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Chapter 71
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
The crossing at the Arkansas turns out to be more trying than expected, but all the men and cattle make it across alive. Deets finds Wilbarger’s bloodied horse waiting on the far bank and tracks its route back to its dying owner. Wilbarger wants Gus and Call to keep him company while he dies. They bring Pea Eye and Newt along too, leaving Dish in charge of the herd—and of guarding Lorena.
At the beginning of the book, Newt wanted nothing more than to be included on the Hat Creek Company’s raids into Mexico. Now, halfway through the drive, Call includes him in important business as a matter of course. Newt is growing up and proving to the Captain that he’s ready for more responsibility and experience.
Themes
It takes Wilbarger a long time to die, and before he does, he tells Call and Gus that he suspects the horse thieves who attacked him were led by Dan Suggs. He leaves his two books and his horse to Gus. Once he's dead, the men bury him, keenly aware that there’s no way to mark his grave. His family will never know where his bones lie. And then they prepare to track the killers and bring them to justice.
Like Augustus, Wilbarger left a comfortable life back east, drawn by the romance of the frontier and the challenges of subduing it. But it hasn’t been an easy life—he’s forgotten most of the things he once learned in school, and now he lies alone in a desolate grave, and his family won’t know he’s dead for sure until—if—the company can send word to them someday.
Themes
