his uncle to a man who’d lost two sons in the war, but he knew it would be wrong to stand by and hear him criticized.”

By this point, Will has learned a little about his uncle and the hard work he does. He does not agree that his uncle did the right thing in refusing to fight, but he does know that his uncle is taking good care of him. Therefore, he tells Mr. Jenkins that his uncle has treated him well. This admission causes Will some consternation, but he believes that defending his uncle in this way is the right thing to do.

“Will didn’t know whether he was angry because his uncle had thought he was a coward or because he’d seemed surprised to learn he wasn’t.”

These are Will’s thoughts after he decides to return to the millpond, even though the three rough boys might be there. Will still does not have a lot of respect for his uncle, but he still wants his uncle to respect him. He wants to impress the man to show that he can survive in the country and because he does not want someone he doesn’t respect looking down on him.

“I’ll always remember Charlie, but I want to forget about the way he died.”

Will says this to Meg after Hank tells him the story that he already knows about how his brother died. This illustrates the theme of memory and how it can be helpful to remember those who died. Still, he wants to remember the good parts about Charlie, not the sad parts.

“Shucks, he was just another farm boy. Gave Tom some bacon too. First meat he’d had in weeks.”

Despite displaying extreme animosity toward Jed for not fighting in the war, Hank sees no problem with his brother talking to the Yankees after a truce. However, Will sees this as a big problem. Throughout the novel, numerous people express sympathy for Yankee soldiers, but for most of the book, Will hangs on to his disdain for them.

“I’ve faced enemies too—the enemies of us all. Hunger. Illness. Grief. And hatred. But I’ve never faced my own countrymen as enemies. A man isn’t my enemy just ‘cause he believes different than I do.”

Will still mostly sees his uncle as a coward who refused to fight for his country. Uncle Jed explains that he has gone up against many enemies, but he continues to stand by his decision to avoid fighting in a war he did not believe in. He mentions hatred, and Will makes no note of this. Will is the only one in the novel who really expresses hatred toward the other side.

“Your pa did what he believed was right when he went to war. And I did what I believed was right when I didn’t go.”

Uncle Jed believes his decision to avoid war was honorable, but he also respects people who believed differently than he did. Unlike his nephew, he can empathize with other people’s decisions, even though he maintains that fighting to enslave other people is not about freedom for all.

“You could have stayed. It might have made things easier for you in the long run.”

Uncle Jed explains to Will that life might have been easier for him in town if Will had stayed and helped the men at the mill rather than followed his uncle home. This decision on Will’s part was his first real move toward his uncle.

“I don’t see that Tom Riley has much right to look down on your pa for not fighting since he only went to war because the conscriptors got him.”

Will now understands that there was not just a simple line of good and bad in regard to people who fought or chose not to fight in the war. He realizes here that people like Tom showed no more bravery than his uncle did because Tom did not choose to fight; he was forced to. He would not have fought otherwise.

“The Yankees may have messed up the millworks for ol’ man Brown, but earlier in the war he did a lot of milling for them, and the government finally paid him.”

Will’s ideas of right and wrong are further tested when he realizes that the Yankees destroyed the mill and paid Mr. Brown to do work for them. He is horrified that Mr. Brown helped the Yankees in this manner, but he also has to admit that he did not have much choice. Will continues to be confronted with more and more instances of people who performed acts he is not morally comfortable with.

“He watched Uncle Jed work, impressed by his careful, confident approach to the job and by the other men’s obvious increasing respect. Wasn’t there anything his uncle didn’t know how to do?”

Will is looking at more aspects of his uncle’s personality. He realizes all that the man can do, and because of this, he develops more respect for him. His opinions are becoming less one-sided.

“He looked like a perfectly ordinary young man, but he’d just admitted to burning people’s homes!”

This is the first time Will comes into contact with atrocities the Confederates committed during the war. Prior to this, he thought only Union soldiers committed such acts. His surprise that the man looks like an ordinary person shows that he thinks only monsters committed atrocities during the war, and by monsters, he means Union soldiers.

“With a jolt, Will realized that he was proud of Uncle Jed! That during the weeks they’d worked together he’d come to respect his uncle!”

Will has come to respect his uncle for the man’s strengths. Because of all the work they’ve done together—work Will would not have had to do at home—they’ve gotten to know one another, and Will has learned that his uncle knows how to do many things very well.

“Your mama had time to teach her daughters those things. She didn’t have to spend every waking moment cooking and washing and mending and cleaning and gardening. And your mama had books.”

Aunt Ella here explains two important differences between her own life and her sister’s. Her sister had more means. As such, she had books she could use to teach her daughters. Second, her sister had enslaved people. Because of this, Will’s mother had more time than Aunt Ella ever had or would have.

“By tomorrow it will all be forgotten, lad. ‘Cept maybe by you.”

There are two possible ways to interpret Uncle Jed’s comment here. The first is that it is easier to forgive other people for their failings than it is to forgive oneself. The second possible interpretation refers to Will himself. He holds grudges, particularly against his uncle, and he is stubborn.

“Think how those boys would torment him if his auntie complained that Hank had beaten him up. I don’t like it better than you do, Ella, but this is something Will has to handle by himself.”

Uncle Jed expresses an understanding of interpersonal dynamics and young boys. He explains to his aunt that while they want to protect Will, speaking to Hank’s father will actually make things worse for Will. He believes Will has to learn to handle difficult situations and people by himself. This thinking is in line with the importance Jed places on fighting one’s own battles.

“A person thinking you’re a coward doesn’t make you one, Will.”

Will believes he had to fight Hank because otherwise, the boy would consider him a coward. Bravery is important to Will, and he considers entering into fights in which one is invited to be a sign of bravery. While explaining bravery to Will, Aunt Ella also defends her husband, implying that just because other people think Uncle Jed is a coward does not mean that he is one.

“Stop brooding on your own losses long enough to think about somebody else for a change!”

Uncle Jed confronts Will about one of his greatest weaknesses. He has allowed his pain to close his eyes to the plight of others. He is so focused on what he has lost that he cannot understand that other people have lost just as much as he has. These words start to help Will realize the errors of his ways.

“With a jolt, Will realized that Uncle Jed wasn’t doing anything the people of Winchester hadn’t done throughout the war. He remembered how his mother and the other women had fed the wounded soldiers who straggled through the town for days after the battle at Sharpsburg, not caring the least whether they were Confederate or Yankee. They were just young men in need of help.”

From the beginning, Will has seen the Confederate soldiers as good and the Union soldiers as bad. People who aided either of these sides were good or evil based upon who they helped. At first, Will is angry to learn that a Yankee soldier will stay with them for a brief period, but then he remembers his mother and other women did the same thing when they tended to the sick and injured during the war. This realization helps slowly erode his black-and-white thinking about the war.

“When the miller’s helper told him how he’d helped burn that town in Pennsylvania, he’d seemed almost proud of what he’d done. But just now Jim Woodley seemed sorry for his part in destroying the Valley. It didn’t make any sense at all!”

Will’s confusion stems from the black-and-white thinking he still has over the war. He is confronting some of his beliefs about good and bad, but deep down, he still believes Yankee soldiers are monsters and Confederate soldiers are admirable. He bases his judgments of people not on their behavior but on their affiliation with a group.

“Sometimes, though, if we admit we made a mistake, we do get a second chance.”

Will has slowly realized his mistakes. He was self-centered, judgmental, and dishonest, causing Hank to get a beating he did not deserve. Will realizes that there is a chance for redemption, and he rights things with Hank and apologizes to his uncle for his harsh opinions about him.

“It was his pride—pride in his hatred of the Yankees—that had changed him from ‘Will’ back into ‘Will-yum Page.’”

Will acknowledges two of his greatest weaknesses: his pride and his hatred. He also realizes the negative consequences that come to him because of these faults. He sets about improving them once he is able to accept them.