When the Jessamine Grows

The McBrides’ land is a symbol representing Joetta and Ennis’s desire to not be involved in the war and to continue their simple, peaceful life on the farm. It is also a motif supporting The Impact of War on Families and Resilience and the Drive for Survival. Joetta does not understand how Henry and Rudean can be dissatisfied with their life on the farm, thinking to herself that “they were yeoman farmers” with pigs, chickens, “a beautiful golden milk cow named Honey, and a cooperative plow mule named Pal” (2). They also sell “white corn and sorghum,” “wanted for nothing,” and “owed no one” (2). She also finds the farm life peaceful, allowing her to connect with nature. As North Carolina becomes more involved in the war, however, Henry volunteers, Ennis goes to look for him, and the family begins experiencing various hardships on the farm. The trampling of the crops by the townsmen, the theft of the family’s livestock, and the burning of the house cause the McBrides to struggle and the land loses the peacefulness and simplicity it had amid the war. After Ennis returns, he starts considering selling the farm and leaving to start a farm somewhere else, where the family can begin again. He struggles with coming back to his old life on the farm with nothing being the same anymore. Joetta is hesitant, still having fond memories of the life she had on the farm, but also feels haunted by Henry’s absence and feels “she no longer belonged there” (366). She also wonders when “they could live life as they had,” deciding it would be best for her, Ennis, and the boys if they left (366). They, thus, sell the farm to Lawrence Adams and leave for Texas, recognizing that the peaceful existence reflected by the farm had been changed forever and they could no longer pretend nothing had changed.