Old West By Larry McMurtry Essay, Research Paper

"Old West" LONESOME DOVE While Larry McMurtry honors certain mythical

features of the "Old West," his epic, Lonesome Dove, is the

quintessential representation of the realism of the "Old West." By

contrast, mythic representations of the "Old West" tend to look absurd

and silly. Stories such as the one portrayed in the film "True Grit"

appear to be ridiculous because of their one-dimensional presentation of

characters, including women; their passive, utopian environments; and their

conveniently distinct depiction of good and evil. Larry McMurtry’s Lonesome Dove

presents characters not larger than life but complex, women who are not

frightened and dependent, but self-sufficient and wise. "McMurtry is

unfailing acute on the life of women in this man’s world" (Clemons,

Contemporary Literary Criticism 254). In mythic representations such as

"True Grit" villains are not people with complicated backgrounds which

cause their poor behavior. Nor are there Indians or black people in "True

Grit" although the "Old West" was populated by them. "All of

Mr. McMurtry’s anti-mythic groundwork-his refusal to glorify the West-works to

reinforce the strength of the traditionally mythic parts of Lonesome Dove by

making it far more credible than the old familiar horse operas" (Lemann,

Literary Criticism 257) such as "True Grit." In the film "True

Grit" Rooster Cogburn typifies the preposterous qualities of a mythical

United States Marshall. He acts alone in hunting down serious killers, but this

is no problem because Rooster, even though a drunk, earlier has brought to

justice a wagon-load of wrongdoers. Later, with the reins of his horse in his

teeth, Rooster shoots all of his antagonists except for his arch enemy who

shoots Rooster’s horse out from under him. Just as the arch enemy, Robert

Duvall, is about to shoot Rooster, from far away someone conveniently kills

Duvall. Rooster is a man whose weaknesses never pull him down, because he is

"larger than life" (Hirsch, E! Online 2). Rooster Cogburn is a

character of mythical stature whose defects never prevent him from accomplishing

his heroic deeds. Larry McMurtry’s characters in his novel, Lonesome Dove,

demonstrate actual "grit." While Augustus (Gus) McCrae is an indolent

man, unlike Rooster Cogburn, Gus is not ashamed of his laziness. "It’s a

good thing that I ain’t scairt’ to be lazy" (McMurtry 9). Gus would rather

have a whisky bottle in his hand than a shovel (Horn, Literary Criticism 255),

but his crew forgives his weaknesses because they respect his heroic

capabilities as an authentic, fierce fighter and loyal friend. Gus McCrae’s

former Texas Ranger partner , Captain Woodrow C. Call, proves himself a terrific

leader and an excellent cowboy who at the same time lacks typical cowboy

sociability. "He heads for the river because he is tired of hearing us yap,

he ain’t a sociable man and never was" (McMurtry 26). Unlike Rooster

Cogburn, who always acts flamboyantly, Woodrow Call’s personality changes

dramatically because he is genuinely influenced by his circumstances. He is

always the first to react to danger including anticipating poisonous snakes

while on the trail, and occasionally saving his crew from harm. Call acts the

part when needed. The "portrayal of McCrae and Call,?as both heroic and

endearingly human,?particularly delighted critics" (Literary Criticism

253). The foolish humor in "True Grit" attempts to create the belief

that a one-eyed, alcoholic man who falls off his horse can individually solve

problems because he has "true grit." The gritty Rooster Cogburn lives

with a little Chinese man and a cat which seems silly in the way it provides

humorous relief. This is a common gimmick that film makers use who represent the

"Old West" in a mythic way. Rooster’s eating habits also characterize

him comically. He often puts rock hard bacon bits into his mouth, even offering

them to dainty women like Kim Darby who is shocked by the offer. Other aspects

of humor arise when at the film’s conclusion. Rooster rides away while

improbably jumping over a fence in a manner of an agile young cowboy. In fact,

Rooster is a cowboy cut-up whose drinking habits lead to?laughable

incidents" throughout the film (Hirsch, E! 2). In contrast, reviewers

praised Larry McMurtry’s chronicle of cowboy life in the nineteenth century

"as a humorous yet sincere tribute to the American West" (Literary

Criticism 253). McMurtry provides his characters with realistic humor as when

Woodrow reflects on his partnership with Gus: It’s odd I partnered with a man

like you, Call, Augustus said. If we was to meet now instead of when we did, I

doubt we’d have two words to say to one another. Woodrow Call responded, I wish

it could happen then, if it would hold you to two words. (Literary Criticism

257) The exchange between Call and McCrae portrays two genuinely good friends

and "gritty" cowboys expressing humor ironically to each other. Call

and McCrae converse credibly, not in the gimmicky way that the characters in

"True Grit," or those of typical unrealistic western genre talk to

each other. The treatment of women in mythical representations of the

"West" varies sharply with their realistic treatment in Lonesome Dove.

In mythical representations women tend to be either dependent and frightened

without much personality, or planning exaggerated "missions of

revenge" such as the Matty Ross in "True Grit." In the mythical

"Old West" men always arrive just in time to save the day. The women

in need constantly search for a man "with grit." In the mythical

"West" there are no gritty women, but there are those who can

improbably accomplish what men cannot. Matty can ride her horse across a river

while Rooster and his partner take a ferry. Lonesome Dove realistically depicts

women such as Clara Allen and Lorena Wood who are "glorious [in their]

individuality." Clara and Lorena are "willful and passionate" and

possess "charismatic" personalities (Horn, Literary Criticism 255).

Also, in realistic portrayals a cowboy can be involved with two women

simultaneously. One may even be a prostitute such as Lorena who is

never-the-less beautiful and "delicate as a desert rose" (255). On the

other hand ,Gus can love Clara, a plain, sensible woman married to a dying man.

Clara is an authentic, Western woman, caring for three children while also

running a horse ranch. Instead of being frightened by the frontier and grasping

the hand of the man next to her, Clara cares for a dependent man while bravely

facing the demands of the frontier. Clara’s home lies twenty miles from the

nearest town, "a place where Indians were a dire threat, though Clara

didn’t seem to fear them" (McMurtry 653). Unlike mythical treatments of

frontier women, the realistic portrayal permits them to evolve. Lorena begins

her relationship with Gus by having contempt for him. She treats Gus crudely,

"Don’t you cheat, Gus?. If you cheat I won’t give you no pokes"

(519). Gradually, Lorena begins trusting Gus to hide her from the harsh reality

of her career and life. She begins to love Gus so strongly "that sex,

somehow, weakens [and they] become best of friends" (Horn, Literary

Criticism 255). Only in a realistic depiction of a Western woman could the

portrayal of a prostitute be dynamic enough to be interesting apart from her

sexual life. Mythical or realistic depictions of characters and their actions

also influence the treatment of good and evil in "True Grit" and

Lonesome Dove. In "True Grit" the villains are unambiguously always

bad with no character trait that redeems them or makes them appear fully human

or makes them somewhat likeable. In one scene Rooster Cogburn interrogates some

villains whom he believes are about to rob a bank. Suddenly, one begins to talk,

and as he speaks, another takes out a knife and cuts off the speaker’s fingers.

No aspect of friendship between the two is evident. Each is a one-dimensional

character. Each is a villain and therefore always "wrong." Therefore,

one deserves to be harmed by his partner without mercy while the partner himself

deserves being killed by Rooster who is always "right" in these

matters because he is the "good guy." By contrast, the characters in

Lonesome Dove are not easy to love or hate. They encourage conflicting emotions

because they are complicated. The distinction between good and evil, right and

wrong is not always clear because fictional events are portrayed realistically,

as they might have occurred in the Old West. In one tragic scene, Deets a

likeable, former Texas Ranger who happens to be black, is killed by a young

Indian who is ignorant that Deets is trying to rescue a small, blind Indian boy.

Deets once pursued Indians under the command of Woodrow Call and Augustus McCrae,

and now he is with them pursuing a small group of mostly women and children

together with a few young braves not yet of fighting age. Call fires a shot to

disperse the Indians who hastily leave one, small, boy behind who cannot see.

Deets tries to save the boy, but in the confusion is slain by the young brave.

It wasn’t right for the brave to kill Deets, but the brave couldn’t weigh all

the facts. He only understood that when guns fire, usually Indians are killed,

and he had never associated a cowboy with someone who might be helpful or good.

In his passionate attempt to "save" the boy, the young brave

"couldn’t stop coming and couldn’t stop hating either?." (McMurtry

800). It was not clearly wrong or immoral for the Indians to take the horses

when all the factors surrounding the incident are considered. Of the twenty

Indians involved, most of them were women and children and therefore not a

threat to Call and the others. Furthermore, the Indians took the horses for

food; they had been starving. They were without food because of the effects of

the war they had fought with the white man over land the white man was taking

from them. Gus understands this dilemma immediately when he sees the hungry

Indians eating the horses: "These aren’t the mighty Plains Indians we’ve

been hearing about?Let’s go, we don’t want to be shooting these people,

although it would be a mercy?."(798). Neither Call nor Macrae administer

instant justice. The world of good and evil is not defined in the clear cut

black and white manner as for Rooster Cogburn. Both Call and McCrae are troubled

over the death of Deets. "[Call] could not get over his surprise. Though he

had seen hundreds of surprising things in battle, this was the most

shocking?." (802). The "half-breed" Blue Duck is a complicated

character whose life and actions blur the line that separates good and evil.

Blue Duck was an old foe of Call and McCrae in their Texas Ranger days of

hunting Indians. Blue Duck carried out many bad deeds in his life including

shooting another Indian in the head in order to convince the rest that it was

not a good idea to reveal his location to the white men. He could just as easily

kill a white man. At the end of his life when he was finally caught, he jumped

out of a window to his death taking a white deputy with him. Blue Duck turned

out committing evil deeds, but he was a product of two cultures which each

rejected him, the Indian and the white. He was half Indian and half white, but

he was all confused. He was bound to be a "sufferer," it was his only

means of survival. Cultures can be judged just as easily for their actions as

individuals, and the results of such judgements are not always easy to define.

Reality brings with it ambiguity. The role of environment in mythical stories of

the "Old West" is a background paradise. Whereas in realistically told

stories such as Lonesome Dove, it plays a more active, determining role. In

"True Grit" the environment is never a factor that hinders the

achievement of Rooster Cogburn’s goals. Neither Rooster nor his companions ever

confront a hail of grasshoppers which can throw him off his horse. He can

accomplish this on his own. Rooster is never stopped from pursuing the killer of

Matty Ross’ father because of a violent wind or sand storm. Unlike Woodrow Call

who is obsessed with the surrounding environment because it brings the threat of

Indians, Rooster Cogburn rides through an harmless environment that is more like

a paradise than like a place where "the earth is mostly just a boneyard but

pretty in the sunlight" according to Gus McCrae (Horn, Literary Criticism

255). Larry McMurtry portrays the environment of the "Old West" almost

as if it were another character because of its ability to alter the lives of the

actual characters. If one character could shoot another without mercy, then the

environment could also cause harm without pity. In Lonesome Dove when their

comrades have suffered from some environmental "attack" such as a wind

or rain storm, the other cowboys react to their safety as if they had been

attacked by Indians. When Newt became lost, the first question he asked the

others upon returning was "Did the grasshoppers hurt anybody?" (McMurtry

570). Yes, they attacked the cowboys by covering the cattle and eating their

clothes. Grasshoppers coming out of the environment spooked Jasper’s horse which

threw him causing him to break a collarbone (571). Sean O’Brien was

"attacked" by a water moccasin and dies not because he made a poor

choice against a human enemy such as not drawing his gun fast enough but because

the environment was dangerous, and like a bad person could be harmful if it was

disregarded long enough. Bill Spettle lost his life together with twelve cattle

in a thunderstorm. This same storm altered the lives of the cowboys by hindering

the herd’s progress. It might not be a person but instead rain, hail, or

grasshoppers which by their actions could alter the direction of the actual

characters’. In this way the environment could appear to be another character

and at times a threatening one. Larry McMurtry was raised on a Texas Livestock

Ranch which provided him an intimate understanding of Texas, cowboys, and the

whole culture surrounding ranch life. As a boy he often spoke with older men who

knew the experience of the "Old West" well. His uncles often told him

"about the days when the range was open [and about] ?wily Indian villains

[such as Blue Duck] and the good-hearted?Lorena" (Literary Criticism

253). With such a personal influence, McMurtry was informed and inspired to see

if he could make the tales of the old days "real" (253). McMurtry’s

background allows him to write a Western novel "known for its realism"

(Martin, personal interview). Lonesome Dove separates itself distinctly from

mythic representations of the "Old West" by its realistic treatment of

characters including women; the environment; and the forces of good and evil.

Cowboys can be formally educated, even if flawed. Gus McCrae’s Latin could be

comical. It translated: "The cluster of grapes-many sided, parti-colored,

diverse-through living, begets one grape" (Sewell, Literary Criticism 261).

At the same time Gus poor Latin brought pleasure to a dying man like Wilbarger,

and it was an honest description of Gus, Jake Spoon, and Woodrow Call (261).

McMurtry’s depiction of people, morality, and the environment of the "Old

West" contains a power that "rests in the awesomeness of the myth of

the cowboy. The myth, heretofore, foisted upon gullible audiences by Hollywood,

can now be drawn from the fiction of one who knows the myth" (Sewell,

Literary Criticism 261) to represent it realistically.

1. Clemons, Walter, et. al. "Larry McMurtry, Lonesome Dove."

Contemporary Literary Criticism 44 (1986): 253-262. 2. Contemporary Authors

Volume 5-8. Detroit: Gale Research Company, 1984 P. 767 3. Martin, Linda.

Personal Interview. April 1998 4. McMurtry, Larry. Lonesome Dove. New York:

Pocket Books, 1985. 5. Skow, John. "Climbing the Foothill." Time 4

Sept. 1995: 65. 6. "The Box: Lonesome Dove." 99 Lives 16 pp. Online.

Internet. 2 May 1998. Available http://www.99 Lives.com/features/box/ldepi2.html.

7. True Grit. Dir. Henry Hathaway. Perf. John Wayne, Glen Campbell, Kim Darby,

Robert Duvall, Dennis Hopper, and Jeremy Slate. Malofilm Group, 1969.