In the Distance

Fiction | Novel | Adult | Published in 2017

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Summary

Background

Chapter Summaries & Analyses

Prologue-Chapter 6

Chapters 7-12

Chapters 13-18

Chapters 19-24

Character Analysis

Themes

Symbols & Motifs

Important Quotes

Essay Topics

Tools

Beta

Discussion Questions

Background

Historical Context: The American West in the 19th Century

In the second half of the 19th century, the Western United States experienced a period of major expansion, migration, and transformation. Between 1870 and 1900, almost 12 million people immigrated to the United States, and most of them came from Ireland, England, and Germany. Sparked by Lorimer W. Marshall’s discovery at Sutter’s Mill on January 24, 1848, the Gold Rush drew multitudes of settlers from eastern states and immigrants from China, Europe, and South America to California. As the state’s population grew rapidly, so did the price of land and goods: “In 1849, San Francisco’s population skyrocketed from 812 to 20,000 people. The cost of land soared—the same plot of land which had cost $16 in 1847, sold for $45,000 just eighteen months later” (“The Gold Rush.” Smithsonian American Art Museum, 2023). Technological innovations also played an important role in westward expansion. Railroads made the transportation of passengers and goods quicker and more cost-effective, a transcontinental telegraph system established in 1861 allowed messages to be sent in minutes, and advances in agricultural machinery helped settlers raise crops in the West’s dry, harsh climate.

The growth of white settlement, the resulting eradication of the buffalo, and brutalization by the United States government severely impacted Indigenous peoples. White colonizers used the concept of Manifest Destiny, the cultural belief that the expansion of the United States throughout the American continents was both divinely ordained and inevitable, to justify the forced displacement of Indigenous peoples: “In the minds of white Americans, the Indians were not using the land to its full potential as they reserved large tracts of unspoiled land for hunting, leaving the land uncultivated” (“A Clash of Cultures.” Smithsonian American Art Museum, 2023). By the 1880s, most of the Indigenous population was confined to reservations.

Genre Context: Deconstructing the Western Novel

The canon of Western novels has a long and somewhat troubled legacy. Western fiction can be traced back to dime novels in the 1860s. The genre increased in popularity with the publication of Owen Wister’s novel The Virginian in 1902 and Zane Grey’s Riders of the Purple Sage in 1912. Other prominent authors within the genre include Louis L’amour, Max Brand, Clarence E. Mulford, and Ray Hogan. Many of the writers who popularized the genre in the late 1800s included damaging stereotypes and historical inaccuracies in their works: “Seldom having seen the West, these writers churned out cheap literature filled with strong white heroes, women in need of saving, and savage Indians and outlaws” (Slatta, Richard W. “Western Frontier Life in America.” North Carolina State University, 2006). Additionally, the genre has tended to engage in a whitewashing of history. The ubiquitous image of a heroic white cowboy ignores the true diversity of the American West: “The first cowboys were Spanish vaqueros, who had introduced cattle to Mexico centuries earlier. Black cowboys also rode the range. Furthermore, the life of the cowboy was far from glamorous, involving long, hard hours of labor” (“The American West, 1865-1900.” Library of Congress, 2017). Although Western novels enjoyed great popularity from the 1860s to the 1960s, their readership has declined since the 1970s.

Throughout In the Distance, Diaz writes against the grain of the traditional Western canon and intentionally bucks many of its established tropes. The novel’s protagonist, Håkan Söderström, is a Swedish immigrant who undertakes a decades-long journey eastward, going “against the big westward push, following a reverse Manifest Destiny of sorts” (Pinckney, Joel. “Feeling Foreign: An Interview with Hernan Diaz.” The Paris Review, 2017). Diaz also deconstructs the genre by examining the tendency of Western fiction to whitewash history, romanticize greed and individualism, and reduce nature to something to be exploited for material gain. One traditional aspect of Western fiction that Diaz takes particular care to subvert is the trivialization of violence: “Most Westerns treat violence with indifference and brash frivolity, and one of the hardest things to do in this book was to convey Håkan’s enormous feeling of responsibility for his actions” (Pinckney). While much of Western fiction depicts swaggering figures who believe the lives they take are justified, Diaz subverts the genre’s traditions by creating a larger-than-life protagonist who is forever shattered by the blood on his hands.