"The Day the Cowboys Quit" - a Novel by Elmer Kelton

The Day the Cowboys Quit is a novel that was primarily based on the events that took spot at the old Tascosa in the Texas Panhandle in 1883. The Day the Cowboys Quit is a novel written by Elmer Kelton, in 1971. Kelton was born April 29th, 1926 in West Texas. All through the early years of his life, Kelton was raised on a ranch and went to college at the University of Texas to study journalism. In fifty years, Kenton was tough at work writing western novels, most of which are primarily based in Texas. The novel The Day the Cowboys Quit received the Spur award in 1971 for the best western novel. This is only a single of about forty novels written by Kelton who has received prestigious awards for many of his novels.

The book portraits in a very exclusive and interesting way the social, political, and economical alterations that were taking spot in the years just before and following the Civil War in Texas. It showed how the cowboys, who for long had becoming guys that in a way represented freedom itself, becoming in a position to go anywhere they wanted to, at any time, and could survive with little or no money with them. Even even though they did seem all wonderful, they were victims to the stereotype of getting a bunch of drunks, and downgraded to a normal employee.

In the story, Hugh Hitchcock, who is the primary character, and his friends Rascal and Law McGinty who also worked for another friend referred to as Charlie that owned the W ranch. This was when getting a rancher and cattle owner, was 1 of the really few methods to get wealthy and every single cowboy knew how to grow to be one if they truly wanted to. It wasn’t until big corporations and bankers got involved in the beef market that cowboys like Hugh Hitchcock and his friends have been not in a position to personal cattle at very first and have been obtaining point taken away from them that they had deemed “birthrights”. For instance, they were lowering their wages to a very low amount and had been becoming taken benefit of simply because they have been forced to operate extended hours, which pushed them far enough to a breaking point that created them come together and go on strike so that they could get all their issues back.

The degradation is such that even cowboys who utilized to believe in every single other folks word, now in the name of massive corporations would doubt each other folks word and even get into arguments and fights if essential over cattle ownership all in the name of the ranch they worked for. The story starts with the dispute more than an old cow and the involvement of the general manager showed up to go over modifications in the enterprise shortly after with Charlie Waide. One particular of the main changes was the proposition that any man that was hired for funds would not be permitted to personal cattle due to the truth that it would be too simple for a cowboy to brand an unbranded maverick with his personal brand, as an alternative of the ranchers brand that he worked for, a typical practice in the old days that had made many profitable ranchers in past occasions, thus producing the big corporations believe the cowboys could not be trusted ultimately with their political and economical energy had been capable to pass strict laws that not only took away the appropriate to own cattle, but also the proper to have their horse on the ranchers home, creating the cowboy an effortless prey for horse thieves.

As a result of all these strict and ridiculous laws many cowboys organize and went on strike, refusing to operate for the ranchers and big corporations that enforced these rules. The strike fails to save the old life-style of the cowboy, but does not leave the large bankers and investors a clear complete victory. Some cowboys stayed and discovered jobs performing one thing else, but the corporations did not quit there, their greed and lust for energy drove them to commit a lot more vile acts against the remaining cowboys.

Their next step was to attempt and take away all the cattle that was nevertheless owned by the remaining cowboys like Hitchcock and his close friends Rascal and Law. In a clear instance of corruption and abuse of energy the huge ranchers make the selection of hanging Law McGinty below the accusation of stealing cattle, and carrying out the hanging with no a correct trial. This was an outrage and the cowboys organized 1 a lot more time and got Hitchcock to run for Sheriff. After getting elected Sheriff Hitchcock yield the energy to convict the large corporations for the murder of his buddy Law McGinty and for stealing his cattle. By becoming Sheriff Hitchcock support to insure that the big corporations would no longer be in a position to run over very good truthful folks by getting political influence anymore. The Day the Cowboys Quit takes us back to a time of change in our country’s history, and offers us a a lot more in depth perception on what the life of a cowboy was like back then, the alterations that have been taking spot at the time thanks to the advancement of industrialization in our country, and the typically abuse of power that characterized several of the massive corporations.

The way that Elmer Kelton wrote created this book kind of easy to study and recognize. He utilised a straightforward way of writing and didn’t use big words and didn’t use any useless info that would distract the reader away from the main thought of the story. This also makes the reader not only be able to study, but also really feel the story. It allows the reader to in fact really feel what Hitchcock and his friends were living like and going through as if the reader was really there.The importance of these books is mostly to illustrate the altering elements that had been taking spot in our nation, political, economical and social. It provides us a glance at what our nation had to go by means of in order to grow to be the excellent power we are nowadays. It also shows the devastation that had to come with it.