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Chapter 46
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
Newt rides toward Lorena’s camp, very anxious to show everyone that he’s ready for bigger responsibilities. Much to his chagrin, Lorena refuses his company outright, although she’s not unfriendly toward him. For a few minutes, Newt feels caught in an agonizing position: Lorena doesn’t want him, and he doesn’t want to fail in his mission. Then, he realizes that he can ride a little way off, sneak back, and watch over her without her knowing. He ties his horse, Mouse, to a tree—something he knows he’s not supposed to do, but he can’t sneak on the horse very well—then creeps back toward Lorena. He stops within sight of her camp, sits down with his back against an oak tree, draws his pistol, and waits.
Teenaged Newt is anxious to become a man and for other to see him as mature, but his coming of age is not off to a great start. In the first place, Lorena only talks to him because she sees him as a boy and thus not a threat—the only grown men she seems willing to talk to are Jake (whom she’s romantically involved with), Gus (whom she likes), and Deets (who never expresses a hint of interest in her in part due to the strict racial segregation of the era). Then, she sends him away, both suggesting that she doesn’t need him and that he couldn’t help anyway. But Newt shows perseverance that marks him as Call’s son and while respecting her space, he won’t take no for an answer.
Themes
Waiting, Newt falls into pleasant daydreams, which gradually turn into sleeping dreams. The sound of the herd running nearby—and the cowhands’ shooting and hollering as they try to regain control—wakes him near dawn. In a panic, he runs for Mouse, but Mouse is gone. Then, some of the stampeding cattle swing into view, and Newt takes off running to avoid being trampled. Eventually, the cows run off, and Newt begins trudging back toward camp, dreading having to admit his mistakes. Pea Eye finds him, and as they ride back into camp together on Pea Eye’s horse, they overtake the company’s new cook, an old Mexican man named Po Campo.
Although Newt’s instincts as a cattleman are improving, the stampede illustrates that he still has a long way to go. Readers might wonder—as Newt fails to do—what caused the stampede, especially in light of Gus’s and Call’s worries about Blue Duck making an attack on their herd. But they will have to wait to find out what caused it, because they are confined to Newt’s limited (and inexperienced) perspective in this moment.
Themes
Po Campo invites Newt to walk into camp with him and—to delay the inevitable admission of his mistakes by just a little bit—Newt accepts. Po Campo refuses to ride animals, he tells Newt, because humans are animals too and it’s uncivilized to take advantage. Walking also gives him the time to take in the wonder of the world around him. And to rustle up food. Po Campo has recipes for all sorts of things, like grasshoppers and worms. This makes Newt miss Mr. Gus’s sourdough biscuits. He wonders how the rest of the cowhands will take to eating the grubs and insects Po Campo seems intent on feeding them.
Newt doesn’t want to own up to his mistakes, but he knows he can’t escape it. That’s part of growing up, too. But his slow walk into camp also gives the book an opportunity to introduce Po Campo, the new cook. Po Campo offers an alternative version of manhood to Newt and more insight into what a good life can look like. People in a rush to get where they’re going—adulthood, in Newt’s case—are likely to miss important insights along the way.
Themes
