Little Big Man

Little Big Man is a novel by American author Thomas Berger, first released in 1964. Described as a satire of the Western genre, it falls into the picaresque fiction genre in the way it depicts the adventures of a roguish hero from a lower social class who battles against a corrupt society. Telling the supposed story of a one hundred-twenty-year-old man named Jack Crabb, a white man raised by the Cheyenne nation, it takes the form of a memoir told to fictional writer Ralph Fielding Snell, following Crabb’s adventures as he meets famous figures from throughout Western history and narrowly escapes death. It follows many of the similar themes explored in Western novels, but also serves as a parody of those themes, especially in its portrayal of the culture of the American West and the complex relationship between white Americans and Natives. Although initial sales were modest, strong word of mouth made the book a sales success. It was critically acclaimed, winning both an award from the National Institute of Arts and Letters and the Western Heritage Award in 1965. It was made into a 1970 film starring Dustin Hoffman and Faye Dunaway, and in 1999, a sequel novel titled The Return of Little Big Man was released, continuing Crabb’s adventures through Western history.

As Jack Crabb’s story begins,he and his family are traveling west with a wagon train. They meet a group of Natives and offer them whiskey, but the Natives take offense and kill most of the travelers. The next day, when the Natives return with ponies to offer as an apology, the pioneers believe they have come to take Jack and his older sister, Caroline. The two kids are taken, Caroline soon leaves, but Jack decides to stay and learn the ways of the Cheyenne. Jack is taken in as one of the tribe and is given the name Little Big Man by the village chief, Old Lodge Skins. Years after Jack joins the tribe and becomes Little Big Man, the Cheyenne have a gathering to discuss the growing problem of white men encroaching on their territory. After the meeting, they are accosted by soldiers. The Cheyenne manage to get away, but Jack is captured by the soldiers. When they realize he is a white boy, they take him with them. Jack is soon adopted by a family in western Missouri and is sent to school. He gets his first girlfriend, but leaves school after the relationship ends. He starts working as a guide, traveling from St. Louis to Santa Fe, and then becomes a mule driver on the Denver to Kansas City route. While on his route, his mule train is ambushed by Cheyenne tribesmen. When they realize he is Little Big Man, they release him and he advises Old Lodge Skins to take his tribe to the Powder River, away from the white men. Old Lodge Skins departs, and Jack heads to Denver.

Jack soon marries, has a child, and becomes a semi-successful businessman. However, after his partners cheat him, he is forced to flee town. His transport is ambushed by Cheyenne on the way to Kansas City, and his wife and son are apparently taken while he is trying to get help. He slips into a drunken depression until his sister finds him and pulls him out of the gutter. She gets him a job hauling freight for the Union Pacific Transcontinental Railroad crew. He hears that scouts are going to find the Cheyenne who have been causing trouble for the construction, and he joins hoping to find information about his family. A Cheyenne warrior is killed while protecting a woman giving birth; Jack finds her and follows her back to the village—the village he grew up in. He has a child with the woman he rescues, but when soldiers attack the village, he takes one of their uniforms and heads back with them to Kansas City, frustrated in his attempt to find his first family.



In Kansas, Jack meets Wild Bill Hickock and learns to shoot. He finds he has a niece working in a whorehouse, and pays to send her to school. She marries a senator’s son. Jack works on an army ship that supplies General Custer in his fight against the Sioux. He works as a scout for the doomed General. He is surrounded by Cheyenne, shot, and captured. He is sure he is done for, but he wakes up in the Cheyenne village he grew up in. He was saved by a Cheyenne he had saved years ago; that life debt has now been repaid. He meets Old Lodge Skins one last time, as the old chief is now blind and dying. The two walk to the top of a hill, Old Lodge Skins sings his death song and prays for the spirits to watch over his son. He lies down and dies. The book ends with Ralph Snell saying that Jack Crabb has died, and that while he has checked Jack’s story and found lots of evidence of his exploits, he cannot find Jack Crabb anywhere in the historical records.

Thomas Berger was an American novelist, best known for his picaresque novel Little Big Man. Berger was known for exploring countless genres of fiction in his work. He wrote twenty-three novels in his forty-six-year career, as well as four collections of short stories and five plays. He received a Dial fellowship in 1962 and was a 1984 Pulitzer Prize finalist for his novel The Feud.