Connor Leary
10/21/08 4A
Cold Sassy Tree, a novel written by Olive Ann Burns, takes place in the year 1906 in a small,
rural, farming town named Cold Sassy Tree. Located in central Georgia, the townspeople are not
in touch with what is going on in the big cities, but they do know what is going on everyone
else’s “business”. Most people in and around Cold Sassy have a strong sense of Confederate
Nationalism, a problem still rooted in the South today. The story opens between the death of the
family’s beloved grandmother and the marriage of the town milliner. Grandpa Blakeslee, the
one responsible for the family scandal, is the most unique of characters portrayed in Cold Sassy
Tree. He is essentially the driving force in Will Tweedy’s, his grandson, maturity.
Grandpa Blakeslee, as he is known throughout the story, is the most unique of CST’s main
players. One of the first things anyone new to Cold Sassy would notice about Grandpa Blakeslee
was that his left arm ended in a knot. Chapter four describes the biggest aspect of his face as,
“His nose had been broked three times.” A tough man, ever willing to fight, is one of many
ways to summarize this staple of the Cold Sassy community. As seen during the robbery,
Grandpa is also proficient with a pistol, but far too cocky for it to have served any purpose.
Mentioned with brevity in chapter four, Will’s grandfather’s teeth are all originals; it has been
stated that would please Miss Love, his new wife. Grandpa goes to great lengths to be frank with
those he loves, and not once in the novel does he “sugar-coat” what he says.