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Chapter 16
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
Lorena quickly realizes that despite his fine words, Jake likes to be taken care of. But, she reasons, this gives her power over him that she can use to make sure he keeps his San Francisco promise. The week and a half after he moves in with her passes pleasantly. There are more cowboys than usual in town, attracted by the news of the Captain’s drive, so when she’s not in bed with Jake, there are usually enough men in the saloon to make up a poker game. Jake teaches her a few gambling tricks.
Lorena is bright, and it doesn’t take her long to figure out Jake, even though she doesn’t let on to him what she knows. She plans to use her sex appeal to make sure he follows through because, in late 19th-century society, women had little social capital or influence; there aren’t many other ways she can try to get what she needs from Jake or anyone else.
Themes
One afternoon, while Lorena is trying to figure out how to make sure Jake takes her along, Augustus walks into the saloon intent on buying a “poke.” His forwardness shocks Lorena. After all, everybody knows that she’s with Jake—Augustus’s friend—now. But Augustus will not be put off. Call has put Jake to work, so he knows they won’t be found out. And he offers Lorena $50, money he suspects she could use because while Jake takes up her time, he isn’t actually taking care of her. It takes Lorena aback that Augustus so clearly sees the truth of a situation she’s just started to admit to herself. But he’s always seemed able to read people’s minds.
Thus far, the book has focused on Call’s iron will, but Gus’s willingness to ask for sex even when other men have gotten the message to back off shows that, when it comes to the things he cares about, he can be just as bull-headed as his friend. This scene, like many between Gus and Lorena, sits uncomfortably at the junction of coercion and consent. Lorena can turn Gus down—she has in an earlier chapter with no ill effects. But he still has disproportionate power in this situation because he has financial resources, and she doesn’t—especially now that she’s stopped working to attend to Jake’s needs. It is both true that the book intends to paint Gus as a better man than Lorena’s other customers (and Jake in particular) and that he takes advantage of his power to get what he wants from her.
Themes
Finally, Augustus proposes that they cut cards for it. Since gambling gives Lorena plausible deniability, she agrees. And although she’s pretty sure that he cheated when he wins, she doesn’t feel guilty about the game or their liaison afterwards. As he’s getting dressed, he warns her that Jake is a slippery “eel” and that it will be hard to make him keep his promises.
Gus offers to level the playing field and leave things up to luck, although of course he cheats. Lorena doesn’t hold it against him, in part because she’s guilty of manipulating Jake—and because she’s aware that he’s manipulating her, too. It’s a hard world, and Lorena knows that survival sometimes requires doing morally questionable things.
Themes
