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Chapter 52
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
Back on the whiskey boat, Big Zwey doesn’t approach Elmira, but he also doesn’t stop paying attention to her. He keeps paying attention even after they’ve left the river and loaded the whiskey into wagons to strike across the prairies to Bent Fort. There, Fowler gets her a room, but it’s right next to where the traders store buffalo hides, so it stinks and is full of fleas. One day, he tells her that Big Zwey wants to marry her. She asks why Big Zwey can’t ask himself, and Fowler replies that he’s too shy. But, Fowler points out, if she accepts, she might be able to get the man to take her to Ogallala.
Big Zwey’s imposing presence makes Elmira nervous because she knows that she’s vulnerable to the physical and sexual abuse of men. Still, she can’t turn back. Her desire to find Dee (and escape July) is too strong. The book draws a sharp contrast between Ellie’s actions—however ill-considered—and July’s reticence to decide anything for himself. Neither strategy works well, suggesting that the best approach to life lies somewhere in the middle.
Themes
After a while, it strikes Elmira how much power she seems to have over Big Zwey without even saying a word to him. And when she comes out of her room early one morning to find him standing guard over the door—without, evidently, wanting to come in—she decides he’s safe enough. She tells him she’ll go with him to Ogallala. Big Zwey prepares—he gets the blacksmith to repair a rundown wagon, buys two mules to haul it, and partners up with another buffalo hunter named Luke. Within a day or two, they’re on their way. Elmira learns to drive the mules while Big Zwey and Luke ride ahead on horses. It’s not easy—the prairies look flat but they’re not, and going over the bumpy terrain nauseates her. But she’s heading closer to Dee.
While other men in the book fear the power that women have over them, Elmira realizes that she can use it to her advantage—at least in the case of Big Zwey, who seems to be a generally good-natured and kind man despite his hulking size (and the fact that he effortlessly murdered the man on the whiskey who showed interest in her). And while readers are right to question Elmira’s choices—abandoning her son is a morally questionable act, to say the least—it's impossible to ignore how capable she is of taking care of herself even in these harsh circumstances.
Themes
On the first day, Big Zwey and Luke kill 20 buffalos, skin them, and load their stinking hides into the wagon. When they make camp that night, Elmira isn’t sure what to expect. She doesn’t know what Big Zwey’s definition of “marry” is, and she certainly doesn’t want Luke in on the action. But neither man approaches her. That night, a storm blows up, and Elmira crawls under the wagon for shelter. Within a few days, she’s started talking to the mules to pass the time on the long journey.
Luke and Big Zwey (and later, Aus Frank) allow the book to criticize the way market forces encouraged settlers to destroy the continent’s natural resources. Although there were an estimated 60 million buffalo in the area that would eventually become part of the United States at the beginning of the 19th century, demand for buffalo hides reduced the population to fewer than 600 animals by 1889—just about a decade after the events in this book take place.
Themes
