Meridian: Clouds, The Attainment of Good, Awakening, and Battle Fatigue Summary

In Clouds, Meridian leaves her son Eddie Jr. with her in-laws to play with his three-year-old uncle each day, and she goes home to stare out the window and think. She watches the young people walk by, going to the movies. Her fleeting thoughts are compared to clouds. She is only seventeen. At the end of each day, she retrieves her son, who wants to stay at his grandmother's.

The Attainment of Good describes Meridian's mother. She believes in the church and the holiness of its physical building, although the preacher's voice is unintelligible. She believes that the artistry of the ceremony will bring her to Good. She knows little about the world and is not political. She's never voted. She believes completely in the...