Clark

The Ox-bow Incident by Walter van Tilburg Clark (1940)

Someone is rustling cattle from the ranches and ranges surrounding Bridger’s Wells, Nevada, when a young rider races into town with news that a ranch-hand has been murdered. A posse is mustered. The story that follows explores the nature of justice and the power of the mob.

Set in 1885, The Oxbow Incident starts off like a standard Western and seems to include every trope Clark could think of. There’s a saloon where cowboys sit and chat with the barkeeper. A neat scene involves a well-written poker game that uses pure description to build tension between two characters. Words are spoken, and a bar fight breaks out. I’m hooked. It’s one of the better opening scenes I’ve read in recent memory. Then when the young rider enters, the mood suddenly changes.

The book has only five chapters which, except for the first, are quite long. The lengthiest is the second — in my edition, it was about 100 pages — and the most important. It sets up and organizes the posse. Here is where the debates about the nature of justice begin that continue throughout the plot: “What is justice? Who gets to decide what justice is? When and how can justice be applied, and by whom?” The arguments see-saw between reason and emotion, individual responsibility and mob rashness. As more and more people hear about the murder and the posse gets bigger, the situation becomes more and more desperate and intense. When the group finally gets under way, the arguments continue on a calmer, individual, one-on-one level. Only after the group encounters three men in a clearing in the middle of the night does the conflict become serious.

The Oxbow Incident is a sad story. It is told in first-person by one of the members of the posse. He and his partner are two cowboys who just rode into town for the first time after a long winter on the range. The book starts off with a beautiful description of the trip from their winter camp to this small, sleepy town that gives no hint as to what is coming. The two are not citizens of the town but still get swept into the plot by mob pressure. Throughout the book, the narrator constantly contrasts humans and nature. When he talks about humanity, he talks about violent tugs-of-war between emotion and reason. Meanwhile, for him, nature is always quiet, always constant, always calm. The contrast between human action and nature is most stark during the climax when a snowstorm occurs. The narrator notes how gently the flakes fell while describing the rash actions of men. It was eerie.

The style of narration is interesting. It is told in a matter-of-fact manner. The narrator expresses little emotion. He is neither guilty nor proud of his role in what happened. Like the setting, his emotionless storytelling contrasts with the plot and makes it more tragic. Occasionally, the narrator is reflective, but this only seems to occur when he’s talking about nature. At the beginning of the book, he was looking forward to getting out of nature and around people for companionship and distraction. Later, he sounds like he’d rather be anywhere else but duty won’t let him.

The Oxbow Incident ends as calmly as it began. Because of this, the beginning and end frame the chaos in the middle and makes the plot feel even more terrible. This framing highlights the message of the book, underscores the tragedy, and emphasizes how easy it is for humans to rationalize our bad choices and their consequences.