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Chapter 10
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
Augustus, Jake, Dish, and Pea Eye quickly locate an unexpectedly small herd of horses. As Call, Deets, and Newt arrive to get horses for Allen and Sean, the party realizes that these are Wilbarger’s stolen animals. Call assigns Deets, Jake, and Dish to take them back to Lonesome Dove. Augustus will collect the Irishmen, while Call, Newt, and Pea Eye locate the main herd and drive it over the border.
The original plan lies in tatters, but Call and the rest quickly adapt to the changing circumstances. No matter how carefully a person plans out their actions, fate and chance can still come into play. Survival in this world depends on the ability to adapt and incorporate whatever fate throws one’s way.
Themes
Call, Pea Eye, and Newt quickly locate the main herd and get it moving, even though their path takes them uncomfortably close to Pedro Flores’s ranch. Riding point, Newt feels exhilarated, not just about the raid but the prospect of heading north to Montana. Still, after a while, worries start encroaching on his thoughts. Horse theft is a crime punishable by death in Texas, and he’s sure the Mexicans treat it with similar seriousness. He wonders what it would feel like to be hanged. He starts to imagine Flores’s men chasing him down in the dark.
Newt recognizes something no one else says aloud: that a lot of what passes for “right” and “wrong” in his world—roughly, the American frontier—depends on the eye of the beholder and the circumstances. Morality is muddled, and while this means that there are horses to be had essentially for free, it also means that dangers abound.
Themes
Still, Newt remains relaxed enough to imagine how mature he’ll look riding into Lonesome Dove with the herd—but then he hears shots. The panicked horses start running, and suddenly, there’s another herd running toward them. The two herds collide and Newt hears someone swearing in Spanish. Their north-bound herd of stolen Mexican horses has run into a south-bound herd of stolen Texan horses. Newt doesn’t have much time to consider this; it’s all he can do to stay astride his horse in the confusion. But after a few miles, the herds have coalesced and calmed down.
Just moments earlier, Newt was worrying about getting hanged for stealing horses. This episode makes it clear that the Americans don’t have a monopoly on horse theft. The book doesn’t exactly suggest that two wrongs make a right, but it does suggest a general sense of lawlessness—people get away with what they can get away with, at least until their luck—like the Mexican bandits’ here—runs out.
Themes
Behind him, Newt can see the sun starting to rise. Ahead, he sees the Rio Grande. The sight is so welcome that he begins to cry. He cries again when he sees Pea Eye and Call at the river crossing, and he’s grateful that none of the men are around to witness his emotional display. Astride the Hell Bitch—who doesn’t even seem to be tired after the long night’s ride—Call feels satisfied. It was quite a stroke of luck that they ended up with the Mexican bandits’ stolen horses, too. And now Newt has some experience. He turns his horse’s nose toward home. Call has some horses to sell.
Newt takes his tears as a sign of weakness and attempts to hide them from the others. In this moment, he’s clearly trying to emulate Call’s stoicism. While Call himself is pleased with the way the night turned out, he still isn’t very emotional about it—his satisfaction is intellectual rather than visceral, at least in part because he’s still focused on his mission: Montana.
Themes
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