Kaleb-+The+Sea+of+Grass

= //The Sea of Grass// By Conrad Richter =

** "That lusty pioneer blood is tamed now, broken and gelded like a wild horse and the frontier settlement" (Richter 3). **
//The Sea of Grass// is a Western Novel set in New Mexico around the turn of the last century (1800s-1900s). It is told in first person. The style is very to the point and descriptive.

About the Author
Conrad Richter was an American Author born in Pine Grove, PA on October 13th, 1890. He began his career as a writer working for various magazines. Most of his novels were about pioneers and their struggles. Richter was an expert on this subject as he grew up around many descendants of pioneers in his home state of Pennsylvania. He also set some of his novels //(The Sea of Grass // being one of them) in New Mexico, as he lived there for many years during his adult life. Among the five novels and the trilogy he published, two were made into major motion pictures ( //The Sea of Grass // and //A Light in the Forest) // and one of them (the third installment of the trilogy, //The Town //) won the 1951 Pulitzer Prize  for Fiction. He died on October 30th, 1968 in Pottsville, PA (//answers.com//).

Synopsis
At the dawn of the 20th century, Colonel Jim Brewton marries his mail order bride, Lutie, bringing her from St. Louis to live in his ranch house located somewhere in what would eventually become the state of New Mexico surrounded by 1 million acres of government owned grazing land, known as "The Sea of Grass." Lutie instantly brightens up the lives of the colonel and the people in the nearby town, including a young lawyer named Brice Chamberlain. Lutie is torn between loving her husband, a rugged rancher gone for weeks at a time, and a civilized lawyer, who is constantly her companion. On top of realizing his love is slipping away, settlers start arriving on Colonel Brewton's "Sea of Grass" to homestead (learn more about homesteading in the USA by clicking [|here] ), partially due to the help of Brice Chamberlain, the man causing Jim to lose it all. Is all hope lost for Colonel Brewton and his grass empire? Will Lutie and Jim ever be happy again? What will become of the affair? Narrated from the perspective of Colonel Brewton's nephew Hal, all of these questions are answered in Conrad Richter's masterpiece known as //The Sea of Grass. //

The most interesting and the most important character in Richter's novel is Lutie Brewton. She has conflicting personalities: she is a mother and she wants to be a good mother, but at the same time she wants to be the younger and unmarried woman she once was. This fact is first realized when the narrator says, <span style="color: #008000; font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; font-size: 10pt; line-height: 115%;">**"With her first baby in the cradle I felt that out of respect I should call her Aunt Lutie, but she turned on me quickly. 'Don't you dare call me that, Hal,' she said and her eyes were black and flashing, 'I shall never be old enough to be Auntie to anyone'" (Richter 35).** <span style="color: black; font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; font-size: 10pt; line-height: 115%;"> She is such a person that she makes Jim Brewton's life fall apart while holding it together all at the same time; she is someone who people change around. Jim Brewton is also important in his own right. He is a microcosm of "the old generation." Jim is the old timer trying to hang onto the old ways, the old traditions, which is what one might consider "the old generation" or "our grandparents' generation" to always do. It is the classic story with the classic hero fighting change for what he has always known, which for Jim it is the ways of the ranchers in the Old West. His stuggle is described clearly and plainly on the first page of //<span style="color: black; font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; font-size: 10pt; line-height: 115%;">The Sea of Grass, //<span style="color: #008000; font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; font-size: 10pt; line-height: 115%;"> **"That lusty pioneer blood is tamed now, broken and gelded like a wild horse and the frontier settlement. And I think that I shall never see it flowing through human veins again as I did in my Uncle Jim Brewton riding a lathered horse across a shaggy range, or standing in his massive ranch house, bare of furniture as a garret, and holding together his empire of grass and cattle with the fire in his eyes" (Richter 3).**

Review
//<span style="color: black; font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; font-size: 10pt; line-height: 115%;">The Sea of Grass //<span style="color: black; font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; font-size: 10pt; line-height: 115%;"> is one of the greatest novels I have ever read. It not only has a compelling and interesting storyline, but it is masterfully written. The best thing Richter does in his novel is to create characters with complex emotions and feelings that are still easy to understand and relate to. An example is the first description of Lutie, <span style="color: #000000; font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; font-size: 10pt; line-height: 115%;">** "....she went on chatting to me in slightly incoherent but charming fashion, saying the gayest of things, that required little or none of my tounge tied answers, all the while her delicate forehead shutting out the water tank and that ring of staring loafers as completely as if she stood alone with me in my uncles ranch house. And I realized that here was a finer fibered creature than any my long black hair and rope calloused hands had known" (Richter 11). ** <span style="color: black; font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; font-size: 10pt; line-height: 115%;">One can tell that Lutie is very proper and focused, although she has a strange affect on people. In addition, Richter used mostly the narrator’s descriptions and not the characters' dialogue to tell the story, which I enjoyed immensely. Without a doubt, the reader can tell exactly where the setting is and has a clear mental image of it thanks to the narrator. Richter also never gives any details away that the bystanders in the story don't know themselves; he makes the reader guess what is going to happen. One example is when the affair of Brice and Lutie is described, <span style="color: #008000; font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; font-size: 10pt; line-height: 115%;">**"He (meaning Brice) was at my uncle's ranch house now all too often to suit me, driving out as a rule with his dashing cousin, the blonde Mrs. Holderness, whether my uncle was home or not" (Richter 35).** <span style="color: black; font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; font-size: 10pt; line-height: 115%;"> Richter only lets the reader know what the people surrounding the main characters know; he makes the reader feel as if they are in the story, cast as a townsperson or perhaps a ranch hand. I cannot find anything to complain about regarding this novel. It is definitely recommended because it is a wonderful story told in a wonderful way. I give it a nine out of ten.

** History **
<span style="color: black; font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; font-size: 10pt; line-height: 115%;">

The //<span style="color: black; font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; font-size: 10pt; line-height: 115%;">Sea of Grass //<span style="color: black; font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; font-size: 10pt; line-height: 115%;"> was first published in //<span style="color: black; font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; font-size: 10pt; line-height: 115%;">The Saturday Evening Post //<span style="color: black; font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; font-size: 10pt; line-height: 115%;"> in 1936 over the course of two months and was first published as a book in 1937 //<span style="color: black; font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; font-size: 10pt; line-height: 115%;">. //<span style="color: black; font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; font-size: 10pt; line-height: 115%;"> In 1947, the novel was made into a major motion picture starring Spencer Tracy and Katharine Hepburn (to see the 1947 trailer for //<span style="color: black; font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; font-size: 10pt; line-height: 115%;">The Sea of Grass //<span style="color: black; font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; font-size: 10pt; line-height: 115%;"> movie, click <span style="color: blue; font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; font-size: 10pt; line-height: 115%;">[|here] <span style="color: black; font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; font-size: 10pt; line-height: 115%;"> ). The most recent reprint was done in 1992.



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<span style="color: blue; font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; font-size: 10pt; line-height: 115%;">- learn more about homesteading in the USA by clicking <span style="color: blue; font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; font-size: 10pt; line-height: 115%;">[|here] =====

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<span style="color: blue; font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; font-size: 10pt; line-height: 115%;">- to see the 1947 trailer for //<span style="color: black; font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; font-size: 10pt; line-height: 115%;">The Sea of Grass // <span style="color: black; font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; font-size: 10pt; line-height: 115%;"> movie, click <span style="color: blue; font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; font-size: 10pt; line-height: 115%;">[|here] =====

Works Cited

//abundancesecrets.com. "The Sea of Grass//, Spencer Tracy, Katharine Hepburn, Melvyn Douglas, Robert Walker, 1947 Posters." Web. 7 June 2010. []

//answers.com.// "Conrad Richter." 2010. Web. 6 June 2010. []

//archives.gov.// "Teaching with Documents: The Homestead Act of 1862." 2010. Web. 6 June 2010. []

//fantasticfiction.co.uk.// "The Sea of Grass." 2010. Web. 6 June 2010. []

//nndb.com.// "Conrad Richter." 2010. Web. 6 June 2010. []

Richter, Conrad. //The Sea of Grass.// Ohio University Press Books. 1992. Print.