The Last Picture Show

A detailed Summary of The Last Picture Show

Novel Paper on The Last Picture Show

Accurately depicting life through the eyes of a teenager is now easy feat to accomplish. However, Larry McMurtry's epic novel, The Last Picture Show, successfully accomplishes this task . The Last Picture Show is a tantalizing tale of teenagers struggling towards adulthood and grasping for maturity. When looking at how specific and accurate some of the instances in the book are, it becomes evident that some of McMurtry's teen experiences are found between the pages as well. Through the character of Sonny, setting, and a third person omniscient point of view, McMurtry is able to authentically recreate small-town American in the little town of Thalia

Through the character of Sonny Crawford, McMurtry is able to create a walking reflection of small town morals and values. Throughout the novel, there is no question that Sonny is the central figure whom everything in Thalia revolves around. The main figures in Sonny's life are Ruth Popper, the 40 year-old woman he begins to date, his best friend Duane and his socially climbing girlfriend Jacy, Sam the Lion, the father figure of the town, and Billy. Like one would expect in a small town, all these characters stories become interconne

The setting of the novel adds a whole new complexity to the characters in the book. The story occurs around mid-1900 in the small town of Thalia, Texas. By using Thalia as a backdrop, McMurtry is able to connect each character to each other to a greater degree thanks to the small town atmosphere. If this novel was instead centered in a city, many of the focus points of the story would not have the same effect. This isolation and repetitiveness of life that a small town provides plays a key role in the novel. This day to day monotony of life in Thalia emerges as the novel progresses. In a small town such a Thalia, everybody knows everybody, and McMurtry illustrates this by randomly throwing out character's names that play no role in the book, simply showing that all the characters know everybody. By setting the story in a small town, McMurtry succeeds in adding a whole new dimension to the novel that brings the characters to the forefront of the story.

McMurtry uses several literary techniques in order to add more complexities to the novel. One literary technique McMurtry uses is similes. For the most part, the similes used are entertaining and humorous. One such simile occurs when Sonny is touching Charlene's breasts and she exclaims, "eeh, your hands are like ice" (24). McMurtry also largely employs the use of symbols. The main and most obvious symbol is Billy's broom. Billy is the only character in the novel who is not usually found with a human companion. But the other characters are never happy and are constantly searching for new relationships and friends. But for Billy, the broom is his companion. He is able to stay out of many of the conflicts the other characters engage in because he is perfectly content with the broom. Because of the broom, Billy emerges as the only character in the novel who ever seems truly happy with his companion.

In this novel, McMurtry has wisely chosen to employ a third person, omniscient point of view. The narrator seemingly hovers above the city, constantly entering the minds of the characters and exploring their thoughts. In the very first line of the book, the narrator states about Sonny, "sometimes Sonny felt like the only human creature in town" (1). Jacy's actual motives become apparent thanks to the narrator.. This is shown when she is thinking about her relationship and the narrator explains that, "she quickly decided that her best bet would be to spend a couple hours being extremely nice to him, so he would be too much in love with her to be mad when she left" (93).

Some common words found in the essay are:
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Approximate Word count = 1719
Approximate Pages = 7 (250 words per page double spaced)

Category: English