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Chapter 54
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 refuses to say anything to any of Blue Duck’s men. In addition to Ermoke and his men, Blue Duck’s gang includes two white men called Monkey John and Dog Face. Monkey John beats Lorena for her silence. Dog Face is kinder, though he still likes to have his way with her. Lorena is filthy and sore from the beatings, and she’s certain that she will die in this dirty camp, probably sooner than later. She wishes she could figure out how to just die and deprive them of her company.
Lorena has only been with Blue Duck’s men for a few days but it’s clear that her life has become hell. Notably, the Indigenous outlaws don’t have a monopoly on cruelty; the white bandits don’t treat her any better than their Indigenous counterparts. And despite the trauma Lorena endures, she manages to cling to a tiny bit of autonomy and humanity in her refusal to speak. They can hurt her body, but she refuses to give these men the chance to destroy her soul.
Themes
One day, Lorena watches Ermoke and his companions drive a wounded cow into camp. They cut open her belly, pull out her intestines, and begin eating them. This disgusts Monkey John and Dog Face, who label the Kiowas “dern gut eaters.”
Monkey John and Dog Face consider themselves superior to their Indigenous counterparts, although their treatment of Lorena would suggest otherwise. Still, by vividly describing the incident with the cow and making readers party to Lorena’s visceral disgust, the book contributes to stereotypes that cast Indigenous people as savages.
Themes
One night, Blue Duck—who often leaves for a day or two on his own errands—returns to camp with whiskey. He plies the men with it, and then encourages them to gamble at dice with him. Blue Duck shoots dead the only member of the gang who refuses to play. Soon, he’s won all their horses. And Lorena. Then, Blue Duck offers to return Lorena and the horses to the other gamblers if they agree to kill the white man who’s been tracking him since he stole Lorena. They readily agree: five against one sounds like good odds. Blue Duck warns them that if they don’t “settle” his pursuer, they’ll all end up dead. Dimly, Lorena knows he means Augustus, a figment from the old life she can barely remember amid her current traumatizing circumstances.
Blue Duck has never touched Lorena, but that doesn’t make him better than the other men. In fact, he seems to be the most morally depraved of the bunch. He places no value on human life other than his own, except insofar as people can fulfil his wishes and desires. He uses Lorena as a bargaining chip to save his own skin by convincing the men to ambush Gus—a man who he seems to know full well is his match. Lorena has long since given up on any of the men she knew coming to rescues her, so it comes as a surprise to realize that Gus continues to care about her wellbeing even when she’s not having sex with him—something neither Jake, nor Mosby or Tinkersley or Xavier ever did.
Themes
