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Jimmy Mundane
Mahoney
AP 12 Literature
3/15/10
The Big Sky
By A.B. Guthrie Jr.
The quintessential American western novel is often dismissed by academics as
being overly sentimental or idealistically masculine in its worldview. Although casual
perusal this novel may appear to be one of many such “adventure” or action novels,
closer inspection (or introspection) of The Big Sky reveals that it is a well constructed
analysis or criticism of typical American ideals and archetypes.
The novel is simultaneously a coming of age story, as well as being an
exploration of American ideals which raises several significant questions about the
United States as a culture and the fate of humanity in the hands of the modern selfrealizing existential paradigm.
The story begins with our protagonist; the adolescent Boone Caudill, becoming an
outcast and essentially a social “orphan” as he alienates himself from his family and
imposes a self- inflicted exile of sorts by fleeing the constraints and social mores of a
presumably civilized society. He leaves his native state of Kentucky with intentions on
the Rocky Mountains.
Boone encounters several conflicts on the way and finds no justice among
townsfolk and highway travelers who cross his path. These experiences further distill his
distain for civilization and frustrate his chances for acceptance in conventional society.
Aiding him in his escape from injustice at the hands of the established order is Boone’s
red-haired foil character, Jim Deakins. Jim is everything that Boone is not: Where Boone
is taciturn; Jim is gregarious, Where Boone embraces violence, Jim is the good-natured
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negotiator. Where Boone is brooding and somber, Jim is lighthearted and carefree. Jim
represents the better side of us and reflects the assumption that mankind at least has good
intentions and is at best accepting of his own flaws.
“This Boone Caudill. Who acted first and thought afterwords, but acted stout and
honest just the same; this Jim Deakins, who saw fun in things and made fun and
had God and women on his mind.” (Guthrie 213)
Indent quotation using tab, double spaced, cite source as above
The journey beyond the established border of the Mississippi twists up the
Missouri River like a journey into some very basic concepts of existence, or universal
and seemingly unavoidable conflicts. This part of the journey encapsulates the quest of
Boone’s employer, Jourdanais, a French Canadian flatboat trader who also seeks to break
out of the established order by trading independently of the established American Fur
Company, or the British based Fort McKenzie Traders. His trump card and safe passage
into the hostile territories of the Upper Missouri is seemingly secured by his guardianship
of Teal Eye: an adolescent female of the Blackfoot Tribe. It is revealed that Teal Eye has
some social standing among this most feared and in-accessible nation, and Jourdanais
assumes his retrieval of her from captivity will afford him trading privileges where others
were denied.
Accompanying Jim and Boone among the boatmen is Dick Summers. Summers,
the veteran Mountain Man, serves as a mentor to Boone and Jim. The three are set apart
from the boatmen, as their mission is primarily to hunt food for the barrel-chested French
boatmen, and scout ahead for potential hazards. It is assumed they are a cut above the
French contingent. The Americans are presented as having aspirations and goals, while
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the French Canadians are generally presented as living in a purely physical existence of
extreme drudgery, unbalanced by an excessive consumption of food, alcohol and women.
The woodcraft and hunting skills possessed by the three frontiersmen serve to spare them
from much of the brutal dray work required of the boatmen. This is perhaps the Author’s
commentary on the American ideal of escaping the limitations of the mercantile
European model through mastering the skill set of the new continent. Those of French
decent are leashed to the old order and seem content with their station in life.
“That towline like to wore me to the bone. I pret’near hope we don’t have to pole
tomorrow, or get stuck. “It don’t seem to bother the French.” God, no! And it
don’t bother a woodchuck to dig a hole or a hound to run. They don’t know no
better. They don’t know nothin’ but workin’ a boat up this river.” (Guthrie 66)
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Summers becomes a father figure of sorts, and represents another of Guthrie’s
ideals of the fair playing and respectful white encroacher, benevolent in his manner and
philosophical in his demeanor. “…More than ever, the feeling of being a father to them
rose in him now that he had to leave…Feeling uneasy about what might happen to them”
(215) Short quote does not require indentation. Cite same source consecutive times as
above.
Perhaps predictably so, Boone falls for Teal Eye and becomes obsessed with her
in a way he perceives to be more honorable than the intentions of his fellow boatmen.
Boone sees himself as the protector of the chaste princess, although it is obvious his
motives are predominantly self-serving. The female character is given little dialog and
the author explores no personal goals or aspirations for her, as these luxuries are largely
gender- biased and are a product of the times. Teal Eye is unfortunately a device in the
novel, which rather than a shortcoming of the author’s societal dynamic, is perhaps an
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accurate illustration of the American gender and racial paradigm. Although the character
is a Blackfoot native, her name brings connotations of having Caucasoid features, as
green eyes are not commonly found in Native American tribes. While she is not
described as literally having green eyes, this moniker subtly hints at a stereotype in
American folklore, where the “Indian princess” often is endowed with Eurocentric
standards of beauty. Similarly, her purpose is to be an ideal of desire, representing a
property to be possessed and influenced or controlled by the standards of a conquering
culture, parallel in virtue to the pristine wilderness the Mountain Men seem to worship,
but concurrently at disposal to be dominated and tamed.
Guthrie explores typical male-dominated gender dynamics through the casual
relationships the men have with white prostitutes and Indian women (a culture that
seemingly does not imbue such stigmas about sexual ‘morality”) These dalliances are
assumed acceptable for and from the male perspective, as typically American Men want
their wild oats to be easily sown, while expecting their brides to be untried. Such is the
case between Boone and Teal Eye.
The boatmen’s journey into the wilderness ends tragically as Jourdanais’ keelboat
is attacked on the far reaches of the Upper Missouri. Only the Americans survive, as
their superior skills, ingenuity and cool headedness are contrasted sharply with the
cowardice, greed and panic of their French counterparts. Although this may seem overly
ethnocentric considering the American mindset, it is on a deeper level a criticism and
reflection on the working and merchant classes of the traditional European model.
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The novel at this point begins its idyllic adolescence, as the men explore the
freedom of self-reliance, independence and self-employment. The Mountain life for
Boone and Jim develops under the tutelage of the elder Dick Summers. The ironies
explored in this portion of the novel begin to further unfold the overarching themes of the
work. Through their work as trappers, the men succeed in a gradual destruction of the
wildness they seek. Although they strive for independence, the temptation of storebought goods and the curiosity of socialization aids in the downfall of their ideal.
Contemporary society is revisited on a yearly basis through the participation in the yearly
Rendezvous. This is an annual trading fair of sorts, where Mountain Men, Indians and
Traders come together to buy, sell, trade, fight, fornicate and tally up who has survived
the year, or who has been “rubbed out” by hostile tribes or conditions. As furs become
scarcer, the trio continues to venture further into the untamed wild that they crave. The
wild that calls them seems to provide vitality and an awareness of the ironic spirituality
of a brute physical world. It is a world where beliefs are a luxury and action is what
gives a being or a soul it’s value.
Consequently, Guthrie’s novel can be interpreted by modern existential standards.
Old Summers waxes philosophical about how the wilderness has become “spi’led”, and
in his musing discovers his own age and frailties may have caught up with him. Thus
begins the authors’ ironic revelation that life itself is self-consuming, and that rabid
pursuit and conquest of our ideals and goals often results in their decline or destruction.
The author uses Dick’s interior monologue to personify the voice of the mountains.
“Goodbye, Dick Summers. Goodbye, you old nigger, you. We mind the time
you came to us, young and green and full of sap. We watched you grow into a
proper mountain man. We saw you learning, trapping and fighting and finding
trails, and going around then proud breasted, like a young rooster, ready for a
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frolic or a fracas, your arm strong and your wind sound and the squaws proud to
have you under a robe. But new times are a-coming now, and new people, a heap
of them, and wheels rolling over the passes, carrying greenhorns and women and
maybe children too, and plows. The old days are gone and Beaver’s through.
We’ll see a sight of change, but not you, Dick Summers. The years have fixed
you. Time to go now. Time to give up. Time to go sit back and remember.
Time to go for a chair and a bed. Time to wait to die. Goodbye, Dick. Goodbye,
Old Man Summers”. (Guthrie 211)
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The departure of Summers back to the confines of civilization signals another
major shift in the novel. If his entrance into the story signaled a quintessential
apprenticeship for Boone and Jim, the exit of this father figure is a benchmark for
adulthood. Guthrie’s use of Summers’ character is executed subtly, and he escapes
formulaic master/apprentice expectations due to the very nature of the social dynamic.
The trapper’s world is one where lofty morality is seen as false and confining, and action
is what defines a man’s worth to himself and the few peers he may hold in esteem. It is
an existential paradigm where the only morality or “law” that exists is the law of action in
the moment. There is no code being passed down through their generations, as they all
seem to know that their bones and their way of life are doomed. Such is the way of a
fugitive culture. The way of the outcast is a conscious choice of social damnation, which
lends additional irony to Summers’ retreat to the settlements. It poses the question of
whether or not it is more heroic to suffer a quicker demise while standing firm for
mountain ways, or is it more honorable to admit one’s frailties and step back gracefully to
less hostile climes. As Summers exits, Boone and Jim begin a new quest, pushing back
into the Blackfoot territory where Jourdanais and the keelboat crew had been killed
seven years previously.
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Accompanying the duo on their journey is Blackfoot Indian called “Poordevil” by
the white men. In the parlance of the day, a Poordevil Indian was one who has been
ostracized by his own kind, and has been cast out, with no tribe or family to rely on. He
is quickly adopted by the trappers because of his sense of humor his language skills, and
Boone’s ulterior motive of returning to the Blackfoot country. Poordevil represents a
native culture in decline, one driven soft by the trader’s cultivation of a taste for whiskey,
coffee, sugar and other store-bought goods. As a symbolic character, Poordevil
represents what the reservation Indian culture will eventually become, at least in the eyes
of their oppressors. Additionally, it reflects the racist attitude of American culture at the
time of the books’ publishing. Poordevils’ dialog is rife with “heap big” modifiers and
the clipped idiotic pidgin of the western movie reservation drunk.
Additionally, The Blackfoot tribe which had been a source of terror seven years previous
have since been decimated by smallpox, which makes the trios’ passage into their
territory all the more expedient. Miraculously, Teal Eye has remained unmarried (and
presumably chaste) and the female character is passive and accepting of Boone’s offer of
marriage. Life among the Piegan Blackfeet is idyllic, but the pressing of civilization is
foreshadowed by Boone and Jim hiring out to guide a land speculator through he
mountain passes and into the Oregon territory. Yet another example of the Mountain
Men pursuing or contributing to the destruction of their attested way of life.
Also looming on the horizon is Boone’s suspicion of the relationship between his
best friend and his wife. The author’s theme of the tragedy of the inevitable and the
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ironies of the frailties of independence and isolation is again apparent in this portion of
the novel.
Similarly, the character of Boone is in itself a study of American hypermasculinity. While to the casual reader, his taciturn behavior and simplistic and rapid
forays into violence may be seen as desirable qualities on the frontier, Guthrie handles
the shortcomings of this cowboy prototype somewhat adroitly, and the supposed
American ideal of the man of few words and quick fists loses its luster in this episode of
the work. The first-born from the union of Boone and Teal Eye is the desired male heir.
However, the child is born blind. The affliction, used literally as a conflict to challenge
their idyllic relationship, also represents an allegorical affliction on Boones’ legacy. The
lesson being purported here is that an archetypical male dominated society which
embraces violence, suppresses emotion and the rejects tenderness, is doomed to a life
incomplete; a life without the true embrace of love, or the mutual bond of friendship. It
is a legacy blind to the very things that make life worthwhile. A life which embraces
conflict, but is blind to the things that are worth fighting for.
To further illustrate this point, another complication is added: The child has a
tinge of red in his hair. The jovial foil character, Jim, is the suspected paramour, as he is
the only red-haired character in the novel. Although marriage among American Tribes,
generally speaking, was defined differently from one tribe to another, we know through
the omniscient narrator that Jim had always harbored feelings for Boone’s wife, but does
so from afar and never betrays the trust of his friend. Boone, unwilling to hear the voice
of reason, pulls out his pistol in classic western fashion and takes the life of Jim, a friend
whose life he had saved on numerous occasions. Always the outcast and fugitive by
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choice, Boone leaves the people of the Upper Missouri and returns to the alleged
civilization he despises, not for shelter, but to extract revenge on those who had wronged
him on his journey west thirteen years previous.
Upon returning to his dying mother’s home in Kentucky, he inadvertently learns
that red hair was an occasional trait found in his family, and realizes that the certainty of
his convictions about Jim and Teal Eye were probably false. Unfeeling of remorse of his
past, his final judgment is an unrepentant confession of sorts to Old Man Summers,
whom Boone has tracked down on the flatlands.
“This here hand done it” “This here finger pulled the trigger”…I rekon I sp’iled it
all.,,I kilt Jim” I been tellin’ myself I done right, Dick. But I don’t know. I don’t know
for sure. Maybe I ain’t honest.”… (Guthrie 385) …“For a while Summers could see
Boone, weaving big and dark, into the darkness, and then he couldn’t see him any more,
and he turned and went back into the cabin.”. (Guthrie 386”)
Two short quotes run together: Indent quotation using tab, double spaced, cite source as
above
Summers is puzzled but compassionate toward Boone’s confession, as Boone
strides off, back toward the darkness to the west and the mountains which are no longer
really there for him. With his concern more about his own honor than remorse over
killing his best friend, Boone is once again is cast out by his own sense of superiority,
alienated by those whom he feels have not lived their lives according to his standards; an
American Cain who will not surrender the task of banishment to a God he cannot see or
fight. Summers, the forgiving Adam, beckons him to stay awhile at his farm, a
compromised and adequate “garden”. The implication being made by this extended
allusion serves to illustrate the Authors’ view of the failures of modern American
standards of masculinity, a land where the history classes spend little time on the quiet
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spells in between the wars and conflicts; where those who invent and enjoy the things
that make life worthwhile are somehow seen as inferior to the conqueror class. The
exploration of these unrepentant attitudes seems somewhat before it’s time. The killing
of the better natured part of a generation at the hands of those who lack understanding
and banishment of Boone by the author seems to be suggesting that people should turn
their backs on the hard existentialism of the suspicious and unforgiving Boone, and
embrace the joyful and spiritual curiosity of Jim. Jim represents the part of humanity
that is willing to share the joke and mystery of existence, and also willing to let others be
defined on their own terms. It is at this point we ask if the better part of our humanness is
being suppressed and killed off by the Boone Caudill inside of us, an internal conflict
where Huck Finn turns Jim over to the authorities based on firm principles from which he
cannot waver.
We can come away from this novel with several levels of understanding. On the
literal plane, Boone is a one-dimensional portrait of the American conquest, singleminded in its convictions; a non- learning experience where changes in stimulus seem to
gain no change in behavior. In terms of social criticism, it is a study in the inadequacies
of our masculine ideal of the defender, the discoverer, the destroyer, who is unaware of
the long-term implications and spiritual significance of our treatment of others. It is also
allegorically a rejection of the modern self-defining, existential model of mankind,
anecdotal evidence against those who have invented a God in themselves and offer no
room for consensus of, or concern for the beliefs and principles of others.
“For all his strength, though, there was trouble in him. Summers could see it in
his eyes and around his mouth and in the way he drank liquor, as if apupose to
make his mind blank. He was a man with misery eating at him – a deep misery,
that would come out by and by, likely, if he kept downing whiskey, Somehow
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Summers was reminded of a thing hunted, and no way for it to turn.” (Guthrie
384) Indent quotation using tab, double spaced, cite source as above
Through Boone Caudill, Guthrie examines and indicts the part of our culture and
nature which insists on riding roughshod on the gentler part of ourselves, in the name of
strong beliefs and convictions that are based on the same evidence as those of whom we
oppresses. We are all in the same world; those who are inflexible and unwavering may
out-survive the more sensitive side of mankind, but will have lived less because of it.
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Works Cited
Guthrie, Alfred Bertram. The Big Sky. New York: Mariner Books. 1947. Print.
Twain, Mark. The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn. New York: Harcourt. 1963. Print
Lastname, Firstname. Title of Book. Place of Publication: Publisher, Year of Publication.
Medium of Publication.