Desert wilderness
This story finds its cast in a desert, enduring a severe draught and the onset of famine. This is a full imagery depiction of what the desert represents. The desert represents a place in-between society and civilized life among a community. The desert is a place of severe danger. In fact, the first thing that happens in the desert is that Nell's father and maternal grandfather make peace before dying. The desert is also the mystic domain of great karmic treasures and meaningful religious reflections on death. For Gale and Nell, their love is cemented in the furnace of desert imagery.
Ancestry and inheritance
Nell's story adds a certain imagery the story. To Gale, this imagery symbolizes Nell's shyness, her coyness, and her self-defeating attitude toward romance. She does not believe she is worth love. This imagery is much different to Nell herself. The imagery is a dilemma about shame and honor, because she thinks maybe she is an illegitimate child. By discovering the honor of her family, the peaceful resolve of her ancestors, and the treasure that comes with such union with one's ancestry, she transforms herself and restores her self-esteem.
The union of opposites
The book is a Western Romance, because it is set in the old West, and because it is a nearly-mythic depiction of the union of opposite forces. The good guys are extra good. The bad guys are extra bad, and they are in conflict for the right to woo a woman who is good but believes she is bad. Gale wins the right to be with her, but then they go through another dance as they attempt to attain intimacy and trust. In the process, she praises the honor of his name, the honor of his family, and his personal honor. The dramatic tension is resolved when she discovers her confidence; she actually is worthy of him. She believed she was on a lower caste or something, but she is found to be of high honor, and they unite their families, symbolized by Gale's eligibility to enter the tomb of her forefathers to collect the treasure therein.
Survival imagery
Let's try to count up some of the threats that Gale and his gang must face in order to survive each day. The threat of sandstorm is always looming, as the novel's prelude shows. There are bandits and crooked government agents. There is starvation and draught. There is personal conflict and conflict with nature. If they find themselves lost in the desert, that would be all she wrote, so to speak. But they do survive, because the threat imagery is balanced with survival imagery. Fate is often shown as an oppressive force, but in the desert, fate is the force that brings each person to their "daily bread." They find a deep, still well and survive brutal days of intense summer heat without rain.
