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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
After the excitement, Augustus hands Newt, Jimmy, Ben, and Pete $10—he wants to make sure they get their chance with a woman before they enter hostile territory. Still worried about the price, they look for Lippy and ask for advice. He says it depends—he once saw Gus pay Lorena $50 for a “poke.” Realizing he blabbed yet again, Lippy decides the only way to protect his honor is to get the boys too drunk to remember the story. The beer and whiskey he supplies them with quickly makes Jimmy ill, but Newt enjoys the peaceful, timeless feeling being drunk gives him. He and the others find the courage to enter the brothel.
Newt and the other boys are about to gain two key experiences: getting drunk and having sex. They’ve had the great good fortune to survive this far but—as Augustus knows all too well—there’s no guarantee that this will last. They learn another important lesson now too: that vices have prices. The alcohol doesn’t sit well with Jimmy, but Newt loves not just the sensation of the buzz but also the grown-up way it makes him feel.
Themes
Two sex workers, a skinny one named Mary and a heavy one called Buf—short for Buffalo Heifer—greet them at the door. Only Pete Spettle—who wants to bring as much money as he can home to his dirt-poor family—elects to stay outside. Newt is nervous and excited, especially when Buf takes off her dress. He ejaculates before she even lies down on the bed, while she’s washing his penis off to reduce the risk of disease. This is somewhat disappointing, but he’s still so thrilled by the experience that he decides he’ll be “as big a whorer” as Jake and Gus when he’s grown up and making real wages. After they’re all done, they head back to camp.
Newt’s exhilarating—but somewhat disappointing—sexual experience marks a transition point for him. He clearly articulates the idea that he gets to choose the kind of man he wants to be, and he shows readers that he’s going to be careful about those choices. Unlike Pea Eye—who is an adult but still acts like a child in his fawning emulation of Call—Newt wants to borrow from Gus as well as Call, balancing a life of hard work with plentiful pleasures.
Themes
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