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Chapter 90
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
Under normal circumstances, Gus’s odd comment about Call being his father would have given Newt something to think about, but he’s too sad over the loss of Deets and too tired out by the trip to care much. And he can’t ask the Captain, anyway, because Call has assumed Deet’s scouting duties. He avoids the rest of the company as much as possible. Call is acutely aware of the threat of encountering more Indigenous people, but while he occasionally finds tracks, the drive encounters no other humans in the vast wilderness.
At one point, Newt wanted to know who his father was and even had wishes about who it might be (Jake). Now he knows, but the knowledge doesn’t help him at all because Call refuses to take responsibility for his actions in a healthy way. His need to keep everyone else safe indicates that he feels guilty about Deets’s death—but his inability to communicate his care for them points to one of his biggest flaws. Unable to forgive himself, he can’t imagine anyone else forgiving him either.
Themes
What they do run into is a grizzly bear, which Dish Boggett—riding point, as always—accidentally flushes from a thicket. The cows, horses, and cowhands all panic. While Call and Gus try to regain control of their horses and figure out what to do, the Texas bull breaks off from the herd, marches up, and attacks the bear. They fight ferociously as everyone watches. The battle ends in a draw, with the bear limping off into the woods and the men tying down the bull so Po Campo can try to sew up his wounds. No one expects the bull to survive, and at first, he falls far behind, but within a week, he has recovered enough to resume his spot at the head of the herd.
The Texas bull’s encounter with the grizzly bear contains a great deal of symbolic meaning. Like the cowhands, the bull comes from Texas. Its ability to take on the grizzly bear suggests that these men do indeed have what it takes to survive on the frontier—at least in general. Notably, the battle ends in a draw rather than an outright victory, which foreshadows losses yet to come. The Hat Creek drive won’t have an unambiguous victory over the frontier. And this episode points yet again to the power of luck—the company escapes this encounter more or less unharmed.
Themes
