Reading 1001 discussion

5. Owen writes of his father and the mountain, Tawanus: "I have come over the years to associate the two, as if each, mountain and man, were a portrait of the other and the two, reduced to their simplest outlines, were a single, runic inscription which I must, before I die, decipher, or I will not know the meaning of my own existence or its worth." What might he mean by this? Why is the novel entitled Cloudsplitter?

Tahawus is also a name sometimes used for Mount Marcy, the highest peak in New York, located outside of the town. However, the name was likely never used by the aboriginal peoples of the area to refer to the mountain, and its meaning, "Cloud-Splitter," may have no roots in any language.

I assume that the novel is names "Cloudsplitter" because just like the mountain Tahawus split through the clouds, John Brown's crusade against slavery split the United States in two (the North and the South).

I was reading it more literally that Owen considered the mountain to be his real home and its importance to him was the reason for titling the book Cloudsplitter

John Brown is Cloudsplitter. Like Tahawus, Brown dominated those around him and the harsh clarity of his moral vision forced people to take sides. I don't think I agree that Brown split the North and the South; slavery did that. It is the position of Owen (and presumably Banks) that John Brown potentially saved the Union by preventing the spread of slavery to Kansas, an act he feared would have led to many of the Northern states succeeding from the Union, a succession that the Southern slave states wouldn't have objected to, but one that would have left American chattel slavery intact. Owen essentially argues that Bloody Kansas and Harpers Ferry led directly to Fort Sumter, the Civil War and the ultimate abolition of slavery. An interesting argument that if true would mean that John Brown was indeed Cloudsplitter, a giant in the land.

I like Shuva's answer:)
I tagged the passage "..buried in the shade of his favorite mountain, Tahawus, the Cloudsplitter". I think it was John Brown's favorite place.

I defer to John's answer on this one. I did think it was interesting that John Brown feared that the North would succeed from the US and even possibly join Canada and that until later, the south controlled the government and did not have to leave the union.

The title was good, A mountain, clouds and bigness. I liked the title.

I am fascinated by Eadie's answer. I thought that Tahawus was the local name for the mountain and that its meaning was Cloudsplitter. As Banks was living in the area when he wrote the book, I thought this was the catalyst for writing.