Symbolism, Imagery, Allegory
Setting
Oh, Give Us a Home, Where the Buffalo DecomposeThe trek taken in Lonesome Dove—from the border of Mexico to Montana—would be long even in a car. Imagine doing it on a horse and without Google M...
Genre
Lonesome Dove is a Western with an identity crisis, just like America was having an identity crisis itself in the late 1800s. Around 1870, there were still only 37 states. A lot of the country was...
What's Up With the Title?
If we went back in time almost two hundred years and found a map, we're not sure if Lonesome Dove would be on it. It's deep in the heart of Texas. We think. We're not sure where the heart of Texas...
What's Up With the Epigraph?
All America lies at the end of the wilderness road, and our past is not a dead past, but still lives in us. Our forefathers had civilization inside themselves, the wild outside. We live in the civi...
What's Up With the Ending?
You Can Actually Go HomeGet your tissues, Shmoopers, because the ending to Lonesome Dove is a sad one, and we're not even going to pretend it's the grit from the dusty streets of Lonesome Dove blow...
Tough-o-Meter
Lonesome Dove is a marathon, not a sprint. But it's not one of those Barklay Marathons that only 14 out of 1000 runners have ever finished. Lonesome Dove is more like a really long leisurely stroll...