Thalia, Texas

What is the first thing you think of when you hear the words “small town?”
To some, the image of white picket fences surrounding large yards come into mind. To others, maybe the idea of a friendly place where everyone knows each other. It seems that most, if not all, first thoughts of a small town are that of a happy and quaint place to live. To the residents of Thalia, Texas, however, their “small town” is a completely different story.

This classic 1950‘s town is often described as an old, dusty piece of land located in the middle of the Texas Plains. The barren landscape located around the town seems to constrict the it, making Thalia feel isolated from the rest of the world. The protagonist of the novel, Sonny, often describes how lonely the town looks and feels. To him, just like most of the other characters in the novel, Thalia seems to be lacking something, but no one can seem to pinpoint what exactly the town is missing.

“Sometimes Sonny felt like he was the only human creature in the town. It was a bad feeling, and it usually came on him in the mornings early, when the streets were completely empty, the way they were one Saturday morning in late November. The night before Sonny had played his his last game of football for Thalia High School, but it wasn't that that made him feel so strange and alone. It was just the look of the town” (McMurtry 1).

Only in the early morning hours does Sonny see the true colors of the town: it is a dull, lifeless place with little to do. The main sources of entertainment for everyone are the picture show, the cafe and the pool house; even those places are described as old and dusty. Over all the town can not sustain it’s residents, who long for adventures and are forced to find then elsewhere.

As the novel progresses, it is easier to see the decay of a once happy town. The people are becoming more unhappy and the land itself gets drier and drier. Then by the end of the novel Thalia is dying. The central man in the town, Sam the Lion, is dead taking with him the little happiness that was left. Soon after, the picture show announces that it is closing. This marks the end of the “small town era” of the story. The land, people and country are changing, and it is difficult for Thalia to keep up with the new age that is coming along. By the end of the book, the outlook for Thalia is bleak and unpromising. The small, dusty town in the middle of Texas has seen it’s last happy days.