Themes

I think that the most important theme is the conflict between the old and the new. Carl

Tiflin has no use for Grandfather and his stories of the past.

"Indians and crossing the plains!" "Just Indians and crossing the plains. I've heard that

story about how the horses got driven off about a thousand times. He just goes on and on, and he

never changes a word in the things he tells." He does not understand that being the leader of the

people is the greatest thing that his father in law did. That why Mrs Tifling tries to make him to

understand this.

"Look at it this way, Carl. That was the big thing in my father's life. He lead a wagon

train clear across the plains to the coast, and when it was finished, his life was done. It was a big

thing to do, but it didn't last long enough. Look!" she continued, "It's as though he was born to do

that, and after he finished it, there wasn't anything more for him to do but think about it and talk

about it. If there'd been any farther west to go, he'd have gone. He's told me so himself. but at last

there was the ocean. He lives right by the ocean where he had to stop."

But nothing can change his ideas about the past. He even states the past should just be

forgotten:

"Well, how many times do I have to listen to the story of the iron plates, and the thirty-

five horses?" That time's done. Why can't him forget it, now it's done?" He grew angrier while he

talked, and his voice rose. "Why does he have to tell them over and over? He came across the

plains. All right! Now it's finished. Nobody want to hear about it over and over."

Westering. The story presents the attitude that later generations have towards the—the

western movement—.The old man’s repetitious accounts of leading the “crossing” merely irritate

Carl, but Jody—who is of yet another generation—can sense what his grandfather is really

talking about. Jody understands that the important thing is not that his grandfather led a group

across the plains—someone else could have done that—but the whole concept of “westering,”

participating in a mass movement eager for new experiences that forever changed the course of

national history. As a “leader of the people,” Grandfather concludes that the spirit of “westering”

has died and that, for those without that spirit, all is indeed “finished.” "Maybe I could lead the

people some day," Jody said.

"No place to go, Jody. Every place is taken. But that's not the worst-no, not the worst.

Westering has died out of the people. Westering isn't a hunger any more. It's all done. Your

father is right. It is finished." he laced his finger on his knee and looked at them.

It may be that Jody’s generation will recapture something of that vision that his father’s

generation has lost: "Maybe I could lead the people some day," Jody said.

Initiation could be the third theme. Finally, in the last chapter, the lessons Jody has

learned have taught him to be a responsible, caring, selfless, and compassionate young man.

From a simple boy who wants only to have fun hunting mouse, he becomes a more grown-up

person, after his grandfather visit and his story about the westering. He also begins to thing for at

the others expressing it in the simple act of offering his grandfather lemonade. He also states that

someday will be the leader of the people just as his grandfather.