Themes from American Literature

The modern American dream is still based (albeit some what loosely here and there) on the concept of manifest destiny.

In the book, through the stories that are told about the 'old times' and the events taking place in the fictional present, a sense of need for land and expansion is conveyed. It is in this manner that the motif and theme is conveyed: that man, and essentially, Americans, will always have a hunger, a craving, a primordial want for more.

One great example of this theme manifesting it's self is through Bob Dollar's own job: to scout out new land for a corporation that farms and slaughters pigs. This corporation is not content to sit static on the land that is currently in their possession, they want to expand and grow and sink their tentacles of stink and death into more and more earth. Dollar's employer, Ribeye Cluke, told Bob before his first venture, "There is no reason why the Texas pan handle can't produce seventy five percent of the world's pork. That's our aim." (Proulx 6) The company is always growing and growing. One day America, the next the world.

We see this theme also in another time, in the story of Martin Merton Fronk, an ancestor of La Von's, whose story follows him from his original home in Kansas to the western frontier. Fronk ventures westward in hopes of acquiring a farm of his own. He is not satisfied to be in Kansas, he wants to push westward and pursue his fortunes in the land of cattle and cowboys. He is not content with normal life, and wants more sun, more money, more grit and more land. He was drawn into the allure and mystery of the west through whispered promises of fortune and grandeur. "One thing he understood clearly- there were fabulous profits in cattle..." (Proulx 75)

Man still maintains roots, no matter how hidden or deep, to nature in a profound and slightly archaic way.

This theme unfurls it's self best in the story of Habakuk van Melkebeek, a "crazy Dutchman who showed up on the Cutaway [a ranch] one spring day in the 1930's looking for work." ( Proulx 140) And van Melkebeek found it. He ended up working as a "windmill man", a person who works to make sure that all of the windmills on the farms work and remain functioning and make upgrades and repairs to them as it is seen fit. Any job on a ranch is closely related to nature, but Habakuk took it one step further by eschewing society and relationships and sleeping out in nature, with his beloved windmills. He had no relationships, save for what he had for the flat planes and the rotating metal. He was a true Western man, with an extremely close relationship with nature. He slept in it, ate in it, and immersed his life in it. "I like the pan handle," he said, "I like Texas, where it's flat." (Proulx 240)

Bob Dollar also has a relationship with the prairie. When he first arrived in Texas, he was a city boy that was merely driving through on business. However, after finally settling down and renting an old bunk house that lies low in the grasses, he begins to forge connections, whether he recognizes them or not. He doesn't seem to notice it just yet, but it is clearly there when he first agrees to rent the bunk house. "He thought the bold diagonal of caprock rim that divided the high plains from the southern plains, the red canyons of the Palo Duro striking and exotic." (Proulx 70)