The Ox-Bow Incident by Walter Van Tilburg Clark

The Ox-Bow Incident

Walter Van Tilburg Clark

American Western Fiction

Published 1940

Classics Challenge: Used Book Find

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This story could have been set anywhere and in any era; however, The Ox-Bow Incident took place in a small frontier town of Nevada, 1885. The town had been plagued by a series of cattle rustlings. 

The book's narrator, Art, and his partner, Gil, had just crossed over from the East into town and were mindful of their manners around the other cowboys, hopeful to be accepted by their community. Incidentally, everyone seemed to be on edge, and Art, the observant one, sensed that something was not right. Rumor had it that one of the more recent rustlings involved the murder of a well-liked member of the town's society, though many hardly knew the man personally. 

Given that the sheriff was out of the area at the moment, the men were compelled to search out the "rustlers/murderers;" themselves. For them, pursuing the insurgents proved their own might, their  intolerance of lawlessness, their sense of justice, and their proof to exist in the bigger surrounding world. Therefore, twenty-eight members, including Art and Gil, formed a posse and searched the harrowing night for the criminals. 

Eventually, they made up their minds that they had found the culprits and held a makeshift court as judge, jury, and executioner. After a democratic vote was made by the mob, the convicted were lynched and the self-righteous returned to town. 

The revelation directly following the lynching was shocking. Hence, the real trial of society's sense of right and wrong and man's conscience within himself began. The Ox-Bow Incident reveals the story about man's cowardice of physical ostracization from the group over committing a real injustice by lynching innocent men. This is man's weakness. Nobody liked killing, but it was far better than being opposite of or outside the mob. To oppose the mob would be to expose one's perceived weakness; standing morally alone for truth's sake is a very dangerous place to be. 

I had everything, justice, pity, even the backing - and I knew it - and I let those three men hang because I was afraid. The lowest kind of virtue, the quality dogs have when they need it, the only thing Tetley had, guts, plain guts, and I didn't have it. 

All a great, cowardly lie, all pose; empty, gutless pretense. All the time the truth was I didn't take a gun because I didn't want it to come to a showdown. The weakness that was in me all the time set up my sniveling little defense. Didn't even expect to save those men. The most I hoped was that something would do it for me.  

This is also a story about man's desire for more power -- how he can be so blinded to truth because he is only bent on being right according to his own desired justice. Then it becomes personal, and he needs a scapegoat to feed his will. 

You don't care for justice...you don't even care whether you've got the right men or not. You want your way, that's all. You've lost something and somebody's got to be punished; that's all you know. 

The Ox-Bow Incident is on the same social plane as To Kill a Mockingbird, Lord of the Flies, or even The Great Gatsby because these stories teach a timeless ethical lesson. The lesson is not a gentle one, but it is urgent and essential to our humanity. It is timeless because man is born with a weak constitution regardless of his birthdate. It is typical of his raw nature to follow the mob and save his own hide. 

SHOULD YOU READ THE OX-BOW INCIDENT?

While reading, I had forgotten that this was considered a western. If westerns are not your genre, fear not. This is a powerful journey into your own conscience. We've all been here. How difficult it is to stand alone, to stand against the crowd, the mob, our own friends or family, even. We don't want to be perceived as wrong. And you know what the mob is capable of: absolute violence unto death, just to make their point. 

But reading this story reiterates how much more honorable it is to stand on principle, even if it is just to bide time to get to the facts before a final decision must be made. (See "Twelve Angry Men," the 1957 version). We all are called to do this at some point in our lives. 

To answer the question - Should you read this? Anyone should and can read this. It is just over 200 pages and, while the progression is slow with a lot of dialogue, the buildup caused me to want to hurry up and find out. It was every kind of emotion you can experience. The premise calls on the reader to rise to the occasion next time. And there will be a next time. 

I probably would not reread this, but only because it had that difficult part in it where you don't want to look, but you have to quickly, in case you miss anything. It reminded me of how I felt when about In Cold Blood. The point is that the premise was well taken. The lesson was well ingested. I got it. However, I will watch the film, starring Henry Fonda. 

One last final note: while I was reading The Ox-Bow, I thought about the short documentary by JBS on forms of governments. There was a section on the difference between a democracy and a republic set in the Old West. Under a democracy, when a posse captured a gunman and the majority voted to hang him, he hung (or hanged). But under a republic, when the posse captured the same gunman and the majority voted to hang him, the sheriff stepped in and said they couldn't hang him. Instead, he took the gunman to court where a jury of his peers must UNANIMOUSLY vote guilty or not. That is the law.