The March, Chapter Two And More

Posted by: Zahiruddin Alim
Date: Fri 01/25/2008 03:58 PM

In Chapter 2 we meet Arlyn and young Will, representing a class of
people as yet unmentioned in the story. They are poor white folk,
neither slave owner nor slave, occupying the margins of a society and
economy dominated by the plantation system that had no room in the
middle. In the story they start out as prisoners, Arlyn for having
fallen asleep on sentry duty and Will for deserting because he had to
go see his family. Freed by the Rebels on condition of being drafted
back into the militia, they take part in a futile defensive action.
In the disarray of their defeat, they dress themselves in the
uniforms taken from dead Union soldiers, becoming renegades, the term
for what comes below “deserter” as Will wonders at one point.
They take to following the Union Army, trying to blend in, but not
quite managing to do so.
Will’s reason for deserting is about the only mention of his family
background. His adventures with Arlyn are at best a sideshow, the
closest the story comes to comic relief, to the extent that such a
thing is conceivable in the macabre tale that is The March. The focus
seems to be on the leaders and members of the wealthy class, with
secondary importance given to the stories of the freed slaves. The
bulk of the soldiers, on both sides, are cast in diminutive roles
when they are mentioned. Their actions are treated in broad terms of
drunken looting, raping, plundering and torching, as being motivated
by the nature of the beast that is soldiering. It diminishes the
culpability of the ruling classes in the perpetuation of all the
horrors.
Admittedly, the author must choose what to focus on and elaborate on
some things at the expense of others. So far in the book, the
fascination seems to be with the fall of the classy Southern gentry
and their interaction with the high and mighty on the other side.
Making room for the plight of freed slaves takes up the rest of the
oxygen, leaving none for the bulk of the people who inhabit the
events, and do the bulk of the dying and suffering.
Having pointed out what I see as shortcomings in the book so far in
terms of an objective social analysis, I feel obligated to express my
subjective enjoyment in reading the book and listening to it being
read. The quality of the writing is certainly part of it, but in
terms of being immersed in the happenings, I can identify myself to
some extent with each of the social categories, whether it be the
elite, rising or falling, or the subservient breaking free, or even
the marginalized, middle class mainstream, playing its farcical role
in a great dance of death and destruction.
The way the story is structured works to make me get through the
tale, at least until I confront reality when I am done reading, or
the CD ends.