Conception
The son of a rancher, McMurtry grew up in Archer City, a small town in North Texas, that would form the basis for the fictional town of Thalia in The Last Picture Show. [2] He graduated from high school with 19 other students in 1954. While in college, he wrote two short stories Breeding Darrell and There Will Be Peace In Korea that seeded the draft of the novel. [3] : 135–136 Breeding Darrell centers on the relationship between the owner of a pool hall and a simple boy under his charge, characters that inspired Sam the Lion and Billy. There Will Be Peace In Korea is about the night out for two boys on the eve of one of them shipping out to the Korean War. [4] McMurtry's biographer, Tracy Daughtrey wrote: "All he would have to do is take one of the last lines in “There Will Be Peace in Korea”—'A lot of things happened when me and Bud and Laveta was in high school'—and spin it out." [3] : 135–136
McMurtry's experiences growing up also likely inspired several characters and scenes in the novel. A high school classmate of McMurtry's, Bobby Stubbs, sustained an injury to his eye during a fight with another boy over a girl. [2] This scene is similar to the fight between the fictional Sonny and Duane. The girl that they fought over, Ceil (née Slack) Cleveland, was the inspiration for Jacy. She published a memoir in 1977, with McMurtry's blessing, called Whatever Happened to Jacy Farrow?. [5] McMurtry was 27 years old when the book was published, his third novel. [6]
Plot
Sonny and Duane, both seniors, have finished playing their last game for the football team at Thalia High School, and they spend much of their time hanging out in the town’s pool hall and movie theater. The owner of those establishments, Sam the Lion, cares for a mentally disabled kid named, Billy, who sweeps the businesses. Billy sometimes becomes lost after wandering outside with his broom and continuing to sweep up the street.
The two boys share accommodations in a rooming house and a pickup. They often go on double dates, Sonny with Charlene and Duane with Jacy Farrow. Sonny breaks up with Charlene, finding that he feels indifferent about her and envious of Duane’s relationship with Jacy. Jacy uses her looks to court attention and adventure; she is the daughter of a wealthy oilman and an eccentric mother, Lois, who is prone to drinking.
In the spring semester, the boys play basketball under the direction of the lazy and disparaging Coach Popper. Popper is also the teacher for a class on civics, and in his class, like others in the school, students need put forth little effort. Popper excuses Sonny from school to take his wife, Ruth, to the doctor. Ruth feels unseen by her husband, including while dealing with breast cancer. The trip to the doctor is the beginning of an affair between Ruth and Sonny. Sonny visits her while the coach is at practice or fishing. Duane encounters problems in his relationship with Jacy as she begins to hang out more frequently with a group of city kids, including at parties involving skinny dipping. Jacy continues getting closer with the town kids while stringing Duane along. On a whim, Sonny and Duane decide to go to Matamoros, Mexico, where they watch pornographic movies and visit whores.
The senior class goes on a graduation trip to San Francisco. Jacy sleeps with Duane on the trip, but she breaks up with him when they return to Thalia. Duane leaves town to find work as a roughneck. After a romance with a city boy does not work out for her, Jacy begins going out with Sonny. Sonny abruptly quits seeing Ruth, which devastates her. Duane comes back to town with a new car. Duane fights Sonny over Jacy, blinding Sonny in one eye. Sonny and Jacy elope, but their marriage is short lived. Jacy anticipated apprehension by her parents, but she wanted to do the marriage for the fun of it. Sonny rides back to town with Lois; they stop at a hotel where they have sex. Jacy and her folks go off to Dallas, with plans to stay until she starts college.
Sonny, who has now graduated high school, struggles with feeling like an outsider, especially at a football game that Thalia wins. He is living in the pool hall that Sam the Lion left him in his will. He feels listless and like an outsider. Duane and Sonny meet up one last time before Duane goes off to Korean War. The movie theater goes out of business, and Billy gets hit by a truck, leaving Sonny shaken. Sonny goes to see Ruth who can’t decide whether to forgive him then crying she takes his hand to her face.
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