Grace was vital in
forming the grown upwho
decides to enlist and fight in the Civil War against slavery. It is the
account that he gives ofhis time at the Clement's plantation, and of the whipping that
Grace
receives on his behalf, that clearly shows him the evil in slavery and
the injustice of
black-white relations. Note how this is reflected in the
following quote, which comes as the
young eighteen year-old March exchanges
eye contact with Grace after her whipping has
finished:
If an anvil had fallen from the sky at that
moment and landed upon me, I could not have felt more crushed.
This sense of guilt and responsibility is
something that haunts March for the rest of
the novel, even after Grace, at
the very end of the story, has released him from any obligation
he may feel
he has towards her.
In the same way, his relationship with
Marmee
helps to develop March's character in the way that he feels that he
always has to work hard to
live up to the standards that Marmee has and her
fierce, anti-slavery beliefs. It is this in
part that leads him to enlist in
the Civil War and fight against the forces that champion
slavery, as he seeks
to make himself worthy for his wife. His account of her beliefs about
slavery
and her struggles against it lead him t become involved in transporting slaves
illictly
through to Canada and freedom. Both Marmee and Grace therefore have
a massive influence on
March's character and this can be seen in the man that
records his thoughts and feelings in this
novel.
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