Historical Fiction: The River Between Us by Richard Peck

Peck, Richard. 2006. THE RIVER BETWEEN US (Audio CD-Unabridged). New York, NY: Random House. ISBN 978-1-400-08982-6.

Plot Summary: This tale-within-a-tale tells the story of the lives of the Pruitt family in Grand Tower, Illinois at the start of the Civil War. The family consists of the main character, Tilly, her twin brother, Noah, her psychically gifted sister, Cass, and her mother. Her father is not present, athough the impact of his absence is felt in the family’s economic condition. When two women, Delphine and Calinda, arrive from New Orleans, they bring a touch of sophistication and even mystery to the small pro-Union town which is located across the Mississippi from Tower Rock, Missouri, a pro-Confederate town (though Missouri was in reality a border state kept forcibly in the Union). They become boarders in the Pruitt house and soon become an integral part of the family while still representing the Confederate perspective.

Tilly and Delphine develop a relationship while Cass finds a soul mate in Calinda, who is also gifted with the ability to prophesize. Noah eventually joins the war effort for the Union and Tilly’s mother has what can only be described as a nervous breakdown, as she worries for his safety. This leads Tilly and Delphine to travel to Camp Defiance to find Noah and bring him home. It is on this trip that Tilly discovers that Delphine is a quadroon and that Calinda is her sister, not her slave. They discover Noah, quite ill from dysentery, and nurse him back to health, just in time to go into battle where he is wounded and loses an arm to amputation. When the two young women bring Noah home, they discover that their father has returned, albeit deceased, having fought for the Confederacy; and that their mother has drowned herself in the Mississippi as she thought the person in the coffin was Noah.

The story is framed by a trip by Model T to the homestead, taken in 1916, by what is thought to be Tilly’s son, Dr. Hutchings, and his three sons, the oldest being 15-year old Howard. The book ends with the revelation of a family secret, that Dr. Hutchings is not Tilly’s son but Delphine’s son, and is, therefore, part African American. The reader is left with Dr. Hutchings considering joining the war effort (WW I) and Howard contemplating his new-found heritage with great pride.

Critical Analysis: I chose to listen to this book on audio CD. In some ways I missed seeing the words on the page, but listening to the narration, the dialogue, and the accents made the story come alive. The writing is rich and the characters are for the most part fully developed. The reader gets a true sense of life during the Civil War and the political, social, and economic pressures faced by the townspeople on both sides of the river. The 1916 trip in the Model T is especially vivid, as is the author’s description of the field hospital at Fort Defiance. The dialogue is believable and one almost feels that they are a clandestine bystander, listening in on a private conversation.

Richard Peck’s research is thorough, and his attention to detail is evident, especially in chronicling the political turmoil of the time and the challenges faced by people of color. Peck resists the temptation to stereotype his characters; Calinda is certainly not a caricature and Delphine’s character is especially unique, with the author creating an air of mystery surrounding her, a mystery that is not completely revealed until the end of the book. The male characters are more one dimensional, but Peck’s portrayal of the female perspective is the main focus and is a welcome change from the usual focus of Civil War novels.

Peck’s choice to frame the main story of 1861 with the 1916 road trip helps define one of the major themes: finding one’s true identity and heritage. Loyalty, tenacity, and the importance of family are portrayed throughout the book; and the use of the river as a metaphor for the social and political divisions of the time (as well as divisions within families) is brilliant. Peck deftly reveals Delphine’s story bit by bit until the final truth is revealed. Tilly’s first person narration causes the reader to strongly identify with her and her family and admire her courage in the face of great change and loss.

Reviews:

School Library Journal: “In this thoroughly researched novel, Peck masterfully describes the female Civil War experience, the subtle and not-too-subtle ways the country was changing, and the split in loyalty that separated towns and even families. Although the book deals with some weighty themes, it is not without humor.”

Booklist: “Peck's spare writing has never been more eloquent than in this powerful mystery in which personal secrets drive the plot and reveal the history. Each sentence is a scrappy, melancholy, wry evocation of character, time, and place, and only the character of Delphine's companion, Calinda, comes close to stereotype. A final historical note and a framing device--a grandson writing 50 years after the story takes place--make the reading even better, the revelations more astonishing. It's a riveting story that shows racism everywhere and young people facing war, not sure what side to be on or why.”

The Washington Post: “This unusual Civil War novel really boosts Peck's credentials as America's best living author for young adults.”

Children’s Literature: “Unforgettable characters and handsome prose make this book one you won't want to miss.”

Connections:

Vocabulary activity: Prior to reading the book, have students define some of the words they might be unfamiliar with such as abolitionist, blockade, calico, jambalaya, levees, privy, quadroon, quarantine, secession. The Frayer Model (http://cfbstaff.cfbisd.edu/eleteams/templates.htm) would work well with this activity. The content frames could be printed eight or ten to a page (or four or five front and back).

(Frayer, D., Frederick, W. C., and Klausmeier, H. J. (1969). A Schema for Testing the Level of Cognitive Mastery. Madison, WI: Wisconsin Center for Education Research.)

Provide basic background information on the Civil War including reasons for secession, formation of the Confederacy, and leaders such as Abraham Lincoln, Jefferson Davis, U.S. Grant, and Robert E. Lee. A map activity would be beneficial to understand which were Southern States, Northern States, and Border States. Geography should also be incorporated with students identifying the Mississippi River, the Missouri River, the Gulf of Mexico, etc. Explain the importance of the Mississippi River to the Confederacy.

Constructing meaning using the metaphor: Using the book’s title, have students come up with other metaphors for conflict and disagreement (the author uses a river – the two sides are metaphorically on two sides of a river). Start out with a simile: conflict/disagreement is like _________________ (a broken watch, a coin, the colors black and white, the right hand and the left hand, etc.). Put it into a sentence: conflict/disagreement is like two sides of a coin because….Then have the students (alone, in pairs, or in small groups) come up with an alternative title for the book. This activity taps into the highest level of thinking: synthesis. An example might be “A Toss of the Coin”, “The Broken Watch”, “The Raven and the Dove” (color), or “Needing Bread” (this has two meanings, the word “need” and also “knead” – it takes two hands to knead bread and bread is necessary for life just as unity is necessary for the life of the nation). Have students illustrate their metaphor and present. These can be used to make a creative display on the book unit.

Examine medical practices during the Civil War. Students can work in small groups to conduct research on an assigned topic and present their findings to the class. If possible, have students create a power point presentation. Topics may include nurses in the Civil War, use of anesthetics, disease in the camps, sanitary conditions, burial practices, notifying relatives, etc.

Also, the Walt Whitman poem, “The Wound Dresser” can be broken into sections (it is quite long) and students can work in groups to analyze the poem and relate it to both the book and what they have learned about medical practices during the Civil War. Here is an excerpt from the third stanza that fits in well with Noah’s amputation:

On, on I go, (open doors of time! open hospital doors!)
The crush'd head I dress, (poor crazed hand tear not the bandage away,)
The neck of the cavalry-man with the bullet through and through examine,
Hard the breathing rattles, quite glazed already the eye, yet life
struggles hard,
(Come sweet death! be persuaded O beautiful death!
In mercy come quickly.)
From the stump of the arm, the amputated hand,
I undo the clotted lint, remove the slough, wash off the matter and blood,
Back on his pillow the soldier bends with curv'd neck and side falling
head,
His eyes are closed, his face is pale, he dares not look on the
bloody stump,
And has not yet look'd on it.

Use the ‘Valley of the Shadow’ web site (http://valley.lib.virginia.edu/) to access diary entries from both a northern and a southern perspective. There are so many available that the students can each get a diary excerpt. Have them read their entry and then pair them with students who had the alternative perspective. The two students can then work together to complete a set of questions that they must answer from their diary’s perspective. These questions should be designed so that some are ambiguous and spark debate and discussion. Examples: Is slavery morally wrong? Can the two (Union, Confederacy) survive without one another?

Use the photographs of Mathew Brady from the National Archives (http://www.archives.gov/education/lessons/brady-photos/) and pair them with a writing activity. These are black and white photos so will be easy to reproduce. Put students in pairs and give each a photo. Make sure that the photo contains two or more people. Students must then write a fictional dialogue between the two, using information learned from the unit. They can then get up and present their dialogue to the class.

Use two songs from the Civil War Era, The Battle Hymn of the Republic and The Bonnie Blue flag. Play both songs and analyze the lyrics. Use a graphic organizer to identify major themes in each song (pride, confidence, belief that God is on their side, etc.). This can generate a good class discussion. Both sides thought they were right. Does God favor one side over another? Did the conclusion of the war reflect the desires of a higher being? What would loss do to the pride of the losing side and how might this be manifested?

Have students work in small groups to create a Civil War newspaper that reflects major events in the book. If possible, this should be done on a computer as there are programs that generate a newspaper format (Adobe InDesign). The finished product should reflect an understanding of the book and include specific elements: An eye-catching headline, a summary of a battle, a local gossip section, an obituary, an editorial, a letter to the editor, an advertisement, a visual like an illustration, photo, or map, etc.

Be sure to give the students examples of newspapers of the era (these are available on the Valley of the Shadow web site mentioned above). Groups could be assigned a perspective (North/South/Border). Finished products could be posted on the school or library website. An alternative to this would be to use Photo Story (Windows) to present the information. This is available for free download from Windows (http://www.microsoft.com/windowsxp/using/digitalphotography/photostory/default.mspx)