Lonesome Dove

Call is a solitary man who puts duty above all things. He rarely shows emotions other than anger, and his temper is legendary: “Call had never been a man who could think of much reason for acting happy, but then he had always been one who knew his purpose. His purpose was to get done what needed to be done, and what needed to be done was simple, if not easy” (80). His job as a Ranger suited him well. However, he rarely feels comfortable around his men. Call gives orders and the men follow his lead. He hates arguing and never understands Gus’s contrarian disposition.

Gus provides further insight into Call’s nature. He tells Newt that Call “likes to think that things are a certain way. He likes to think everybody does their duty, especially him. He likes to think people live for duty—I don’t know what started him thinking that way” (834). Despite his intolerance for incompetence—and his confidence in his leadership—Call instigates the cattle drive that will cost so many lives.

There are few examples of weakness in his life. He views his dalliances with Newt’s mother, Maggie, as a mere lapse of judgment: “All his life he had been careful to control experience as best he could, and then something had happened that was forever beyond his control, just because he had wanted to find out about the business with women” (394). He also says that Maggie “had all but slaughtered his strength” (395), because he could not fight his desire for her. Call values simplicity, and nothing seems to complicate matters—in his view—more than the presence of women.

Gus’s death leaves Call without an obvious purpose in Montana. He demonstrates a level of generosity and warmth that is foreign to him when he gives Newt his horse and his father’s watch, but his discomfort with Newt as his son never allows him to admit to the boy that he is his father. He experiences very little personal growth on the cattle drive, but he always does his duty to the extent that he knows what is required of him.

Newt is probably the son of Woodrow Call. His mother, Maggie, worked as a sporting girl when Call visited her. Jake Spoon is the other possible father, but Newt resembles Call more. Newt’s primary role in the novel is to provide a youth’s perspective on the trip and to create emotional turmoil within Call as he wrestles with his parental responsibilities. Newt views the cattle drive as an adventure: He “hadn't been anywhere, so it was all romance to him” (16). It is his chance to see the world, impress adult men, improve his skills as a cowboy, and meet new people. McMurtry also makes an interesting narrative decision: whenever there is a natural disaster, such as the dust storm, the grasshoppers, and the lightning storms, he shows them from Newt’s point of view.

However, Newt grows disillusioned by the series of increasingly grim events that befall the company. When he finally gets what he wanted—verification of his father’s identity—it has the opposite effect that he had hoped for. He says, “I ain’t kin to nobody in this world…I don’t want to be. I won’t be” (922). This line is a sign that Newt is going to make his own way. If no one wants to claim him as a son, then he is going to stop hoping for parental guidance and take responsibility for his life and decisions.

Pea Eye is a longstanding companion of Gus and Call. He is characterized by his slowness of thought and speech. He is brave but easily confused. Gus baffles Pea Eye, who never understands why Gus says the things he does. Pea Eye is afraid of Indigenous American warriors and often dreams that he is being attacked. However, he is most discomfited by the presence of women and grows agitated whenever Gus teases him about getting married. Another of Pea Eye’s characteristics is his contentment with being led. When Call decides to leave Montana, he must choose a new boss. He rules Pea Eye out quickly because he “had contentedly taken orders for thirty years; to expect him to suddenly start giving them was to expect the impossible” (915).

Jake Spoon is a former Ranger who served with Gus and Call. Call’s opinion of Jake is that he “got by on dash and little else all his life” (601). Jake is a handsome gambler, womanizer, and alcoholic. He enjoys fine clothes and clean sheets, unlike most of the other men. Jake can be brave when a fight is necessary, but he is also cowardly in some ways. Jake is willing to enjoy his reputation as a gunfighter, even though he knows it is undeserved. He is a selfish, insecure man who prioritizes his own pleasure. He immediately infatuates Lorena with promises to take her to San Francisco, but this is simply because he knows it will make her more pliable and generous with him. Whereas Call and Gus have a sense of principles and duty, Jake freely admits to himself that “beauties were his real calling” (574). As soon as Lorena starts to defy him, he becomes abusive and immature.

One of the novel’s major ironies is that Jake is the one who suggests the cattle drive, creating situations that ensnare him. His reaction to his escalating disgraces is to leave the company for yet another gambling run, even after Lorena is kidnapped. Jake’s weakness is most apparent when he falls in with the Scuggs brothers. At any moment, he can try to escape from them, or at least fight and die with honor. Instead, he goes along with the killings, which results in his being hanged by Gus and Call, his former friends. Jake dies bravely, one of the few instances in which he chooses courage over convenience.

Deets is a Black man who served with Gus and Call for many years. He has a mystical bent to him, showing an affinity for the moon and a sensitivity to omens and portents. Deets is a masterful tracker and an expert ranch hand. Unfortunately, although everyone respects him and defers to his skills, his skin color ensures that he can never assume a leadership position in the company. If this makes Deets unhappy, he never gives any sign of it. He is kind, patient, and generous. His death results from his attempt to comfort a child. Call’s epigraph at Deet’s grave shows the profound respect that the man had earned, even though he was never rewarded as handsomely as he should have been: “Served with me 30 years. Fought in 21 engagements with the Commanche and the Kiowa. Cherful in all weathers, never sherked at task. Splendid behavior” (808).

Clara is Gus’s primary love interest, although she is married to the horse trader, Bob Allen. Other than Wilbarger and the eccentric etymologist, Sedgwick, Clara is the closest thing to an intellectual in the novel. She enjoys art and culture and aspires to write. Clara describes herself as an impatient person: “I’m too impatient. I’ll give a person a week or two, and then if they don’t improve I’d just about as soon they die” (709). She reserves a specific impatience for men who are incompetent, or who are devoted to women who don’t love them back. As she explains to one of her daughters, “The reason men are awful is because some woman has spoiled them” (929). She says that it is foolish to sacrifice for people who don’t or can’t appreciate the sacrifice. Clara understands tragedy and sacrifice; she and Bob lost three sons before he becomes an invalid, which resulted in her taking full responsibility for the farm.

Clara hides most of her bitterness well, but her jealousy of Call is obvious when they speak after Gus’s death. She says she despises him for taking so much of Gus’s time from her, and she makes no secret of the fact that Call is in the wrong by failing to acknowledge Newt.

Lorena Wood is the most beautiful woman that the men in the novel have ever seen. Other than her appearance, her silence is her strongest characteristic–until her relationships with Jake and Gus begin. Lorena is a victim of abuse, which has led her to distrust men, particularly those who grow angry when drinking. Her husband, John Tinkersley, let his friends use her for money before beating her and abandoning her in Lonesome Dove. Once she is there, Gus tells her, “You’re like a starving person whose stomach is shrunk up from not having any food. You’re shrunk up from not wanting nothing” (379). Lorena has been used for so long that she has forgotten that there are women with aspirations.

Lorena has modest ambitions—she wants to live somewhere with a cooler temperature, and she wants to see San Francisco. She repeats the cycle of her abusive past when she allows Jake to convince her that he will be different than Tinkersley. Ironically, Lorena is not immune to Jake’s physical attractiveness, just as the men are drawn to her beauty. She trusts him, against her better judgment, but then accepts that he is not who she thought he was once they are out on the trail. After being abducted by Blue Duck, and then rescued by Gus, Lorena finds herself utterly reliant on a man. She grows convinced that only Gus can protect her.

Near the end of the novel, Lorena’s character shifts. She grows attached to Clara because Clara accepts her. Lorena has yearned for a female companion and role model. Once again, she finds herself in a small room. However, this time the room is not confining, and she can come and go as she pleases, among people who respect her. She comes to believe that she deserves the dignity that Clara and the girls show to her, and she is determined to hold onto it. As Gus once noted, “The quality of determination had always intrigued him. Lorie had it, and Jake didn't” (228).

Blue Duck is the only major character who is presented without any redeeming qualities. He is characterized by greed, a love of gambling, an utter lack of empathy, and delight in the pain of his enemies (a group that includes nearly everyone). Blue Duck has nursed grudges against Gus and Call for over a decade when Gus and Lorena encounter him. He understands that many Europeans in the West fear the Indigenous Americans, and he uses this to his advantage. Blue Duck is clever and resourceful, which gives him the reputation of being impossible to catch. Deets cannot track him, and he evaded Gus and Call for years. It is fitting that Blue Duck’s final act, on the way to his execution, is to take one more life as he jumps from the balcony with a man in tow.

July is a sheriff and the long-suffering husband of Elmira. He is hard-working but is not clever or lively. His world changes when Jake spoon accidentally kills his brother. He sets off with Joe, his wife’s son, to bring Jake to justice. July may be the only character who is never shown to experience a moment of peace. Elmira believes he is pathetic. When he fails to protect Joey, Janey, and Roscoe from Blue Duck, he feels the same way about himself. He considers suicide and wonders if he is cursed. He thinks, “it would be a joke on everyone if the only person he ever killed was himself” (657).

McMurtry uses July as an example of how brutal the hardships of the West could be on those who were unprepared for them. July’s mistakes are costly and lead to one of his most defining characteristics: guilt. Clara’s assessment of July is as accurate as any. After refusing his marriage proposal, she views him as being from a “strong but unimaginative mold” (758). Clara knows that he is a good man, but she finds July’s passivity in the face of challenges to be a burden and an irritation. When the novel ends, July is only 24 years old. He may yet find a way to be productive.