News of the World

“It was in fact an excursion wagon painted a dark and glossy green and in gold letters on the sides it said Curative Waters East Mineral Springs Texas and he had no idea how the wagon had come all the way from near Houston to the little town on the Red River. The wagon surely had a story all to itself that would now remain forever unknown, untold.”

The narrator places into the mind of the reader the idea of the transitory nature of life, its circular motion, and the importance of the present, an idea contrasting with the theme of memory and its importance. Though the wagon was previously used for something entirely different than the purposes for which the Captain has in mind for it, the metaphorical worth of its previous use—a vehicle for healing—remains intact.

“Then at last he was doing what he loved: carrying information by hand along through the Southern wilderness; messages, orders, maps, reports […] He always recalled those two years with a kind of wonder. As when one is granted the life and the task for which one was meant.”

The Captain knew from an early age just how much he loved and cherished the power of news and the written word, so much so that despite war and hardship, his raison d'être never waned. Further, he believes that by sharing news with others, he can make rural Texas society a better place.

“There is a repeat mechanism in the human mind that operates independently of will. The memory brought with it the vacuity of loss, irremediable loss, and so he told himself he would not indulge himself in memory but it could not be helped.”

Memory is a strong theme throughout the novel. The problems and pain that arise from what one can and does remember is quickly introduced, especially the fact that memory is not something than can be controlled, willed. Both the Captain and Johanna struggle with thoughts from their pasts.

“If people had true knowledge of the world perhaps they would not take up arms and so perhaps he could be an aggregator of information from distant places and then the world would be a more peaceful place. He had been perfectly serious. That illusion had lasted from age forty-nine to age sixty-five.”

Not only does this quote illustrate the Captain's love of news, but also his sense of idealism. Furthermore, it raises the question as to just what happened at the age of 65, a relatively late period in one's life, to have changed his belief in the healing power of the news. This question remains unanswered in the novel.

“Then the listeners would for a small space of time drift away into a healing place like curative waters.”

This quote ties in with the previous quote by reinforcing the fact that perhaps the news cannot end war permanently, but it can, nevertheless, halt feelings of anger and animosity for a space of time, and provide distraction and relief for the listeners.

“More than ever knowing in his fragile bones that it was the duty of men who aspired to the condition of humanity to protect children and kill for them if necessary.”

Long before the Captain even meets Almay, his philosophy regarding violence and protection is established. The quote illustrates the Captain’s understanding of justice, one that goes a step above the law. It combines the toughness of frontier justice and self-preservation with that of the proper behavior of a civilized gentleman. It also foreshadows an upcoming confrontation wherein the Captain will have to revert to violence in order to protect Johanna.

“Then he sat on his own side of the wagon and saw her struggling with the fork, the knife, the stupidity of it, the unknown reasons that human beings would approach food in this manner, reasons incomprehensible, inexplicable, for which they had no common language.”

In this passage, we see the commonly-accepted made foreign via Johanna’s inability to use an eating utensil. In doing so, the author shows the blending of cultures on the Texas plains: what is a given for one culture is an abnormality for another. Furthermore, it illustrates the Captain's ability to see beyond his own values and mores and sympathize with Johanna, something that is crucial for her survival in transitioning back in to European-American society.

“For a moment he was completely at a loss as to why he had agreed to take her to Castroville. For Britt. A freed black man. That's why.”

The results of the Civil War and the outlawing of slavery are never directly addressed in the novel, but these topics nevertheless pop up in the background in multiple chapters. The exact relation between Britt and the Captain also remains unclear, but there are subtle hints that there is perhaps a sort of desire to make up for past, slavery-centered transgressions on the part of white Americans, and that the Captain is fully on board with the idea of integrating former slaves into American society.

“Someone called, Why are you not reading from Governor Davis’ state journal? The Captain folded his newspapers. He said, Sir, you know very well why. He leaned forward over the podium. His white hair shone, his gold-rim glasses winked in the bull's-eye lantern beam. He was the image of elderly wisdom and reason. Because there would be a fistfight here within moments, if not shooting. Men have lost the ability to discuss any political event in Texas in a reasonable manner. There is no debate, only force. In point of fact, regard the soldiers beyond the door.”

Despite his love for the news, the Captain also recognizes the negative aspect of the power of the written word, namely for it to be used to manipulate and indoctrinate others with propaganda. Furthermore, it illustrates the weaknesses in human beings in general to be able to accept differing opinions of others. This quote also highlights the political difficulties of Southern Reconstruction following the Civil War.

“Human aggression and depravity still managed to astonish him. He had been caught by surprise.”

People’s evil towards others knows no bounds, an aphorism reinforced by this quote from the Captain. He is a man who has been in war and seen men die. He is not new to violence and depravity, and yet he still hasn't seen or read everything. This places in the reader's mind that perhaps there are other troubles ahead for him and Johanna that he cannot foresee.

“Some people were born unsupplied with a human conscience and those people needed killing.”

This quote illustrates the Captain’s stance on justice. While he’s haunted by memories of men dying during wars the Captain fought in, those men had a code of honor, and the Captain perceived them as decent people. This in stark contrast to someone like Almay, whom this quote references. Almay, as the leader of a child sex trafficking ring, is without any sort of moral code, and, in the Captain’s eyes, the only proper end for such an individual is to be killed.

“Maybe life is just carrying news. Surviving to carry the news. Maybe we have just one message, and it is delivered to us when we are born and we are never sure what it says; it may have nothing to do with us personally but it must be carried by hand through a life, all the way, and at the end handed over, sealed.”

The Captain was a messenger while he was solider fighting in the War of 1812. From an early age, he knew the importance of information, but for the Captain, the importance of being a messenger goes beyond this life; it extends beyond the realm of the physical, earthly world. Being a messenger carries with it something metaphysical.

“The fool sat there and did that all day long and probably considered himself an expert on the English language because it spilled out of his mouth like water from an undershot brain and he didn't even have to think about it.”

The difficulty in communicating with people who speak different languages and the clash that comes about when people do not realize the intricacies of language, assuming that the language they speak is the one everyone should speak, is highlighted by the mill owner in Durand. Furthermore, the mill owner displays the discrepancies in language ability as a result of education.

“He was trying to care for a semi-savage girl child and fend off criminals who would kidnap her for the most dreadful purposes and at the same time make enough money in the only way he knew how so they might eat and travel and on top of that evade the brutal political clashes of Texans. A tall order.”

Here, we’re offered all of the various adversities the Captain will face by agreeing to transport Johanna across Texas. The quote illustrates how the Captain must use both his intellect and his fighting skills in order to survive the trip.

“Well. But she must be corrected. She must have this forcefully impressed upon her. About modesty while bathing.”

The idea of cultural integration is a topic throughout the novel as the Captain gently instructs Johanna on European-American society. The Captain's methods are kind and patient. He understands the difficulties, the fear, and frustration involved in being caught between two very different worlds. The woman in Durand is not the only one who believes in forceful instruction, a topic that is revisited in the final chapters, when Johanna is delivered to her aunt and uncle. Further, the quote shows that while the Captain is accepting of cultures intersecting and blending, many on the Texas plains were not.

“He would have liked to kiss her on the cheek but he had no idea if the Kiowas kissed one another or if so, did grandfathers kiss granddaughters. You never knew. Cultures were mine fields.”

This illustrates the amazing understanding and caution that the Captain uses in dealing with Johanna. It illustrates how aware of the situation he is and how non-judgmental he can be in regard to Kiowa culture. It also provides a further example of just how difficult the interactions between peoples of different cultures can be.

“Captain Kidd said, It has been said by authorities that the law should apply the same to the king and to the peasant both, it should be written out and placed in the city square for all to see, it should be written simply and in the language of the common people, lest the people grow weary of their burdens. The young man tipped his head toward the Captain with an odd look on his face. It was a kind of longing, a kind of hope. Who said that? Hammurabi.”

The Captain is a learned, well-informed, and well-read man. Law and justice arise as topics in several places in the novel, and in a time of vast lawlessness caused by the insecurity of the frontier and Reconstruction, the Captain evokes the judicial philosophy of Hammurabi Code, one of the earliest written legal documents (18th century BC).

“Loss of reputation and the regard of our fellow persons is in any society, from Iceland to East Indies, a terrible blow to the spirit. It is worse than being penniless and more cutting than the blades of enemies.”

This quote illustrates the recurrent motif of a person needing to have a code of honor. The Captain lives by a very strict code of honor to which he refers when having to make certain moral decisions. His reputation is very important to him. These are core characteristics of his.

“I see. The Captain was silent a moment, puzzling over the Horrell brothers, people whose minds were lost in such delusions, such avid desire for worldly fame.”

The Horrell brothers desire to be known for their exploits, which involve hunting down and killing Mexicans; they ask the Captain if they are mentioned in the newspapers he has bought. This quote points out a contradictory element in the Captain's belief system. The reading of the news, of passing along story-worthy deeds, is the very thing that fuels fame. The more people read and know of another's exploits, the more famous that person becomes (or infamous). Thus, the Captain is at least potentially a catalyst for the very thing he is criticizing.

“Raiding parties of young men had their own laws and their own universe in which the niceties of civilized warfare did not count and an old man and a young girl were fair game to them, for in the Indian Wars there were no civilians.” 

This illustrates the brutality of the Indian Wars and guerrilla warfare in general, juxtaposing it with what is known as "civilized” warfare—the idea of two armies meeting on an open battlefield, blazing away at well-formed lines of musketmen, and conforming to a specific, mostly unwritten code of conduct. The Civil War and the late 19th-century was a transition period between the old methods of warfare to modern warfare.

“He saw her bright, fierce face break into laughter when the crowd laughed. It was good. Laughter is good for the soul and all your interior works.”

Johanna has not had an easy time of things. She has lost her parents, been kidnapped, been raised by a culture vastly different than her own, and then been brought back to a culture she no longer knows, to be taken care of by strangers. And yet in spite of hardship, she can still find ways to be positive, to laugh, and enjoy life. Laughter's healing effects go hand in hand with the "curative waters" motif and the idea of healing from past suffering.

“The greatest pride of the Kiowa was to do without, to make use of anything at hand; they were almost vain of their ability to go without water, food, shelter. Life was not safe and nothing could make it so, neither fashionable dresses nor bank accounts. The baseline of human life was courage.”

The Kiowa are used as a counterbalance for Anglo-American culture and society, as something to measure itself against, to compare itself to, and to judge itself. It highlights the Spartan lifestyle of not only the Kiowa but also the Plains Indians in general. The Captain seems to harbor a good amount of respect for the Kiowa, while at the same time understanding himself as different than them and being wary of them.

“Johanna turned and put her arms around the Captain’s neck. We will come to visit often, she said. You are my cuuative watah [curative waters]. Then she began to sob.”

This quote is from the very end of the book; Johanna has grown up and is married, and the Captain is quite old. Johanna, through her sobs, shows how thankful she is for the Captain protecting her and taking her away from her aunt and uncle. She now has a family of her own, and is happy.