Tex

“I wouldn’t mind Mason getting married, to tell the truth. At least that’d take his mind off college. That was all he thought about, college and how to get there. Unless Pop came home, I wasn’t too crazy about him going off to college and leaving me here by myself.”

A major motif that develops throughout the narrative is the notion of who stays in the small town and who leaves. If Mason gets married, it will tie him to Garyville—and thus to Tex. As the reader discovers, Tex will most likely be one who stays.

“I can’t stand being tied up. Even when I was a little kid, playing cowboys and horses, I couldn’t stand being tied up. It made me sick.”

Another character trait of Tex’s is his restlessness: like many classic literary depictions of young men, Tex yearns to be free from constraint. His horse, and his attachment to outdoor activities like hunting and fishing, represent his free-ranging spirit.

“Almost all the kids in our town wore long hair and old jeans and smoked grass and got drunk, just like the city kids, but somehow everybody thought it was more cool when the city kids did that stuff.”

The contrast between the country and the city is explored throughout the book. Tex points out that the teenagers from small town Garyville are not that much different than those from the city, and yet, there is a difference in perception. This theme also implicitly refers to the difference in socioeconomic backgrounds. Typically, the city kids are wealthier and more sophisticated, therefore have higher status.

“It was like the future was a foggy pit and I was standing on the edge, trying to see the bottom, knowing any minute someone was going to shove me in. It was a real uncomfortable feeling.”

The story of Tex is the story of a young man who comes of age. In confronting change—from the looming prospect that his brother will leave to his own burgeoning hormones—Tex deals with uncertainty and fear of the unknown. The novel tracks his ability to handle that change and how these challenges help his character to develop and mature. By the conclusion of the novel, Tex faces the prospect of being on his own with much greater confidence.

“Jamie lay facedown on the bed, hugging a pillow. She looked so soft, laying there, curled up like a kitten. She’d probably feel like a kitten to the touch.”

The author employs similes, especially using animals, throughout the book, and here, the girl on whom Tex has a crush is compared to a kitten. This emphasizes both her youth and her innocence. The fact that she is also vulnerable on the bed represents a potential latent sexuality that Tex will explore later.

“I set a match to my pile of toothpicks and jumped back as the flames shot up. ‘Grade it! Quick, grade it!’ I hollered. I thought I’d crack up at the look on her face.”

The author has two distinct purposes in mind with this quotation. First, it represents Tex’s still reckless and feckless youth, the fact that he is still immature and engaging in childish behavior. Second, it reflects upon the imagined relationship that Tex has with Pop, his father. Pop has always been an irresponsible troublemaker, and Tex acts out to garner favor in his eyes. He wants to emulate Pop’s behavior—until he begins to learn better of it.

“The cycle bounced hard, and we parted company—the cycle going in one direction and me in another.”

This is both a further example of Tex’s reckless behavior and a contrast between the cycle and the horse. Tex rides Negrito with aplomb—he would never be thrown from the horse—while his abilities on the cycle are less assured. The tension here between the natural (horse) and mechanical (cycle) emphasizes Tex’s connection to the former.

“I have a kind of boney face, like Mason, but where he looks like a proud hawk, I look more like a surprised antelope.”

The author’s use of similes yet again employs animal tropes to illustrate the traits of her main characters: while Mason is proud and stubborn, Tex is spontaneous and potentially weak prey. He must prove himself. This also illustrates the difference between the brothers. Mason is Tex’s foil in just about every way.

“If you didn’t know better, you’d think stores multiplied like rabbits.”

Tex’s experience at the city mall is disconcerting at best, and again, the animal simile helps the author to reveal Tex’s point of view. The excess number of people and stores—not to mention what he sees as conspicuous consumption—contrasts greatly with Tex’s natural habitat, the small town.

“I didn’t think he was right, because if you were where you wanted to be—even married and a daddy in Garyville—you weren’t stuck, but I never was as good at arguing as Mason.”

Again, the theme of who will go and who will stay underlies this comment. It illustrates an enormous difference in outlook: those who go would find Garyville stifling, while those who choose to stay would find it wholly satisfying. Part of Tex’s journey is to decide which kind of person he will ultimately be.

“‘I had to,’ I said finally. ‘Mason, I killed that guy, as sure as if I’d pulled the trigger. I knew it when I ditched the truck. I couldn’t just walk off like nothing had happened. I had to face what I did.’”

When the hitchhiker holds the two brothers at gunpoint, Tex’s maneuver with the truck ensures that the hitchhiker will be caught and killed. Tex feels he must view the dead body. This represents one of the moments at which Tex begins to become an adult: He must take responsibility for what he caused to happen. This incident is the apex in the story arc.

“My voice sounded funny. I didn’t realize I had a drawl like that.”

When Tex watches the interview with him and Mason on television after the incident with the hitchhiker, he notices this marker of difference about him. Again, another sign of Tex’s continuing coming-of-age journey is a dawning self-awareness, though this also points to the central conflict between the city and the small town. Tex’s accent comes from the country, not the sophistication of the city.

“That bothered me. It took the fun out of being famous. I never thought about him having a funeral, or somebody going to it if he did. I hadn’t thought about anybody missing him.”

When Tex learned that one of his teachers would be attending the funeral for the hitchhiker, it changes his perspective on the incident. Again, this illustrates a growing self-awareness, as well as an emerging sense of empathy. This one event helps Tex to mature in many ways.

“He really played better when people were booing him than when our side cheered him. I took Mason pretty much for granted at home but watching him on a basketball court kind of put you in awe.”

At the basketball game where Mason is the star player, Tex makes this observation of a character trait of Mason’s that is very revealing. He would rather defy the odds than to rest on his laurels. Mason is motivated by overcoming obstacles as much as he is blessed with talent.

“You could pick up girls there, too, but if I couldn’t have Jamie, I didn’t want anybody.”

Tex’s crush on Jamie makes him single-minded but also somewhat naive. It speaks to his loyalty, but it also reveals an inability to recognize Jamie’s actual character and her independence. She will likely be one who leaves, while Tex will likely be one who stays. It also shows that, while he is growing in many ways, Tex is still yet immature in others.

“Johnny had started smoking lately. I got the feeling it was to put something over on Cole. I’ve been meaning to take it up myself, but haven’t got around to it yet.”

Another example of the fact that Tex’s process of growing up occurs in fits and starts. He thinks that Johnny’s smoking looks cool, and thus, wishes to copy it. It is also a testament to Pop’s continuing hold over him: Breaking the rules and acting out still occupy much of Tex’s time.

“Suddenly I was so glad Cole didn’t know I was in love with Jamie. For the first time I understood what Romeo and Juliet was about, even though I have never been able to read the play.”

Tex’s understanding of love derives from an incomplete comprehension of a play he hasn’t read. His vision of what love can be is informed by cultural constructs that emphasize dramatic struggle. It is true that Cole, Jamie’s father, does not approve of Tex. However, this view conflates a moderate disapproval based on socioeconomic differences with a tragedy that ends in suicide and death.

“All these years and I had never hated anybody. I was dumb! It suddenly dawned on me that I must be the dumbest person in the world. I was going to make up for it, though. I was going to smarten up real quick.”

After the climax of the story, when Tex is accidentally told that Pop is not his biological father, he runs away with Lem and straight into danger. The last of his innocence has been shattered, and in his anger and hurt, he wants to hate either Mason or Pop—or both. He feels he has been tricked, and he no longer wishes to value his happy-go-luck gullibility.

“Mason never lied to me. He never told me the truth, either.”

As Tex teases out the implications of what he has been told—namely, that Pop is not his biological father—he realizes that there are degrees of truth and falsehood. The complexity of one’s lived experience has shades of grey, not just black and white. His formerly simple understanding of his family becomes enormously more complex in the stroke of an instance.

“All that fun, that way he had of being happy with anything, had been knocked right out of him, like air after a stomach punch. I almost felt sorry for him.”

As Pop tells Tex the story of his marriage and relationship to Tex’s mother, he becomes uncharacteristically grave. This denouement brings more understanding to Tex about why his Pop never paid him much attention, as well as helping him to see Pop more clearly. The fun-loving, irresponsible Pop harbors darker and deeper feelings—of guilt and anger, primarily.

“Then, all that time you were being operated on, while you were listed as critical, he just sat and wouldn’t speak to anybody. When the doctors came out and said you were going to make it, he started crying and he cried for so long the doctor gave him a shot.”

Jamie tells Tex about Mason’s reaction to his gunshot wound. The relationship between the brothers has already been strained because of Mason’s decision to sell the horse, not to mention Mason’s constant criticism of Tex’s reckless behavior, and it reaches a breaking point with the revelation that Pop is not Tex’s father. Mason’s main character traits of stern and disciplined demeanor are broken down by his fear, anxiety, and love for his brother. Tex’s injury, and Mason’s reaction to it, essentially ends the conflict between them.

“I don’t think things ever get worked out. I do love you though. But I don’t think love solves anything.”

Jamie tells Tex in the hospital her final answer on their future relationship: No. This foreshadows Tex’s comment at the very end of the book about how love is complicated between humans, while often simple with animals. All love relationships in the book are complicated, from the brothers’ love for each other, to Lem’s young marriage, to Jamie’s feelings for Tex. Understanding these complications brings Tex closer to maturity.

“Ever since I came home from the hospital, we’d all been pretending nothing had happened, that the subject was dropped. Actually, I don’t think Pop was pretending, he was forgetting. He doesn’t have a very long attention span.”

Instead of idolizing Pop and mimicking his behavior, Tex learns to see him for who he really is. The implication is that Tex will decide to choose a different path than his irresponsible and callous father. He has developed insight he did not have at the beginning of the story.