The Bones Of Plenty

5 Pages 1252 Words

George Custer was Both the Victim
and Villain of his own Hardship

The American dream - to live in the land of the free
and the home of the brave-the land of opportunity. The
dream was to live the way you wanted, to strike it rich and
retire early. This dream was always there, but many faced a
very rude awakening when the Great Depression struck first
the farmers, then the country, and soon after, the entire
world.

Lois Phillips Hudson, in her novel, The Bones of
Plenty, wrote of the hardships of one small North Dakota
wheat farming family that occurred over a period of a little
over a year during the heart of the Great Depression.
Hudson pointed out that not all were beaten by this horrific
period of history, and many could get through it, but it was
how an individual handled the situation that made the
difference.

With a name like George Custer, he certainly lived up
to his name. General George Armstrong Custer had become
famous as a United States Army Officer and is best known
now for his role in the Battle of Little Bighorn on June
25, 1876 in what was then the Montana Territory. This
battle was also known as Custer’s Last Stand and was
referred to many times metaphorically in the novel. During
this battle Custer attacked an Indian camp before he had
known that he was vastly outnumbered. His unit became
surrounded with odds greatly in favor of the enemy, but he
still fought until he himself was killed by his own
stubbornness.

This reminds us of the way George Custer, the wheat
farmer from North Dakota, let his stubbornness and temper
take control of his life and send him and his family
spiraling down the never-ending black hole of bankruptcy and
drifting from town to town, trying to end up “on the west
coast somewheres.” (pg 434) It was his own pride and
arrogance that dealt him the final blow that destroyed the
roots that his wife so desperately clung to. But how coul...