Essay Questions

Violence is at the center of Hondo's life. Based on Louis L'Amour’s Hondo, is this assertion correct?

Hondo is a fictional soldier; as it is in any soldiers' life, he spends most of his time fighting off enemies. When Hondo realizes that there might be Apaches watching him and all around him, violence begins in his life. First, the Apaches attack him and kill his horse. However, Hondo overwhelms and kills them. After Hondo encounters Angie Lowe, he ranches with her family, being a native American himself, Hondo is in constant fear that the war-craze Americans of native ethnicity will attack them at any time. Throughout the novel, Hondo is involved in violent situations, which often end up in him fighting his way out. In this line, the assertion that violence is at the center of his life is quite true.

Even in violence, uncertainty, and disaster that results from war and violence, love always finds a way to reign. Support this statement based on L'Amour's Hondo.

Love often finds a way of expressing itself despite the circumstances of the individuals involved. Not only does the feeling defy social and political divides, but it also defies boundaries softening hearts in the process. This is quite true in the context of Hondo's life. Despite the fact that his life is basically an epitome of violence and fear posed by Apaches, Hondo, when he comes into the life of Angie Lowe and her son, finds love in her. The fact that Angie Lowe's husband is not around even makes the situation all the more favorable for the feelings which sprout between these two characters.

Who were the Apaches against which the main character fights against?

The term Apaches are used in general as an umbrella term to make reference to a group of Native American tribes in the Southwestern United States. There is no distinction between the various tribes that appear in the book even though the main character mentions different tribes by name. In the novel, the Apaches are described as being extremely violent and even unstable. What the author leaves out is the fact that the Apaches were trying to protect their lands, territories from which the government of the United States were trying to throw them out off.