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Chapter 86
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
Clara is upstairs tending to Bob when she sees four riders approaching. Although something about them seems familiar, she tells herself they’re just soldiers. With Red Cloud at large, the Army needs new horses at least once a week. Recently some soldiers stopped by with gossip about a buffalo hunter and a woman—undoubtedly Elmira and Big Zwey—found dead a week earlier. July took the news poorly, and it annoyed Clara to see him pining away over a woman who clearly never loved him back. Sally and Betsey, who adore July, take his side, irritating her more.
Red Cloud was an Ogalala Lakota leader who held power from 1865 to 1909 and who was the only Indigenous leader to defeat the United States Army during the American Indian Wars. Invoking his name helps to explain Captain Weaver’s demand for horses. The deaths of Elmira and Big Zwey offer a pointed reminder of how brutal life could be on the frontier in this era. Readers should note how July has transformed from an object of Clara’s pity to an object of disgust. She’s capable and has little patience for people who cannot take care of—or make decisions for—themselves.
Themes
But as Clara comes down the stairs and hears her daughters talking to the riders, she recognizes Augustus McCrae’s voice. She walks into the yard and kisses him full on the lips, shocking Betsey and Sally and causing Lorena to despair. Then Gus introduces Lorena and Newt, who, Clara quickly realizes, is the spitting image of Call. When Gus asks after Bob, she tells him about the accident and says that July Johnson, the sheriff from Arkansas, has been helping her out. Clara invites the travelers to stay for a picnic, and while she and the girls prepare it, Call goes with Cholo and July to look at her horses. The company could use some fresh mounts. He’s greatly perturbed when Clara insists on talking money instead of letting one of the men do it, and downright outraged when she refuses to haggle with him. It all seems very irregular.
Call has traditional, patriarchal views about women’s place in society. He also has assumptions about women’s vulnerability that he seems to have gotten from Maggie. But Clara is not like Maggie—she is more like Gus and even Call himself in her strength and determination. This, of course, is part of what drew Gus to her in the first place, and part of the reason he's not been able to forget her (or fall completely out of love with her) even after all these years. Like Gus, Clara is one of the book’s voices of reason, and so it’s important that she immediately identifies Newt as Call’s son, effectively confirming what Gus and others suspect. There will be no prevarication or beating around the bush in her house.
Themes
Over the course of the long, happy afternoon, Clara and Gus talk about old times. Clara wishes Gus had come north years earlier. She’s missed his friendship in lonely Nebraska. He points out that she never answered the three letters he wrote over the years. She accuses him of planning to marry Lorena, and he retorts that she seems to have plans for July, even though she swears she’s done with marriage after Bob dies. Gus confirms her suspicion that Newt is Call’s son. Clara doesn’t understand his refusal to acknowledge such a fine boy. When Call finally, begrudgingly, accepts her price for the horses, she throws in a sorrel with a star on its head for free, just to know that Newt will be well-mounted when he faces the dangers of Montana. And she offers him a job if he grows tired of the wilderness.
Clara makes it clear that although she still feels affection for Gus, she doesn’t need him—or any other man. Especially not July, although Gus teases her, for July can hardly take care of himself much less anyone else. But even though she can take care of herself, she doesn’t want to go through life alone. Her family gives her strength and meaning . This is why she can’t understand Call’s refusal to acknowledge Newt. In light of his refusal, she takes it on herself to mother the boy in a small way (as she does with Martin) by giving him the horse—and an invitation to join her family.
Themes
