Genre
Short story/Anti-Western demythologizing
Setting and Context
Sometime in the late 1850’s after the frenzied height of the California gold rush region around Stanislaus and Tuttletown.
Narrator and Point of View
Narrated in the first person from the perspective of a former gold prospector thirty-five years after the events described in the story.
Tone and Mood
The tone is reflectively melancholic while the mood is one of ironically undercut nostalgia.
Protagonist and Antagonist
Protagonist: Henry. Antagonist: The anti-mythic harsh realities of life the western frontier.
Major Conflict
Reality versus illusion
Climax
The climax occurs when the narrator learns that Henry’s wife has actually been dead for nineteen years.
Foreshadowing
The gravity of the narrator’s assertion of his decision that “I would stay and take the risk” foreshadows the story’s dark turn toward unexpected tragedy.
Understatement
The only information that is provided on the circumstances of Henry’s wife disappearing is an example of understatement, considering the consequences upon his psychological state of mind:”Indians captured her within five miles of this place, and she's never been heard of since."
Allusions
The opening of the story alludes to the California Gold Rush and its slow death without directly mentioning the term.
Imagery
Like allusion, imagery is utilized to point out that most who made their way to California with frenzied dreams of striking it rich were disappointed: “Round about California in that day were scattered a host of these living dead men-pride-smitten poor fellows, grizzled and old at forty, whose secret thoughts were made all of regrets and longings -- regrets for their wasted lives, and longings to be out of the struggle and done with it all.”
Paradox
The paradox at the center of the plot is that despite having Henry having lost his wife under unclear circumstances to an uncertain fate, his home reflects the state of a much happier marriage than likely would have been the case had she not gone missing.
Parallelism
N/A
Metonymy and Synecdoche
“you could depend on another thing, too -- that he was there because he had once had his opportunity to go home to the States rich, and had not done it” is an example of synecdoche in which “States” refers to the entirety of the country.
Personification
“It was a lonesome land” attributes a human emotional quality to the desolate feature of the geographical region.
