The Day The Cowboys Quit Chapter Summary

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Set in the Texas Panhandle in 1883 about the events of a strike that took place at old Tascosa, The Day the Cowboys Quit is a historical fictional phenomenon written by the award-winning western novelist, Elmer Kelton. Born in a place called Horse Camp of the Five Well Ranch and being a native Texas, Kelton was an American journalist and writer is widely regarded as the Greatest Western Writer of all time by the Western Writers of America, Inc. He has written over 50 western novels and this being one of them. The Day the Cowboys Quit is based on the true events of cowboy strikes in 1883. Set against the Great Canadian River Cowboy Strike of 1883, the novel shows us the evil side of wealthy cattle owner who exploited and stigmatized cowboys. Kelton plops us down in the middle of a great social reshaping, where the rough and ready cattlemen are being forced into a …show more content…

An employee strike might seem like a modern technique but it’s moderately, if not fully, based on an actual event in Texas in 1883. This book illustrates the importance of the changing political, social, and economic factors that shaped this country. It shows the devastation that comes with it; people defying and protesting the change that contradicts from their way of living. It also brings out the importance of economic laws and barriers that prevent large businesses from yielding too much power and exploiting the public. The novel not only has some of the elements of western fiction, rich and big against the poor and small, justice serving at the end, and the main protagonist wearing the heroic sheriff’s badge but also brings a great deal of recreation, intuition, and exhilaration. It also provides moments of bonding and congregation as the degradation by big ranchers made the cowboys join together and do the inconceivable – go on a strike. It has an unexpected turn of events from a quarrel over cow brand to a gripping courtroom

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