# Fate and Inevitability in A Cycle of the West

> Theme guide for A Cycle of the West by John G. Neihardt.

The narrative is steeped in a sense of doom and predestination, with characters—both white and Native—caught in an inexorable historical process that leads to destruction and loss.

## Where it surfaces

- [The Song of Three Friends](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/a_cycle_of_the_west_se/chapters/the-song-of-three-friends): The narrative foreshadows the tragic outcome of the friends' quarrel, suggesting that their fates are sealed by their own passions and the harsh frontier code.
- [The Song of Three Friends](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/a_cycle_of_the_west_se/chapters/the-song-of-three-friends): The chapter is suffused with a sense of doom, from the foreboding of the ghostly pony to the inescapable guilt that follows Fink and Talbeau after Carpenter's death.
- [IV: The Net Is Cast](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/a_cycle_of_the_west_se/chapters/iv-the-net-is-cast): The chapter emphasizes the inescapable nature of Fink's transformation and the 'net' of fate that ensnares him, as well as the 'doom' quickening in the maid's fancy.
- [V: The Quarrel](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/a_cycle_of_the_west_se/chapters/v-the-quarrel): The escalating conflict between Fink and Carpenter feels inevitable, driven by Fink's brooding nature and the tension that has built over the winter.
- [VII: The Third Rider](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/a_cycle_of_the_west_se/chapters/vii-the-third-rider): The riders are driven by fate, with omens and a ghostly presence suggesting an inescapable doom.
- [Vengeance](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/a_cycle_of_the_west_se/chapters/viii-vengeance): Talbeau's actions are driven by a sense of fate, as he interprets the rifle as a sign from Bill and feels compelled to carry out a form of divine justice.
- [The Song of Hugh Glass](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/a_cycle_of_the_west_se/chapters/the-song-of-hugh-glass): Glass's fate is sealed by betrayal, yet his rage and will to live drive him forward, suggesting a struggle against inevitable doom.
- [III: The Crawl](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/a_cycle_of_the_west_se/chapters/iii-the-crawl): Hugh's journey is framed by fate: 'thrice three seasons yet should swell the past, / So was it writ, ere Fate’s keen harriers / Should run Hugh Glass to earth.' His struggle against destiny is a central motif.
- [IV: The Return of the Ghost](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/a_cycle_of_the_west_se/chapters/iv-the-return-of-the-ghost): Glass's journey is portrayed as a doom-driven pilgrimage, with the blizzard described as 'the web of doom' and his purpose as an inescapable call.
- [V: Jamie](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/a_cycle_of_the_west_se/chapters/v-jamie): The repeated motif of seeking and being sought, and the idea that 'the seeker is sought by what he seeks,' underscores a fatalistic journey toward reunion.
- [The Song of the Indian Wars](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/a_cycle_of_the_west_se/chapters/the-song-of-the-indian-wars): The sense of doom is pervasive, with 'the prescience of the doomed' and the feeling that the end is near, as the man-flood sweeps the West.
- [I: The Sowing of the Dragon](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/a_cycle_of_the_west_se/chapters/i-the-sowing-of-the-dragon): The poem emphasizes the inescapable doom of the tribes: 'What should be / Already was to them. And who can flee / His shadow or his doom?'
- [II: Red Cloud](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/a_cycle_of_the_west_se/chapters/ii-red-cloud): Spotted Tail's seer-like perspective and the imagery of the creeping doom suggest the inexorable advance of white settlement.
- [III: The Council on the Powder](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/a_cycle_of_the_west_se/chapters/iii-the-council-on-the-powder): The 'shadow of a thing that was to be' and the silent, fateful mood of Red Cloud's journey suggest an impending, unavoidable struggle.
- [IV: Fort Phil Kearney](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/a_cycle_of_the_west_se/chapters/iv-fort-phil-kearney): Fetterman's fate is foreshadowed through imagery of ghosts and specters, and the narrative emphasizes the inescapable doom of the soldiers, as when Fetterman 'unwitting how the rim of endless outer silence pressed on him.'
- [V: Rubbed Out](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/a_cycle_of_the_west_se/chapters/v-rubbed-out): The soldiers' doom is foreshadowed throughout the chapter, from the silent, waiting landscape to the relentless wave of warriors, culminating in their complete annihilation as an inescapable outcome.
- [VI: The Wagon Boxes](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/a_cycle_of_the_west_se/chapters/vi-the-wagon-boxes): The sense of doom and the repeated references to death (the eighty-one slain, the thirty-two defenders) underscore an inescapable fate.
- [VII: Beecher's Island](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/a_cycle_of_the_west_se/chapters/vii-beecher-s-island): Roman Nose's belief in his broken medicine and his premonition of death drive his final charge, underscoring a fatalistic acceptance of destiny.
- [IX: The Village of Crazy Horse](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/a_cycle_of_the_west_se/chapters/ix-the-village-of-crazy-horse): Crazy Horse's refusal to move and the subsequent attack suggest an inexorable march toward tragedy, with the winter and the government's word both acting as forces of fate.
- [X: The Sun Dance](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/a_cycle_of_the_west_se/chapters/x-the-sun-dance): The gathering of tribes and the ritual of the Sun Dance underscore a sense of destiny and the acceptance of sacrifice in the face of overwhelming odds.
- [The Seventh Marches](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/a_cycle_of_the_west_se/chapters/xi-the-seventh-marches): The chapter is suffused with premonitions of doom, from the weeping women to the ghostly vision of Custer riding into the sky, foreshadowing the coming disaster.
- [XII: High Noon on the Little Horn](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/a_cycle_of_the_west_se/chapters/xii-high-noon-on-the-little-horn): The sense of doom pervades the chapter—Custer's charge is seen as a 'bannered onset of a host' but leads to annihilation; the troopers on Reno's hill feel 'all were men about to die.'
- [XIII: The Twilight](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/a_cycle_of_the_west_se/chapters/xiii-the-twilight): Crazy Horse's brooding acceptance of defeat and the imagery of a narrowing world convey a sense of inescapable doom.
- [XIV: The Death of Crazy Horse](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/a_cycle_of_the_west_se/chapters/xiv-the-death-of-crazy-horse): The inexorable doom of Crazy Horse, lured by lies and killed despite promises.

## Links

- HTML: https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/a_cycle_of_the_west_se/themes/fate_and_inevitability
- Themes index: https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/a_cycle_of_the_west_se/themes