Lonesome Dove

The western is a genre that is often written by men about men. Women are often used as stage dressing in many westerns, from barmaids and prostitutes to schoolmarms and saloon entertainers. Seldom are these women given any kind of depth, and when they are portrayed they typically are simplified and subordinate to the patriarchal code of values. While there are only three main female characters in Lonesome Dove, McMurtry provides us with spunky, determined women who more often control their own fate than allowing it to be controlled by men. The most central of the three main female characters is Lorena Wood, a prostitute with a heart of gold. She actually catalyzes a good deal of the action in the story wh

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outside the opinions of those around her, “Clara looked at the baby and offered it her finger. ‘We don’t much care what your pa thinks of us, do we, Martin?’ she said. ‘We already know what we think of him’” (McMurtry 599). Despite all of the travails and tribulations endured by the male and female characters in this book, it is a hopeful book in many ways. The unending diastole and systole of life is captured beautifully in the dreams and aspirations of the characters that, like they, must die. All of this is set against the backdrop of a time and place that are also dying – the great cattle drive era of the nineteenth century. At one point Call notes, “Me and you done our work too well. We killed off most of the people that made this country interesting to begin with” (McMurtry 723). On a long stretch of the drive, Gus discusses all of the dead who lie beneath them, “It was such a startling thought—that under him...were millions of bones” (McMurtry 679). Nevertheless, Gus’ dying words are “What a party!” Gus dies and Call surely will like all of the rest beneath them, but they lived a life that was exciting, challenging, heroic, and in the end, missed by them both. Both the frontier and the characters refuse to go g
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Approximate Word count = 2852
Approximate Pages = 11 (250 words per page)

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