"The Day The Cowboys Quit": The Cowboy Strike That Happened In Texas Panhandle, 1883. (Book Report Sample)

Student’s Name Professor’s Name Course Date Book Report: The Day the Cowboys Quit “The Day the Cowboys Quit” novel- Elmer Kelton was published by Tom Doherty Associates, 1999. The book’s content is compressed into 288 pages written in a western literature format (Kelton 6). The novel is a historical western pulp fiction that talks about the cowboy strike that happened in Texas Panhandle, 1883. The story uniquely depicts the economic, social and political changes that took place in Texas before the civil war. The critical settings for the tale are on the ranches found in Canadian River area western part of Texas, Texas Panhandle in the 1880s. The Day the Cowboys Quit is a novel inspired by a factual historical event. It is all about a strike against big ranches on the Texas high plains after the encroachment of syndicates upon the beef industry that ends free range which drives away the Cowboys’ freedom and loving nature resulting into their beefing up and striking in response. The cowboys who were once a representation of freedom since they could do anything they wished, later become stigmatized as drinkers and downgraded. They slowly lose their privileges with the arrival of wealthy Eastern corporates. In 1883, a dogmatic was set which declared that “if you are a cowboy, you cannot own a cow.” With restrictions from their usual routine such as; carrying weapons or firearms, gambling, and drinking alcohol, they join together to safeguard their freedom strictly-they go on strike (Kelton 88). The main characters are easily identified in the story; Hugh Hitchcock (Hitch) and his two best friends who happen to be brothers (Law McGinty and Rascal McGinty). Hitch is the wagon boss for rancher owned by Charlie Waide and his friends were worked under him. Hitchcock is a single young man in his thirties who sees the life of a cowboy very interesting. Despite that you are overworked and little wages in return, there was much freedom of the outdoors and the open range one would also develop his herd ADDIN ZOTERO_ITEM CSL_CITATION {"citationID":"GAtEz965","properties":{"formattedCitation":"(Alter and Lee)","plainCitation":"(Alter and Lee)","noteIndex":0},"citationItems":[{"id":291,"uris":["http://zotero.org/users/local/MqS91Xa3/items/ZDQVUBAF"],"uri":["http://zotero.org/users/local/MqS91Xa3/items/ZDQVUBAF"],"itemData":{"id":291,"type":"book","title":"Elmer Kelton:: Essays and Memories","publisher":"Texas A&M University Press","source":"Google Scholar","shortTitle":"Elmer Kelton","author":[{"family":"Alter","given":"Judy"},{"family":"Lee","given":"James Ward"}],"issued":{"date-parts":[["2011"]]}}}],"schema":"https://github.com/citation-style-language/schema/raw/master/csl-citation.json"} (Alter and Lee 26). Upon the arrival of syndicates with large bankers and corporates they got included in the beef market. As a result, the Cowboys including Hitch and his friends were forbidden from owning cattle, stripped down from their treasures, lower wages, long working hours which in turn pushed them to the breaking point; this made them rearrange themselves and go on strike so as to counter the new evilness that the greedy human has brought to them. The degradation has changed the freedom-loving cowboys to chaotic ones; they no longer believe in the words of one another, they argue and pick fights over cattle ownership. The novel commences with an argument over some old cattle, and the inclusion of the 4th ranch manager to comes in to discuss the unanticipated changes in business after a brief discussion with Charlie Waide ADDIN ZOTERO_ITEM CSL_CITATION {"citationID":"XDw0M7QM","properties":{"formattedCitation":"(Margot)","plainCitation":"(Margot)","noteIndex":0},"citationItems":[{"id":293,"uris":["http://zotero.org/users/local/MqS91Xa3/items/CFGMGXY8"],"uri":["http://zotero.org/users/local/MqS91Xa3/items/CFGMGXY8"],"itemData":{"id":293,"type":"post-weblog","title":"Book Review: The Day the Cowboys Quit","abstract":"Author: Elmer Kelton Publisher: Texax Christian University Press Copyright date: 1971 Pages: 239 Format: Western literature Reason for Reading: I wanted a look at a Western award-winner Rating: A+ …","URL":"https://quirkygirlsread.wordpress.com/2011/05/12/book-review-the-day-the-cowboys-quit/","shortTitle":"Book Review","language":"en","author":[{"literal":"Margot"}],"issued":{"date-parts":[["2011",5,12]]},"accessed":{"date-parts":[["2018",4,15]]}}}],"schema":"https://github.com/citation-style-language/schema/raw/master/csl-citation.json"} (Margot 12). One of the suggestion was that if any cowboy was hired for money, there is no more ownership of cattle; this is because any cowboy would brand the maverick as their own rather than the ranchers’ and that he worked for. This practice was prevalent in the old days and thus yielded many successfully advanced ranchers; as a result, the big corporation lost trust in the Cowboys because of their poor behavior. The corporates having the economic and political power they passed strict and harsh laws that did not only take away their rights to have horses of their own on the property of the rancher but also right to ownership of cattle. In the process, the cowboys became vulnerable to thieving horses. As an outcome of the ridiculous strict laws, many cowboys joined hands organized and went on strike refusing to continue working for big corporates and ranchers who implemented the rules. Yes, the attack fails to rescue the cowboys’ lifestyle but at the same time, it does not leave the investors and bankers fully victorious ADDIN ZOTERO_ITEM CSL_CITATION {"citationID":"8z1LClRu","properties":{"formattedCitation":"({\\i{}The Day the Cowboys Quit})","plainCitation":"(The Day the Cowboys Quit)","noteIndex":0},"citationItems":[{"id":288,"uris":["http://zotero.org/users/local/MqS91Xa3/items/UCCRLWPQ"],"uri":["http://zotero.org/users/local/MqS91Xa3/items/UCCRLWPQ"],"itemData":{"id":288,"type":"book","title":"The Day the Cowboys Quit","source":"","abstract":"Check out this great listen on Audible.com.au. Honored by the Western Writers of America (WWA) as one of history's 25 Best Westerns, and based on an actual 1883 Texas cowboys' strike, this Golden Spur Award-winning novel tells the gripping saga of veteran cowboys and upstart cattle lords vying for po...","URL":"/pd/Fiction/The-Day-the-Cowboys-Quit-Audiobook/B00FNT2SBW","language":"en","accessed":{"date-parts":[["2018",4,15]]}}}],"schema":"https://github.com/citation-style-language/schema/raw/master/csl-citation.json"} (The Day the Cowboys Quit). Some of the cowboys who remained found themselves jobs, but the greedy and lustful corporations continued to impose strict laws on them. The main corporates agenda was to confiscate all the cattle that the remaining cowboys in this case Hitch, Law, and Rascal owned. A clear incidence of corporate abuse of power and corruption is depicted by big ranchers’ decision to have Law McGinty hanged without an appropriate trial under the accusation of thieving cattle. The anger culminated by cowboys organizing for the second time to have Hitch vie for sheriff ADDIN ZOTERO_ITEM CSL_CITATION {"citationID":"NwgckrgY","properties":{"formattedCitation":"(Lowman)","plainCitation":"(Lowman)","noteIndex":0},"citationItems":[{"id":292,"uris":["http://zotero.org/users/local/MqS91Xa3/items/W8KYKKSC"],"uri":["http://zotero.org/users/local/MqS91Xa3/items/W8KYKKSC"],"itemData":{"id":292,"type":"article-journal","title":"Bell Cord Rutherford: Cowboy Quixote of the West Texas Plains; or, Some Shards from Our Storytelling Past","container-title":"The Southwestern Historical Quarterly","page":"495–513","volume":"104","issue":"4","source":"Google Scholar","shortTitle":"Bell Cord Rutherford","author":[{"family":"Lowman","given":"Al"}],"issued":{"date-parts":[["2001"]]}}}],"schema":"https://github.com/citation-style-language/schema/raw/master/csl-citation.json"} (Lowman 495). After Hitchcock having been elected as sheriff in power, he takes it as a chance to convict the corporations for the murdering Law his friend and confiscating his cattle. Sheriff Hitchcock is believed to be of help by ensuring that the bigger corporates would no more stumble over the right people through their political influence. Elmer Kelton’s book constitutes elements of western pulp fiction (big ranchers vs. little guys, justice at the end of the rope, a respectable hero putting on a sheriff’s badge) ADDIN ZOTERO_ITEM CSL_CITATION {"citationID":"MVoGf1hJ","properties":{"formattedCitation":"(Margot)","plainCitation":"(Margot)","noteIndex":0},"citationItems":[{"id":293,"uris":["http://zotero.org/users/local/MqS91Xa3/items/CFGMGXY8"],"uri":["http://zotero.org/users/local/MqS91Xa3/items/CFGM...