Little Big Man by Thomas Berger
"Little Big Man," a novel by Thomas Berger published in 1964, presents the life story of Jack Crabb, a man who claims to have lived through significant events of the American West, including the Battle of Little Bighorn. The narrative is framed as a recollection recorded by Ralph Fielding Snell, who interviews the 111-year-old Crabb in a rest home. Crabb's journey begins in 1852 when he is captured by a Northern Cheyenne tribe after his family's wagon train is massacred. Adopted by the Cheyenne chief, Old Lodge Skins, Crabb navigates life between two cultures, earning the nickname "Little Big Man" due to his valor in battle.
Throughout the novel, Crabb's experiences reveal themes of identity, the complexities of ethnic relations, and the harsh realities of frontier life. He encounters various historical figures and faces the brutality of U.S. military actions against Native Americans. As he grapples with personal loss and societal changes, his story reflects a blend of adventure, humor, and tragedy, leaving readers to ponder the authenticity of his remarkable claims. The narrative also critiques the cultural myths surrounding the American West, making it a significant work in the tradition of picaresque literature and a poignant exploration of American history and values.
On this Page
Little Big Man by Thomas Berger
First published: 1964
Type of work: Novel
Type of plot: Picaresque Western
Time of plot: 1852-1952
Locale: Western United States
Principal characters
Jack Crabb , a survivor of adventures on the Great Plains and the Battle of Little Big HornOld Lodge Skins , a Cheyenne chiefGeneral George Armstrong Custer , leader of the U.S. Seventh Cavalry annihilated at the Battle of Little Big HornYounger Bear , a Cheyenne contemporary of CrabbMrs. Pendrake , Crabb’s stepmotherWild Bill Hickock , famous gunslinger of the American WestAllardyce T. Merriweather , a con manRalph Fielding Snell , an amateur historian who records Crabb’s recollections
The Story:
In 1952, Ralph Fielding Snell, a middle-aged, jobless dilettante, lives off a modest stipend provided by his father. Snell fancies himself an expert on the American West and decides to tape the memories of Jack Crabb, a 111-year-old resident of a local rest home. Crabb claims to have met and witnessed many of the most famous American figures and events of the nineteenth century, including the Battle of Little Big Horn.
In 1852, an eleven-year-old Jack Crabb, his sister Caroline, his brother, and their parents depart Indiana for Utah, but, because of a misunderstanding, the wagon train is massacred in Nebraska, and Jack is taken hostage by a Northern Cheyenne tribe. He lives for the next five years as the adopted son of the chief, Old Lodge Skins. During his time with the Cheyenne, Jack evolves from an outsider to an accepted member of the tribe, and his relationship with Old Lodge Skins becomes increasingly intimate as the old man instructs the young one in both the traditions and the mythology of the tribe.
In his first battle against some Crow Indians, Crabb saves the life of another young warrior, Younger Bear, who is humiliated by his vulnerability and by the obligation that he now owes to Crabb. After the encounter, Crabb is given the name Little Big Man in honor of his valor and thus begins years of enmity with Younger Bear. In an ensuing battle with the U.S. cavalry, Crabb is returned to the white world and placed in the care of the Reverend Pendrake and his much younger wife in western Missouri. While Pendrake thunders on about sin and depravity, Crabb subtly comments on the reverend’s gluttony and hypocrisy and becomes increasingly enamored of his attractive wife. At this time, he also meets an emancipated slave, Lavender. Crabb’s domestic interlude ends when he discovers Mrs. Pendrake having sex with the owner of a soda parlor.
Crabb travels to Denver as a muleskinner and, after being ambushed, holds a series of other jobs. He pans for gold and when that fails opens a dry-goods business. On a trip with some cargo, he once more encounters the Cheyenne and has a brief reunion with Old Lodge Skins but returns to his business. During this period, he marries a woman named Olga and they have a son, Gus. Crabb’s business slowly fades after he is swindled by his partners. The family wanders through more of the Western states until they are attacked by Cheyenne and Olga and Gus are abducted.
Crabb’s peripatetic life continues until, now a hopeless drunk, he meets his lost sister, Caroline, and they hire on as muleskinners with a railroad party. Eventually, Crabb goes in search of his lost family. He stumbles on a Cheyenne woman giving birth, whom he protects and marries. They return to the tribe of his youth, and Crabb finds that Olga and Gus are now with Younger Bear. Crabb’s sojourn with Cheyenne is abruptly destroyed when General Custer and his forces massacre most of the tribe at the Washita River. Crabb vows to kill Custer.
Once more, he wanders through the white world, traveling to San Francisco and back to Nebraska in search of Custer. He befriends Wild Bill Hickok and becomes a gunslinger and gambler, and he meets a prostitute named Amelia whom he believes is his niece. Attempting to support Amelia and keep her from prostitution, Crabb becomes a buffalo hunter. He meets a swindler named Allardyce T. Meriweather and shares in some of his confidence schemes. When he discovers Amelia is not his relative and has run off with a senator, Crabb takes up gold mining in the Black Hills. He once again meets his sister, whom he places in an asylum in Omaha. Eventually, he joins Custer’s cavalry as a herder and scout. He follows the general to the Little Big Horn, where his life is saved by Younger Bear, who reunites him with the tribe.
Crabb’s reunion with Old Lodge Skins is bittersweet, as the aged chief praises his last living son, discusses the battle and Custer’s bravery, and predicts that Native Americans will decline and their way of life will be destroyed. After a series of migrations, the chief climbs up a hill and wills his own death.
Crabb’s narrative is followed by a brief epilogue by Snell. The dilettante ponders the veracity of Crabb’s story.
Bibliography
Betts, Richard A. “Thomas Berger’s Little Big Man: Contemporary Picaresque.” Critique: Studies in Contemporary Fiction 23, no. 2 (1981): 85-96. One of a handful of essays that consider the novel in terms of the picaresque. Isolates a number of distinct picaresque conventions and traces them through the novel, concluding that Little Big Man is in the mainstream of the picaresque tradition.
Landon, Brooks. Thomas Berger. Boston: Twayne, 1989. Comprehensive, book-length study of Berger’s oeuvre up to his fifteenth novel, The Houseguest (1988). The chapter on Little Big Man emphasizes the work’s narrative construction, Crabb’s distinct voice, and the theme of freedom. The 1989 Dell reprint of the novel also features a helpful introduction by Landon.
Madden, David W., ed. Critical Essays on Thomas Berger. New York: G. K. Hall, 1995. Features reprints of thirteen seminal articles and reviews, as well as a previously unpublished play by Berger, an extensive interview, and an article about another of his novels. A number of the articles discuss Little Big Man among other works, and Michael Cleary’s “Finding the Center of the Earth: Satire, History, and Myth in Little Big Man” deals exclusively with the novel.
Schulz, Max F. “The Politics of Parody and the Comic Apocalypses of Jorge Luis Borges, Thomas Berger, Thomas Pynchon, and Robert Coover.” In Black Humor Fiction of the Sixties: A Pluralistic Definition of Man and His World. Columbus: Ohio State University Press, 1973. Approaches Little Big Man as one of the most important examples of late 1960’s black humor and emphasizes the novel’s mordant comedy and its parodic dimensions.
Studies in American Humor 2, nos. 1/2 (1983). Edited by Brom Weber. This two-volume special issue devoted to Thomas Berger features twelve articles from some of the most important Berger scholars. Although there is no single article devoted exclusive to Little Big Man, some articles deal with it in terms of comedy, parody, and style.