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Chapter 96
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
Call asks Dr. Mobley about storing Gus’s body over winter. Dr. Mobley says he should pack it in salt and charcoal and leave it in Dr. Mobley’s well-ventilated harness shed. Call orders a coffin and heads to the nearest salt lick for two barrels of salt. He covers Gus’s face with a newly purchased bandana when they put him in the coffin. Dr. Mobley offers to bury Augustus if Call changes his mind. Call tells Dr. Mobley that he doesn’t change his mind. Before leaving town, Call purchases supplies for the company: coats, boots, gloves, and building supplies. He rents a wagon and hires Hugh Auld to help him drive it to the cattle herd.
It's notable that the doctor and others in Miles City all assume that Call will change his mind about Gus’s last request. Again, Call finds himself the odd man out for refusing to reconsider a position or change his mind even as circumstances change. Remember that at the beginning of the book, he took the untested Newt on the more dangerous errand during the horse-theft trip because he’d forgotten the boy was there and didn’t want to seem to change his mind. Call clearly considers his single-mindedness an advantage rather than a flaw, but others—including the book itself—evidently disagree.
Themes
Uncharacteristically, Call takes his time heading back to the herd. He can’t get used to the knowledge that Gus is dead. They argued over the amputation like they argued over everything else, and he can’t shake the feeling that, just like old times, Gus will show back up at any minute to resume the argument. He no longer wants anything to do with the herd or the men; he has an overwhelming desire to cut and run and ride around Montana until the Indigenous people get him too. He also resents Gus for dying and leaving him all the work and responsibility.
Gus and Call are two sides of the same coin. Over the many years they spent together, they forged a partnership in which it seems that neither can survive without the other. Gus didn’t have to face life without Call, although the book gives readers the impression that he might have handled it with more equanimity than the Captain. Call, for his part, takes the loss stoically—at least on the surface—although it’s clear that he is suffering despite his unwillingness to admit it.
Themes
Call rides ahead of Auld and reaches the herd on the afternoon of the second day. The men are spooked because they recently saw a large group of Indigenous riders, but Call concludes they’re not a threat because they had women and children with them. Only then do the hands notice Gus’s absence. News of Gus’s death spreads quickly among the men, who gather around the wagon to talk about it. Dish joins the others, although he has nothing to say about this turn of events. He’s sad that Gus died but is also nurturing the hope that with Gus out of the way, he might finally have a chance with Lorena. Newt avoids the wagon, isolating himself so he can mourn alone just like he did when Deets died.
As with Deets’s death, Newt wishes to turn away from the harsh truth. But he can’t—and he doesn’t, even though he takes his time alone to deal with the dreadful loss. Notably, when Deets died, it was Gus who finally found the words to offer comfort to Newt. With Gus’s death, it seems like he’s totally alone in the world, notwithstanding he has his father—Call—right there. But Call won’t (or can’t) give the boy what he needs. Newt isolates himself just like his father does, but it doesn’t make him feel any better than it does Call.
Themes
