I Had Seen Castles, by Cynthia Rylant - Historical Fiction

Historical Fiction is a genre that I really have always enjoyed and continue to read often, and this book is one of the best that I have ever read. I was slow beginning it, because I was immediately overwhelmed with the “sad” feeling that existed throughout the novel. I did this with the fifth Harry Potter book several years back and finally picked it back up again and enjoyed it. Unfortunately, I probably would have put this book down for that very reason and may not have picked it back up again, ever, but class made me, and I am glad for that. I had to realize that the “sad” feeling that was disturbing to me in the beginning of the book (I really am a “happily-ever-after-kind-of-girl”) was part of the voice and tone that Rylant was trying to get across. The setting was after the Depression and right before, during, and after World War II. America did not want to enter another war so soon after experiencing World War I and the Great Depression. America was ready for some peace and serenity that wartimes never afford. However, America was plunged into this war with the bombing of Pearl Harbor and the realization that Nazi Germany was a far greater threat than they wanted to believe.

Rylant does an excellent job at allowing the reader to see the torn nature of our country during this time with the relationship between Ginny and John. John is a character who is much like boys of that time period, imagining that war will only last a little while and will bring glory and honor, not horror and a lifetime of nightmares and images. I saw this same attitude in Paul Fleischman’s Bull Run, with soldiers and women from both sides thinking that they were going to “teach those enemies” and be back in time for Christmas. It is always a lesson that is learned the hard way that war is not easy and does not get solved quickly. Still, generations never seem to learn from past mistakes and continue to enter into wars with the same feeling and enthusiasm again and again. It is not to long into the actual war that John realizes his mistaken notions and only longs to fight to survive.

Ginny is a “peace loving hippy” before her time. She stands for her ideals and yearns to believe that peace is possible. She views herself as an open-minded individual that doesn’t believe in war. I always find it interesting that the more open-minded we say we are, the more close-minded we become. Still, despite their differences, they loved each other and longed to be near each other.

I was disappointed that John never went to find Ginny after the war, but that would not have fit the story and the character development. John was not the same person that he was when Ginny knew him and loved him. John was meant to “grow into an old man” and try to forget the past. Unfortunately, Ginny was part of that past, even if not directly connected to the war. Therefore, she must also be pushed behind, never failing to haunt him throughout the rest of his life. I get the feeling John never married.

This book has continued to haunt me throughout my past days. I see the sheep in the field, grazing and soon slaughtered by bullets and the cow being lead away by the French farmer, only minutes before the deathly shooting is to begin. Such innocence is lost by war, leading me to ask: Isn’t there another way? However, this, too, leads me to ponder what Thomas Jefferson, “Resistance to tyrants is obedience to God”.