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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
More and more, the Texas bull leads the herd, which bothers Dish, because riding point so near to the belligerent animal makes him nervous. The strain of the trip begins to wear on all the hands, and one day, Dish and Bert get into a fight. Bert resents Dish’s seniority, especially because he has a high opinion of his own skill. Call notices the fight, but it’s not serious enough for him to step in.
The Texas bull offers a reminder of how uncivilized and dangerous the frontier is. Metaphorically, it comments on the drive’s social dynamics. The younger hands jockey among themselves for position and seniority, but none of them has the maturity or willpower that a true leader like the bull (or its human counterpart, Call) has.
Themes
Jake’s death weighs heavily on Newt’s mind. It especially bothers him that no one—not Gus or Call or Deets—wants to talk about it. When Pea Eye mentions it, he talks about it as casually as the weather. One night, when Deets is mending Newt’s bridle, Newt says he wishes they’d been able to take Jake to jail. Deets says he’d have been hung anyway. Better to have it done by his friends. He tells Newt that the Captain and Gus are upset, even if they don’t seem to be. And he encourages the boy not to worry about “sleepers”: the dead are in a peaceful place.
On the one hand, Newt understands that justice required something of Jake and that Jake’s own decisions got him in trouble. But on the other, he can’t easily separate Jake the horse thief from the Jake he idolized. Newt’s sensitivity and compassion point toward his innocence—life has not yet hardened him as it has Call, Gus, and the others. But Newt’s softness also shows that the book’s ideal of masculinity balances justice and mercy.
Themes
In fact, Call is very upset. He can’t stop replaying his and Jake’s history in his mind, wondering when he could—or should—have done something to save Jake. He suspects that his chance passed a long time ago indeed. It frustrates Call that he can’t let Jake go, just like he can’t let Maggie go. Of course, Augustus knows how hard it is for his friend to accept mistakes. One day he brings it up, warning Call that it’s much more painful to reckon with one’s mistakes when one is out of practice. That’s why Gus himself likes to make a few mistakes every day.
Call’s reaction to Jake’s death points to some of the weaknesses of his own character. First, he’s used to enduring difficulty on his own, so he doesn’t talk to anyone (except occasionally Gus) about his feelings, which gives them more power. Second, he’s not used to feeling like he’s done the wrong thing, so it rankles him that he feels that way now. Notably, he didn’t do the wrong thing—he’s just unused to feeling regret over something tragic like the downfall and death of a friend.
Themes
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The crew crosses the Republican River without any incident. Jasper, who has been so fearful of this crossing since the trip started, now considers himself invincible. All the hands are eager for a break and want to stop in Ogallala. The younger ones, especially. They are trying to figure out how much a sex worker costs, and if they’ll have enough money to visit one. Reluctantly, Call agrees to give the hands half wages and a day off in Ogallala.
While Gus and Call grapple with their regrets, life goes on. Visiting sex workers in Ogallala—a little more than halfway through their trip—will mark and important turning point for the younger hands, who were all boys when they left Texas but who are all eager to consider themselves as grown, experienced men by the time they arrive. Besides, their good luck in making it this far deserves a celebration.
Themes
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