QUOTES - IMPORTANT QUOTATIONS AND ANALYSIS

The following quotations are important at various points in the story:(Pocket Books, A Division of Simon and Shuster, 1985)

1.) It's best to help such boys have their moment of fun, before life's torments snatch them away. (pg. 48)

This comment by Gus shows his particular sensitivity to the needs of others.

2.) It was only the Christian thing. Taking him in, I mean. After all, one of you boys is more than likely his pa. (pg. 72)

Gus makes this observation about Newt to Jake Spoon and Call. It's a commentary on a major idea of the novel - kinship.

3.) Lorena had stopped expecting ever to be surprised, least of all by a man, and then Jake Spoon walked in the door and surprised her. (pg. 152)

This observation about Lorena details how she has kept herself aloof from others, especially men, who always disappoint her. But Jake is a surprise with his charm and good looks. It's ironic, however, that he will turn out to disappoint her just like all the others.

4.) Deets felt a foreboding, a sense that they were starting on a hard journey to a far place. (pg. 203)

This quote reinforces the generally bad feeling Deets has about this trip north. He doesn't understand why the Captain has chosen to go and his fears foreshadow his own death along the way.

5.) 'I would have married her, ‘ Xavier said, feeling too hopeless even to conceal that he was hopeless. ‘ I ain't surprised,‘ Augustus said gently. It was one thing to make light of a young man's sorrows in love, but another to do it when the sorrower was Xavier's age. (pg. 230)

This quote further emphasizes the effect Lorena has the men around her. In this case, it prepares the reader for the tragic ending of the novel.

6.) It's a funny life. All these cattle and nine-tenths of the horses is stolen, and yet we was once respected lawmen. (pg. 238)

Augustus makes this ironic observation about their lives as they take off on this great undertaking to Montana.

7.) He felt he was being carried along through his life as a river might carry a chip. (pg. 261)

July Johnson makes this observation as he sets off on his journey to find Jake Spoon. It is a true statement in that his life will seem to be out of his control for the remainder of the novel.

8.) If we was in town we'd have a fine funeral. But as you can see, we ain't in town. There's nothing you can do but kick your horse. (pg. 307)

Gus offers this piece of comfort to Allen O'Brien after his brother Sean dies of snake bites. It's a reflection of how life is easily lost and must as easily move on in America's Old West.

9.) Call thought is was unconscionable to leave any woman alone that long in such rough country. (pg. 375)

This is Call's thought about Jake and foreshadows Lorena's abduction by Blue Duck.

10.) Now a chain of follies had put them there: Call's abrupt decision to become a cattleman and his own decision, equally abrupt, to try and rescue a girl foolish enough to be taken in by Jake Spoon. (pg 474)

This is Gus' evaluation of the spot he finds himself in as he searches for Lorena.

11.) I don't sing about myself. I sing about life. I am happy, but life is sad. The songs don't belong to me . . . They belong to those who hear them. (pg. 516)

These words are Po Campo's fatalistic view of life.

12.) They shouldn't have took me. (pg. 526)

This simplistic commentary from Lorena is filled with the greatest pathos and sorrow for the terrible torture she endured with the Indians.

13.) Call smoked a while, feeling odd and a little sad. Jake had proved a coward and would never be a part of the old crew again . . . the old crew was mostly a memory . . . it was all changing. (pg. 540)

Call's thoughts reveal how he too is nostalgic for the days when he the men who rode with him were almost invincible.

14.) One little shot during a card game in Arkansas had started things happening - things he couldn't see the end of. (pg. 563)

Gus observes how one wrong move on Jake's part had started an avalanche of tragedies in their lives.

15.) . . . he felt little fear; just an overpowering fatigue. Life had slipped out of line. It was unfair, it was too bad, but he couldn't find the energy to fight it any longer. (pg 639)

These words reflect Jake's thoughts as he's about to hung.

16.) The light's too thin. (pg. 720)

This is Deets' reason why he doesn't like the north and reinforces his foreboding about making the drive in the first place.

17.) He hoped that now the Captain would see that he had been right to feel worried about leaving Texas. (pg. 800)

These are Deets' last thoughts before he dies and reflect how the drive to Montana had been a mistake in the minds of many of the characters.

18.) I want to be buried in Clara's Orchard . . . Yes, that's my favor to you. It's the kind of job you was made for, that nobody else could do or even try . . . (pg. 877)

These last words of Augustus McCrae reflect the real, strong love he always felt for Clara Allen and his insight into the character of Captain Call who will need a goal to keep his life fulfilled after Gus is gone.

19.) Oh, dern. (pg. 888)

This comment by Pea Eye at the news of Gus' death is more eloquent than anyone else could have been and shows that in a life in the Old West, there's nothing much else that could have been said.

20.) I ain't kin to nobody in this world. I don't want to be. I won't be. (pg. 922)

After Call leaves in the ranch in Newt's hands and rides away without claiming him as his son, Newt makes this bitter comment in response.

21.) It angered her that Gus had been so perverse as to extract such a promise . . . ‘A promise is a promise,' Call said. ‘A promise is words - a son is life . . .' (pp. 930-931)

Clara thinks and speaks these words to try to get Call to realize how immensely wrong it is to carry Gus' body all the way to Texas and never claim a life with his son.

22.) Yeah, a hell of a vision. (pg. 939)

Call utters these words in response to a reporter's commentary on his reputation. They show that he recognizes that his fame and reputation are not the reality of who he really is, but he has come too far to stop now.

23.) ‘When she left, Wanz couldn't stand it. He sat in her room a month and then he burnt it.' ‘Who?' Call asked, looking at the ashes. The woman,' Dillard whispered. ‘The woman. They say he missed that whore.' (pg. 945)

These are the final words of the story, and they reflect the basic idea that much of what the men do is in response to a woman and that Lorena is the catalyst that moved many of them to tragic fates.