History in Books the world's story, told by its literature

Chapter 36

Chapter 36

Summary

Elmira on the whiskey boat, working up the Arkansas among traders and buffalo hunters. She sleeps in a cubbyhole among the casks, spends her days at the stern watching the brown water, the mist, the cranes standing in the shallows, and one enormous moon that seems at first to touch both banks. Only Fowler — burly, yellow-bearded, one eyelid perpetually jumping — talks to her, mostly about his hatred of Indians. She had half expected the men to fall on her, and would not have minded much, since it would only return her to her old life and unmarry her from July. Then a killing wakes her one morning: the body is stripped, robbed and thrown to the river. Fowler tells her the fight was over her, and that the winner is Big Zwey, the filthiest of the buffalo hunters, who says he wants to marry her. Zwey never speaks to her, only watches. The other men keep their distance, and she is bitterly aware that in their eyes she now belongs to him.

Analysis

Elmira's plot inverts the cattle drive — one woman moving upriver against three thousand cattle moving north. Zwey's mute claim on her, established by a killing she never asked for, is the trap she spends the rest of the novel inside, and never once names as one.

Plates

The whiskey boat inching up the brown Arkansas, Elmira alone at the stern watching the water go by.
00 The whiskey boat inching up the brown Arkansas, Elmira alone at the stern watching the water go by.
Elmira's cubbyhole among the whiskey casks, awake in the dark with the fleas and the rocking of the boat.
01 Elmira's cubbyhole among the whiskey casks, awake in the dark with the fleas and the rocking of the boat.
Fowler drops to one knee beside Elmira and cocks his rifle at what turns out to be a bush.
02 Fowler drops to one knee beside Elmira and cocks his rifle at what turns out to be a bush.
The two buffalo hunters on deck in their skin coats and shaggy hair, looking like the animals they hunted.
03 The two buffalo hunters on deck in their skin coats and shaggy hair, looking like the animals they hunted.
Morning mist on the river, the grey cranes standing solemnly in the shallows while Elmira watches from the stern in her buffalo robe.
04 Morning mist on the river, the grey cranes standing solemnly in the shallows while Elmira watches from the stern in her buffalo robe.
The full moon rising out of the smoky river, so large it seems at first to touch both banks.
05 The full moon rising out of the smoky river, so large it seems at first to touch both banks.
The morning after the moon — the red-haired trader lying face down on the deck, dead, with the men grouped silent at the far end of the boat.
06 The morning after the moon — the red-haired trader lying face down on the deck, dead, with the men grouped silent at the far end of the boat.
The stripped body thrown overboard, floating face down and bumping the boat before the mist takes it.
07 The stripped body thrown overboard, floating face down and bumping the boat before the mist takes it.
Fowler brings Elmira her plate of breakfast and tells her the fight was about her.
08 Fowler brings Elmira her plate of breakfast and tells her the fight was about her.
Big Zwey watching her for hours from far down the boat, and Elmira meeting the look with a cold stare.
09 Big Zwey watching her for hours from far down the boat, and Elmira meeting the look with a cold stare.