Frazier suggests that all men and women are subject to nature's cycles and that death is a certainty for every living being. He introduces this theme at the beginning of the novel by quoting Darwin. The novel suggests that for one creature to survive, another must die in order to preserving nature's equilibrium. This equilibrium encompasses the human world, and so Frazier juxtaposes the conflicts in nature with the war between men. Many of these scenes show characters struggling to gain control over death and to elude the grasp of its agents, such as the Home Guard, who have the power to decide who lives and who dies. The author suggests that in order to live, men must be free to make their own choices. Inman's freedom of movement is highly restricted; in many ways he is a hunted man. Similarly, the many slaves within the novel are also leading oppressed lives. Thus, on different levels the novel examines man's fight for liberation and life against the forces of capture, death, and oppression.
The two people who change the most (lose their romanticism) are Ada and Ruby. Ada's development is even more profound than Inman's. Although critical of the self-interest displayed by Charleston society, Ada concludes that her education has sheltered her from the real world. Used to burying her head in a book, she initially shies from romantic involvement. However, by the novel's close, Ada has embraced both joy and pain. She has adapted to a life of manual labor, living according to the rhythms of nature. The protagonist has learned to find herself in the world by trusting in her intuition and heeding nature's unspoken signs. Ada's new existence thus requires her to have a deeper engagement with all aspects of life - both its practical side and her own emotional demands. Inman also changes much. After the war, he loses all his romanticism and becomes a different person. .
His unthinking ways have shoved her to an early death (inwardly). .The narrator of this poem, whom is male, is used to show the reader that he understands what he has done. ... If read with the double meaning the line looks more like "beauteous deaths," giving the notion of beauty as killing. ...