Most novelists don't kill off half the characters in their book to prove a point, but this one does. The novel's tragic and bloody deaths only reinforce the fact that the West was savage and could not be conquered by any human, regardless of that person's experience or knowledge. Larry McMurtry wrote the western Lonesome Dove to show (contrary to some romantic myths) how harsh and bloody the Wild West was. The bravest and most moral person could die as tragically as the ignorant coward. This novel shows how people behave in different situations based on their personality traits. Say no to plagiarism. Get a Custom Essay on “Why Violent Video Games Should Not Be Banned”? Get an Original Essay The best-developed characters in Lonesome Dove display distinct personalities. Jake Spoon, Augustus "Gus" McCrae, and Woodrow Call were once Texas Rangers, fighting together for the common good of making the West safer to populate. They grew apart over time, but the novel begins with them reuniting later in life. At Jake's suggestion, the three gather some friends and decide to take a three-thousand-mile cattle drive from Lonesome Dove, Texas, to the highlands of Montana. Jake persuades his friends to drive away by telling them about the paradise that lies on the wealthy and unstable frontier. The description of the landscape may be accurate, but the death and suffering that occurs along the journey is anything but a cowboy's paradise. How characters deal with death is shaped by their personalities. After young Sean O'Brien, the first victim on the trip to Montana, is killed by snakes, Gus pronounces over the grave: "From dust to dust . . .] Let the rest of us continue on to Montana” (McMurtry 307). For him, “death is a legitimate, tolerable and rational element of the Western landscape” (Shadroui). It's something Gus can quickly recover from, but a character like Call can think about it for days, the thought of death nagging at his brain. Although they have different ways of dealing with stress, the ex-Rangers share one common trait: restlessness. They are all hesitant to settle down and create a solid home. Threes feel the need to maintain interest and meaning in life. One of the major characters in Lonesome Dove is Woodrow Call. Call has a more dominant nature than any of the other main characters. He is “practical but distant” (Bakker 221). Call is a leader, but he cannot express or discuss deep feelings with other men. His way of coping with an emotional situation is to spend the night alone, away from the campfire. “Call is afraid of his emotions, wishes to forget that he fathered a son thanks to the young prostitute Maggie and refuses to recognize his links with other humans” (Etulain 144). The secret to Call's leadership ability is that he never hesitates. "He understands that most men doubt their abilities, so they follow those who have no doubt. Nor does he have sympathy for this doubt, or for any other human weakness" (Bakker 225). Call can't even imagine what it's like to be afraid, "an inability Gus attributes to the one thing Call seems to lack: imagination" (Bakker 225). He administers the law and rules, enforces the Code of the West, and, if necessary, executes those who threaten the security and peace of the border. Yet he claims he is not a lawyer. "In any case, I'm not going there to judge the law. I'm going there toraise livestock. Jake said it was a rancher's paradise" (McMurtry 84). Although Call may not know it, he is leading the way for everyone else in the North. He believes he is just running a herd of cattle, but what he actually does is open the frontier to new inhabitants “Call has a traditional vision of the wild West – an extension of the white man's mission of conquest and culture. ” (Bakker 236). Call does not see the great injustice done to the Indians as Gus does. Yet “the call is fair to the Indians,” even when one kills his friend Deets. killed Deets, but “he takes no revenge on the hungry and confused Indian tribe. Realizing that they stole the horses to ward off impending famine, he leaves four of the animals with them" (Bakker 237). He only kills violent Indians to protect the others. Call's dominating nature ensures peace for the border, but causes death He will kill as many people as necessary in order to protect others - the pioneers who he believes have more rights to the region than the Indians Call seems to think that the end. justifies the means. A second important character in Lonesome Dove is Augustus McCrae He is the romantic, the comedian, the humane and accommodating cowboy. hear about. “McMurtry made him a generous, cheerful man, full of humor and, although not devoid of a certain vanity, completely devoid of any form of pettiness” (Bakker 223). to his fear of women, Gus's gift for accommodation and his ability to connect with others in positive ways make him a paradigm of the power of demonstrative love. Nowhere is this more evident than in the way he rescues Lorena and restores her to emotional and physical health after her capture by Blue Duck (Jones 42). The reason he is taking this trip, he says, is to "help establish a few more banks" and to open the West to "Sunday school teachers and bankers" (McMurtry 83). The perpetually talkative egoist truly goes on a cattle hunt to combat his greatest enemy: boredom. He knew this move was madness – that's what attracted him. Gus was supposed to cross dangerous rivers, survive stampedes, blizzards and deserts, and fight outlaws. Gus admits he enjoys traveling: “I can't think of anything better than riding a good horse in a new country. This is exactly what I was destined to do” (McMurtry 744). When he finally reached Montana, he said he wouldn't have missed a thing. After enforcing the Western Code and making the West more hospitable to white settlers and businessmen, he realizes that the West is going to become boring again. By killing all the bandits and Indians, by conquering the romantic myth of the West, he and his friends took away "what made this country interesting in the first place" (McMurtry 349). The more battles they win, the more boring their lives will become once the excitement of these battles wears off. Gus believes (contrary to Call's belief in domination) that the West is one of the last untouched, unpolluted regions on the planet, ruined by the arrival of white people. Gus also contradicts his partner's opinion in that he thinks the land belongs to the Indians and that accommodations should be made for the natives. “Augustus is perfectly aware of the great injustice done to the Indians by the whites” (Bakker 236). When Call asks the dying Gus what to do with the Indians who inflicted his fatal wound, Gus responds, “They didn’t invite us – don’t take revenge” (McMurtry 785). Gus sympathizes with the plight of others – whetherthe powerlessness of women or newcomers to the country or region, like Lorena, or Irish immigrants who go on a cattle drive with Gus. He feels compassion for the Indians who are driven from their homeland and for the settlers who are easily eliminated by bandits. Gus's peaceful allowances toward different groups and their ways of life keep the peace in a less bloody way than Call's soxymoronic "kill for peace" method. Jake Spoon is another main character in McMurtry's novel. Jake is a dashing ladies' man; life almost always goes its own way. “All Jake asked for in life was a clean living room to play in, a pretty whore to sleep with, and whiskey to drink” (Bakker 222). Although Jake seems like a fearless young hero, he was truly the morally weakest of the three. “Jake’s strongest point is imitation” (Bakker 222). Around Gus and Call, he became as good a Ranger as either of them had been. But Jake dies a horse thief and murderer because he was too indulgent, lazy, and weak to stick to the moral behavior he knows he should have maintained. Major problems arise when Jake begins to drift away from the herd and decides not to join his Ranger friends at the campsite. "Jake, the originator of the idea for the campaign, refuses to work with the herd as they head north, but in an effort to continue to enjoy the protection of his former Ranger comrades, he follows distant Lorena, whom he promised to take to San Francisco but for whom he has no real affection” (Jones 144). mark the beginning of his downfall. Jake begins to gamble and drink more than before without the other Rangers to keep him on the right path, he drifts away from the moral standards he once followed. in the cities, Lorena is kidnapped and Gus must save her from a dangerous situation that leaves her scarred for life. Jake's indifferent and weak nature contrasts drastically with Gus's unwavering loyalty, patience and strength. heals Lorena after risking his life to save her Jake does not have the will to free himself from the sinful nature of those he has chosen to follow. This makes Jake an accomplice to a number of senseless robberies and murders that he neither approved of nor wanted to participate in. “Ironically, Jake's death stemmed from the Rangers' code of justice – which all three Rangers fought for together” (Jones 41). "McMurtry makes his characters human -- not the exaggerated heroes of romance or myth, but neither are reduced to a level that seems ordinary" (Reilly 99). The characters suffer and die like any human. They make mistakes, even fatal ones, that lead to their death or that of their friends. Even Call, the ideal cowboy, has fatal flaws: giving in to lust, getting lost, or reacting too slowly during an attack on his men. McMurtry shows how seasoned men can fall prey to situations beyond their control. "Even an experienced man, riding such a mess of snakes, would not have survived. It only showed what he already knew, that there were more dangers in life than even training could handle. sharper could not foresee” (McMurtry 306) . McMurtry contrasts Call's morality with Jake's weakness, who cannot even disapprove or try to stop the most egregious sin. None of the three Rangers can be placed on a pedestal of heroism and bravery; everyone shows their mortal nature in their sins, their errors and even in death. Men, like all other humans, try to pull