Analysis Of The Day The Cowboys Quit By Elmer Kelton

The Day the Cowboys Quit is novel by Elmer Kelton rooted on the proceedings of the strike that happened at old Tascosa in the state of Texas Panhandle during 1883. In this Novel, Kelton sketches in a very exceptional and appealing fashion the political, public, and financial transformations that were happening in the years previous to and subsequent to the great Civil War in Texas. The cowboys as depicted in this novel have been long symbolized and cherished as their liberty.

The story mentioned in the book takes place in the year 1883 but it is significant to comprehend how cowboy and ranches clans led their life before the sequence of events. For about thirty to forty years preceding this time phase a cattle trade could be initiated with a tiny herd of cattle. The cattle were then fed on fresh grass in the open grasslands and thus a bigger heard was built subsequently. Ranchers used to mark some geographical boundaries to be their own but many a times the cattle graze around wherever they preferred. Cowboys too used to work for the rancher groups but they used to be totally free to create brands for their maverick calves so that they can identify them as their own. The cowboys thus made herds of their own by making new brands.

Once we move ahead with the novel, the most enjoyable for me was the character build up

Kelton shows a profound understanding of the laborers mindset, and about the vagueness that infects followers and rivals at the same time. He depicts those as well sure about themselves in a lesser gratifying color than those with uncertainties. It is seen that people who are against the rebellion are slaves to the American strategy of the winner-gets-everything state of mind and flattering to those people with more wealth simply since they possess more wealth. They don’t have a dissenter and dubious