Borderlands: the loss of a vision in the novels of Larry McMurtry

Abstract

The novels of Larry MCMurtry concern themselves with the inability of a generation displaced from its cultural heritage to create a vision that incorporates the values and traditions of the past, the conditions of the present, and a direction for the future. McMurtry's characters dwell within spiritual borders, unable to retreat to a nostalgic past and unwilling to face an uncertain future. As a result, many of the characters rely on representations of the Old West, not the actuality, to provide themselves with an identity and a vision. In his novels, McMurtry attempts to run lines of meaning between the past and the present in order to examine the nature of the frontier ethos, its death, and his characters' attempts either to revitalize the mythic West or to create a new vision for themselves. In Horseman, Pass By, Lonnie Bannon must learn to create a vision that stablishes his connection between the past and the present, but his ability to create is inhibited by movies and song lyrics that shape his perceptions of the world. In Lonesome Dove, McMurtry examines the nature of the frontier ethos as it manifests itself in a late nineteenth-century cattle drive. Woodrow Call possesses a vision, but he is unable to pass it down to his son (a future generation). All My Friends Are Going to Be Strangers reveals McMurtry's interests in a writer's attempts to recapture a vision of the past through fiction. Danny Deck's efforts to revitalize the myth fail because he wants the actuality of the past, not the representation. Texasville reveals a world that has surrendered itself to a vision of the past put forth by films, song lyrics, and television shows. McMurtry's novels suggest that people in the twentieth century are orphaned from their cultural roots, and, as a result, they turn to images of the past for a sense of an identity.