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Chapter 6
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
Jake watches Call and Deets head for the barn. On the trail, he was anxious to get home, but it’s changed a lot since he left, starting with Maggie’s death. She always did say she’d die if he left, but he never believed her. Augustus, still in the house with Jake, asks if he ran into Clara Allen on his travels. Both Gus and Jake courted her years earlier, but she chose to marry a dimwitted horse trader named Bob. Jake says he saw her in Nebraska, still married. She has two daughters. Augustus regrets his failure to win Clara’s love, and he keeps his ears open for news. If Bob ever dies, he figures he still has a chance.
It's clear here that Jake believes in his power over women (although elsewhere the book makes it clear that Maggie died after an illness, not literally of a broken heart), but still he doesn’t seem to feel responsible for the consequences of his words or his actions. This in turn suggests the vulnerability of women—at least some of them—to manipulation and abuse at the hands of men. The book juxtaposes Maggie with Clara Allen, Gus’s old flame. His enduring love suggests a romantic nature, and hints at the power women can hold over men.
Themes
Jake asks Augustus for a drink, and Augustus leads him to the springhouse. The alcohol—and the feeling of safety that comes from being with men he trusts to protect him if July Johnson shows up—makes Jake sleepy. He lies down in the slim patch of shade cast by the springhouse, puts his hat over his face, and drifts off to sleep. Augustus wanders past the well diggers and over to the corral, where Call is trying—mostly unsuccessfully—to saddle the Hell Bitch. Augustus still can’t understand why Call bothers, even though Call claims she’s the most intelligent horse he’s ever encountered.
Readers might have suspected that Jake came back not because he cares about his old friends but because he wants to use them to protect himself, and his interior monologue confirms this to be the case. The fact that he immediately falls asleep testifies to his feeling of safety, but it also highlights his shiftless and lazy character—he is unwilling and incapable of putting in a day’s work. This directly contrasts with Call, who seems to like things better the more difficult and dangerous they are—like training the Hell Bitch.
Themes
Call hobbles the horse and gets a saddle on her, then lights a cigarette and pauses to chat with Augustus. They speculate on whether Jake’s nervousness is justified or not—he always did spook easily. Call circles back to Jake’s idea about settling in Montana territory. Call’s interest in this scheme surprises Augustus. It’s the first thing Call’s been interested in since the Ranger business quieted down. Livestock trading has made them moderately wealthy, but it isn’t fulfilling. At first, Augustus resists the idea—he’s getting old, and it sounds like a lot of work. But then he realizes that heading north might put him in striking distance of Clara Allen.
Hobbling the horse involves tying it up in such a way that it can’t move freely and thus cannot buck, kick (or bite) the trainer. Call’s willingness to keep working with—and to respect—the Hell Bitch even after she bites him testifies to his willpower, and his unwillingness to back down—something that can be good or bad, depending on the circumstances. In a way, Call wants to train the horse to prove that he can—the same reason he wants to go on the drive. Hard work alone isn’t enough to motivate Gus. But the love of a lady is.
Themes
Augustus teases Call about heading off to help “establish a few more banks.” That’s what their Rangering boiled down to, he says: killing Indigenous people so they wouldn’t bother the bankers and wealthy ranchers who subsequently flooded Texas. He bets that a bunch more bankers are waiting for folks to clear Montana for them next. Thinking to himself that Augustus sounds like he’s on the wrong side even though he killed as many Indigenous people as any other Ranger, Call says that he just wants to set up a cattle ranch, turn it over to Newt to run, and retire. He turns his attention back to the mare, and Augustus wanders off.
Call takes himself—and his role in taming the American frontier, claiming Texas from Indigenous people on the one hand and Mexico on the other—very seriously. He clearly considers himself a hero for his work as a Ranger. But Augustus—and the book—point toward the violence and oppression this involved and openly asks if it was worth destroying the wilderness and the people who inhabited it just to pave the way for capitalists to further enrich themselves. This is a question that remains open for much of the book and which Augustus will continue to comment on throughout.
Themes
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