Cold+Sassy+7

Group Seven: Garrett, Justin, and Ian
Chapters 44-50 =__Chapter__ __Summaries__ __(44- 50)__=

Chapter 44
The whole town is shocked by Camp's suicide. Everyone in the town comes to beleive that suicide is a terrible thing and that of a sin that can never be forgiven. Rucker intends to have a very nice and dignified funeral for Camp. The one's that come to pay their respect's feel very saddened because they all realize that they could have been alot nicer to camp. Rucker tries to convince them to bury Camp on the Toy family plot.

Chapter 45
Loma and her Child move in Will. At first loma is totally upset with Camp's death, but now that she lives with Will she is glad that she no longer has to care for Campell JR. by her lonesome. On Miss Love's birthday which is Valentine's Day, she gets alot of house renovation done. Rucker buys a record player for Miss Love, and she teaches him to dance. Rucker gives Loma a job at the store. Will is upset due to the fact that he has to work now with two people he hates.

Chapter 46
This chapter starts out by talking about will and him shaving for the first time and explaining that he is only fifteen. Then he goes to school full of joy then, the girl he likes "lightfoot" come to tell him that she is droping out of school and is going to marrie hosie and she will just teach her self. She gives will a buckeye to remember her bye ,will cry's at the news and wishes that something would stop the wedding.

Chapter 47
As this chapter comes about Rucker is at the store and is closing up one night and two robbers come in and try and find where the money is, after Rucker manages to disarm the two bandits he fires twice to truly prove he is a good shot ,but knowing there were only two bullets in the gun. The perpatraiter's then begin attacking Rucker and beat him until he reaches a point of death.

Chapter 48
Rucker has just been robbed and is hurt badly. He is taken in Mr. Birdsongs hearse, which also served as an ambulance, to his house. Grandpa Rucker is angry about getting robbed and beat up. After everyone visits and talks with him in bed, the scene jumps forward to after dinner on Saturday. Will tiptoes down the hall and sees Rucker and Miss Love talking in the bed room. They commence to talking about allot of strange things like: Seeing with your eyes shut, Rucker feeling God, Miss Love missing the Methodist church, and what Jesus meant by "ask and you hall receive. The whole time Will is outside listening. They discuss the movement to change Cold Sassy's name. Rucker says that will only happen over his dead body. After talking for a while they kiss and Will knows that their marriage is a real one. After they drift off to sleep Will leaves. By the middle of the week Grandpa Blakeslee has not gotten better, but he has started coughing up rusty colored mucus.

Rucker has come down with pneumonia, and he has gotten it bad. As he gets worse he begins to hallucinate and think that everyone is Matty Lou. Miss Love is upset because, as she later tells Will outside, she is pregnant with Rucker's child. She wants to tell him because it may make him fight harder to stay alive, but she wants him to be in his right mind when she tells him. Loma comes out and tells Miss Love that Rucker is thinking clearly, So Miss love runs in and tells him. Will leaves them in peace and goes down to lie on the day-bed. He is awakened by Miss Love's scream. He knows that Brucker has died.

Chapter 50
Will Hurries home to tell his parents of Rucker's death, but when he enters the door he doesn't have to say anything, they know. His father goes to get a letter from the store that Rucker left. It says that, in the event of his passing, Rucker wants a immediate and simple burial. He also wants a funeral after he is gone. the family follows his orders, despite how much they fly in the face of tradition. After the party Hoyt reads Rucker's will. Loma, Mary Willis, and Miss Love each got their houses and 1000 dollars. The estate, excluding the store, is to be divided equally among Rucker's children, including the unborn one that only Miss Love and Will know about. Will get 400 dollars if he works at the store for ten years. Miss Love decides to stay in Cold Sassy because she wants her child to grow up among its family. After the story ends Cold Sassy is renamed Progressive City over Rucker's dead body.

=Character List=
 * Will- main character; narrator of the story; given money in Rucker's will only if he works in the store for 10 years

Rucker Blakeslee- Will's grandfather; dies in chapter 49; demands a quick burial and a party after his death

Miss Love- discovers that she is pregnant with Rucker's child; there when Rucker dies; gets an equal share in his will

Hoyt Tweedy- Will's father; reads Rucker's letter and will; made manager of the store after Rucker's death

Mary Willis- Rucker's oldest daughter; helps care for her father while he is sick; given her share in the will

Loma Williams- Rucker's younger daughter; spoiled and bossy, really sad and remorseful after Camp's suicide

Lightfoot McLendon- gives will a buckeye to remember her by

Loomis- presides over Rucker's funeral; receives $50 from the will

Miss Effie Belle Tate- elderly neighbor; changes her opinion of Ms. Love after Rucker's death and stands up for her at the funeral party

Mary Toy Tweedy- Will's younger sister; present at the events after her grandfather's death**

=Settings from Chapters 44-50=


 * Chapter 44- Lomas house after Camp's suicide**


 * Chapter 45- Will's house over Christmas break while Loma is staying with them, Rucher's house during the same period, and Rucker's store while hiring Hosie Roach and Loma's first day working there

Chapter 46- Courtyard of the Presbyterian Church on will's way to the store

Chapter 47- Rucker's store on the night of the robbery

Chapter 48- Rucker's house while he tries to recuperate

Chapter 49- Inside Rucker's house and outside in the barn over the few days he is sick with pneumonia

Chapter 50- Rucker's house at the time of his death and the reading of his letter, the cemetery during the burial, at the ball park for the funeral party, back at Rucker's house for the reading of the will, and at Mary Willis's when Will learns from Ms. Love that she plans to stay in Cold Sassy**

=Thematic Elements=

**Overcoming Social Prejudices and Constraints**-
In Cold Sassy Tree there are three main groups of people that are discriminated against: Blacks, Mill People, and Ms Love. In cold Sassy Tree all of these people rise above the prejudices against them and succeed in having a happy and successful life. Loomis gets money from Rucker's will for all the hard work and loyal service he gave over the years. He finally gets the recognition and respect from the town that he deserved. Hosie roach rises above his unfortunate status as a Mill person and gets a job at the store. He secures a future for not only himself but also for Lightfoot. Ms. Love also transcends her label as the town's object of gossip and scandal. She receives a house, a child, and a new life in Cold Sassy.

The town movement to rename Cold Sassy Tree is at the center of the struggle between old and new. Rucker Blakeslee is the force that keeps Cold Sassy rooted in its past and its tradition. However, he also becomes the unexpected force of change when he introduces the town to automobiles and the modern age. After Rucker's death the town does change it's name and cuts down the old sassafras tree, all over Rucker's dead body.
 * Old verses New-**

Symbols and Allusions
Buckeye- represents Lightfoot and Will's friendship and childhood. Now that Lightfoot is getting married to Hosie I think she is symbolically giving up her childhood and intimate friendship with Will when she gives him the buckeye.

Cold Sassy Tree- It represents the past and traditions of Cold Sassy and the break from that past when it is finally cut down just after Rucker's death.

=Important Quotes=

"I better go now, but I ain't never go'n forgit you and please don't forgit me, Will" - Lightfoot McLendon

"They ain't no guarentee that we ain't go'n have no troubles and ain't go'n die. But that God'll forgive us if'n we ast him to." - Rucker Blakeslee

"The Cold Sassy Tree had to go. It was taken down and the roots chopped up." - Narration by Willnd knowing migh

"I don't want no one at the funeral party to wear black or cry, either one." - Rucker Blakeslee

"I can't bear it if... if he dies without knowing. And knowing might even fight to make him live." - Ms. Love

"They'll change Cold Sassy over my dead body." - Rucker Blakeslee

"Even grown people mind Mr. Blakeslee,Will- as if they had no choice." Ms. Love

uses- Tonic for colds, relieves coughs & congestion, relieves indigestion, treats kidney disease
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Ginseng
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Funerals are an integral part of death for nearly every society on Earth. In the early twentieth century, for most Protestant churches, funerals were an essential part to the final rites for a deceased person. Most funerals would consist of a pre-burial viewing at a church, relatives house, or a funeral homeRelatives and friends were invited to pay their respects to the deceased, who would be on display in the burial coffin. Funerals would consist hymns and other music, a eulogy given by a preacher or other clergyman, the burial, and a brief ceremony at the grave. Black and other drab colors were worn in mourning for the dead, because it was felt that bright colors would give the impression that one was not sad about the loss of life. Flowers and sometimes other presents, including monetary gifts, were given to the deceased's family as a showing of respect for the dead and hospitality toward the family who lost a member. Most funerals were religious rites, but even in secular ceremonies, all of the attention was on paying respect to the dead and the family. There were many superstitions and customs in the funeral rites of the early 1900's and nearly all have been passed on to modern times. A modern funeral is very similar to the ceremonies in Cold Sassy, with the exception of Rucker Blakeslee.=====

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Hairstyles way back from the 1800's were not all that you would think. They really werent too elaborate, actually they were quite simple. The women wore dresses that were really sleek, so the hair was not a huge deal. The usually had their hair put up right on the top of their head, others wore braids or buns. Either way, they rarely ever wore their hair down, and when they did it was generally to sleep. The biggest hairstyle though, seemed to be lots and lots of curls. The men were really quite the same they wore nice suits and the more formal look was to slick it back using hair grease, or to part it down the middle or to the side, also using hair grease.======

//__farming of the late 1800's__//

In the early years the land was broken using horse and plow. The types of crops that were most common were wheat, oats, barley, flax, peas, canola, lentils and chickpeas. The types of machines were things like a hayrack, which was either a board and wagon or a flat bed with spokes to hold it together. The binder which depending on what you could afford was either a huge machine or a large kind of wagon pulled by horses. Some other things were sheaves, which are grain binded together with, twine and stookes, which were sheaves, stacked up in large piles. Threshing consisted of stookes cut up and separated so that you can get the grain and straw. Another tool was the sickle which was a long curved blade attached to a long handle and used for cutting crops. Back then the tilling methods that used in farming was harrows, discs or plows. In farming they had things called building bees, which were when groups of people got together to build buildings and other things on the farm. For weed control they used herbicides and for pest control they used pesticides.