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Themes
Key
LitCharts assigns a color and icon to each theme in Lonesome Dove, which you can use to track the themes throughout the work.
American Mythology
Family
Luck, Fate, and Chance
The Good Life
The Meaning of Masculinity
Feminine Strength
Summary
Analysis
Call retrieves Gus’s body—a little the worse for wear, as some animal got into the shed and the coffin over the winter and ran off with the amputated leg—from Miles City. After repairing the coffin, he buys a buggy, loads it up, and heads south. His trip back to the Platte River proceeds uneventfully.
The varmint that stole Gus’s leg seems intent on reminding readers—and maybe Call, too—that life is mostly made up of unexpected events. As the doctor humorously points out, the corpse doesn’t need the leg. But Call worries over the apparent threat to his plan to return Gus—all of him—to Texas.
Themes
The moment Call arrives at her homestead, Clara attacks him, chiding him for the folly of honoring Gus’s outlandish final request. She thinks Call should have stayed with his men and his son instead of lugging a corpse more than a thousand miles. The way she openly identifies Newt as his son bothers Call. She doesn’t convince him to change his mind. In fact, he’s confused by her anger. He would have expected a woman to be flattered that Gus wanted to be buried in their special spot.
Readers should remember that Gus gave Call two tasks: to take him back to Texas and to acknowledge Newt. Call failed to acknowledge Newt and seems to hope that fulfilling his other promise will make him feel better. But Clara declares it folly—family, she says, is the only thing that matters, especially since Call still has a chance to be with Newt. And because she and Gus are so similar in temperament, the book suggests that she’s right. But Call—as sexist as he is—can’t imagine this or understand what she’s trying to tell him.
Themes
When Call leaves the buggy to say hello to Dish and July, Lorena comes out of the house to stand by Gus’s coffin. She stands there while the sun sets and while the others go in for a strained dinner—Clara feels bad about chiding Call so stridently, although she won’t apologize—and into the evening. Eventually, Clara goes out and offers to read Lorena her letter from Gus (Lorena is illiterate) but Lorena doesn’t want to share it. Clara’s own letter is brief and to the point: Gus asked her to take care of Lorie and wished her luck with life, her girls, and her horses.
Clara shows her mettle in this encounter with Call—readers should note that she’s as reluctant to back down in an argument as he is. She’s a match for him, just like Gus was, and that’s why she makes him uncomfortable. The contrast between the Allen family—which has grown to accommodate July and Lorena and Dish—and Call’s singular lack of a family couldn’t be more marked. He’s the only one at this table without someone of his own to worry about him. Even the women get the luxury of letters from Gus while Call only has memories to hold on to. The book continues to paint a bleak picture of the isolation his pride has wrought.
Themes
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Lorena stands by the buggy through the night, leaving only when she faints and must be carried inside by Dish and July after breakfast the next morning. And as soon as she’s gone, Call hitches the buggy to leave—she was the only thing that stopped him the previous evening. Clara makes one last attempt to change his mind, pointing out that a live son is more important than a dead friend. But Call won’t turn around. Bemoaning the havoc caused to the lives of so many—Newt, herself, even Gus—by Call’s pride, she tells him how much she hates him as he rides off.
Lorena, too, shows that loyalty and determination aren’t just the province of the book’s men—she stays at Gus’s side for so long that she actually faints. Love, this suggests, isn’t for the faint of heart. And by admitting their grief, Lorena and Clara show themselves to be much stronger than Call, who is using Gus’s last request as a chance to run away from his responsibilities, especially to Newt. The book prompts readers to agree with Clara when she tells him as much.
Themes
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