Lonesome Dove

Fiction | Novel | Adult | Published in 1985

A modern alternative to SparkNotes and CliffsNotes, SuperSummary offers high-quality Study Guides with detailed chapter summaries and analysis of major themes, characters, and more.

Download PDF

Part 1, Chapters 21-25Chapter Summaries & Analyses

Part 1, Chapter 21 Summary

Lorena gives Jake 50 dollars to get her a horse. Xavier proposes to her and sobs when she rejects him. He says that he would have given her anything and that he loves her more than anyone could.

Part 1, Chapter 22 Summary

Jake and Lorena come to camp. The men are shocked to see Lorena wearing pants. Bolivar wonders if he should leave. He isn’t sure why he wants to go on the drive, but he does not want to return to his wife, although sometimes he misses his children. Call and Gus talk as Sean sings a mournful song. Call tells Newt that Montana is farther away than he has ever been in his life.

Part 1, Chapter 23 Summary

Gus is nostalgic and briefly returns to Lonesome Dove. Soupy Jones, a former Ranger, joins their company. Gus visits Jake and Lorena at their camp on his way to Lonesome Dove. Jake has a mesquite thorn in his hand that is threatening to get infected. He is irritated and drunk, and their camp is a mess. At the Dry Bean, Gus says goodbye to Xavier and Lippy. When he leaves, Lippy goes with him as Xavier cries.

Part 1, Chapter 24 Summary

As they travel, Jasper obsesses about drowning. Dish has a different obsession; he vows to impress Lorena and thinks that the cattle drive will give him a chance to prove himself to her. Call makes Deets their scout. As usual, Call eats alone, just as he did in Lonesome Dove. He admires men most when they’re alone, or before he hears them talk enough to give him a low opinion of them. Call tells Gus he won’t miss the place. He is ready to be on the plains.

Part 1, Chapter 25 Summary

They each choose four horses, except Gus, who intends to ride his horse, Malaria, the whole way. Gus and Call look back at Lonesome Dove from a hill. Suddenly Call doesn’t understand why he felt they had to leave. Gus says that Call doesn’t know how to live without a hard task and that he barely has any life at all.

Part 1, Chapters 21-25 Analysis

As Part 1 ends, Gus and Call leave Lonesome Dove. These chapters mark the narrative’s point of no return: whatever happens on the drive, no one will be able to resume their previous life. It happens so suddenly, given that they have never talked about leaving before Jake proposes it, that it almost feels haphazard. Call’s uneasy feeling that he doesn’t understand the urgency he felt foreshadows troubles to come. They left a place they have come to call home, and no one seems to know why.

The mesquite thorn in Jake’s thumb is symbolic foreshadowing. If untreated, the infection will fester and endanger Jake’s life: It represents the large-scale calamity that can arise from a single misfortune. The theme of infection also applies to Jake himself. His drunkenness and unsuitability for life on the trail threaten to infect Lorena and endanger the cattle drive. With Lonesome Dove behind them, McMurtry is prepared to put the characters through harsh trials and introduce pivotal new figures in Part 2.