The Last Picture Show by Larry McMurtry
"The Last Picture Show" by Larry McMurtry is a coming-of-age novel set in the fictional small town of Thalia, Texas, during the 1950s. The narrative is centered around Sonny Crawford, a high school senior who navigates a world devoid of traditional family support and meaningful educational experiences. The story unfolds against a backdrop of declining local culture, as the town's only cinema faces closure due to the rise of television, symbolizing the broader societal changes impacting rural life.
Sonny and his friend Duane find themselves engaged in fleeting sexual encounters and limited extracurricular activities, while their attempts to find intimacy and purpose often lead to disappointment. The agricultural roots of Thalia have shifted to an oil-driven economy, leading to a new class of wealthy individuals who exploit both resources and relationships. Despite the bleakness, characters like Sam the Lion, the owner of the local pool hall, and Genevieve, a supportive waitress, provide moments of hope and connection.
However, as loss permeates their lives, Sonny ultimately realizes his struggle for identity and belonging within a community that is rapidly changing. The novel has been likened to classics such as "The Catcher in the Rye" and "Adventures of Huckleberry Finn," offering a poignant exploration of youthful disillusionment and the search for meaning in a challenging environment.
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Subject Terms
The Last Picture Show by Larry McMurtry
First published: 1966
The Work
The Last Picture Show, Larry McMurtry’s third novel, treats the struggle to come of age in a society that has lost traditional moorings. In the small fictional town of Thalia, Texas, Sonny Crawford, from whose point of view the story is told, has no real family. In his senior year in high school in 1954, Sonny lives in a rooming house with his friend Duane.
Their football coach, Herman Popper, is a poor coach, but he is even worse as a classroom teacher. Unfortunately, most of the other teachers are no better, and Sonny and Duane sleep through most of their classes. The only outlets for youth in the town besides athletics are Fundamentalist religious activities, sexual experimentation, and the movies at the town’s one “picture show.”
The title of the book suggests small-town monotony and emptiness: The best Thalia can offer is the escape of movies, a way out of facing drab realities. The “picture show,” however, is about to close. Television—a social change that does not seem to be an improvement—has made the movie house unprofitable.
Sonny and Duane and the others have no family to guide them, no school that offers positive challenges, no meaningful religious grounding. Their sexual experimentation brings no real intimacy, no lasting relationships. What once was an agricultural ranching economy is now dominated by oil. Newly rich men drive fast cars, exploit the land’s natural resources, and callously use and discard young women.
There are some positive role models, however. Sam the Lion, who owns the pool hall, looks out for Sonny and Duane and the helpless mentally retarded Billy. As a father figure, Sam represents the old ways of integrity and compassion. Genevieve, the waitress at the all-night café, also offers wholesome support and guidance. Sam, however, dies; Duane goes off to the Korean War after fighting with Sonny; Genevieve prepares to leave the café since her husband is well again; and the retarded Billy is run over by a passing cattle truck. Sonny’s life seems governed by loss. He gets into his pickup truck and heads out of town. He soon realizes that he has no place to go and nothing to seek, so he turns around and heads back into Thalia.
The Last Picture Show has been favorably compared to other coming-of-age books such as Adventures of Huckleberry Finn (1884) and The Catcher in the Rye (1951). It presents a sometimes harsh but always insightful picture of small town life in the rural Southwest in the 1950’s.
Bibliography
Busby, Mark, and Tom Pilkington. Larry McMurtry and the West: An Ambivalent Relationship. Denton: University of North Texas Press, 1995. Offers a comprehensive overview of McMurtry’s fiction, including insights on the film version of The Last Picture Show. Also includes bibliographical references and an index.
Cawelti, John G. “What Rough Beast—New Westerns?” ANQ 9 (Summer, 1996): 4-15. Cawelti addresses the revival of the Western in print, film, and on television. He notes that the new genre reflects the loss of the mythic West of the past and shows how the contemporary Western, instead of glorifying the American spirit, now criticizes America’s shortcomings. Offers a brief assessment of The Last Picture Show.
Crawford, Iain. “Intertextuality in Larry McMurtry’s The Last Picture Show.” Journal of Popular Culture 27 (Summer, 1993): 43-52. Crawford explores what he sees as the major themes of The Last Picture Show: the popular fiction of the 1940’s; the movies, including Westerns; and the mainstream literature and television of the 1950’s. He particularly focuses on the common theme of the consequences of living in the moral vacuum of contemporary society.
Jones, Roger Walton. Larry McMurtry and the Victorian Novel. College Station: Texas A & M University Press, 1994. Jones explores McMurtry’s lifelong love of Victorian authors and explores three Victorian themes that are prominent in all of McMurtry’s fiction: the individual’s importance in society, the conflict between society and nature, and the search for a coherent spirituality in an age that does not believe in God. He particularly focuses on The Last Picture Show.