In the process he comes into conflict with various of his friends, relatives and business associates, but none of them is an enemy. Flagg battles primarily against the drought. Rand's heroes really are not.Īnother difference between Kelton's tale and a traditional Western is the lack of enemies. In other words, Flagg is recognizably human. He is also perfectly willing to help friends just because they are friends, with no expectation of remuneration, something no Rand hero would ever do. He alienates some of his friends when the above quote gets published in the newspaper, but he repeatedly says he is not trying to dictate what others do, merely explain his own actions.
Kelton's, expressed through Flagg, is individual. Rand's philosophy is totalitarian: she wants everyone to share it, and indeed it would not work unless everyone did share it. The language is not as highflown as Galt's famous speech in Atlas Shrugged, but it expresses similar ideas. They may not be as fat as the old pet, but I'd say they're healthier. They rustle for theirselves, and they do a damn good job of it. If we went off someday and left her she'd starve.īut out at the barn there's cats that can spot a mouse across two corrals. If a mouse was to run across the kitchen floor that old cat wouldn't hardly stir a whisker. Now, if you go in my wife's kitchen you'd see an old pet cat curled up close to the stove. Flagg is in some sense a Texan John Galt or Hank Reardon. It's hard to ignore similarities to Ayn Rand when reading this book. Flagg refuses it all, though it eventually costs him nearly his entire ranch. This help takes several forms: price supports to help out the farmers, free feed to help out the ranchers, and so on. During the great drought, the government steps in to help out. Flagg believes there is no such thing as a free lunch, and is suspicious of apparent free lunches. And he has a creed, and that is to take no handouts from anybody. But he is also tough, self-sufficient, and honest. He is distant with his wife and has a troubled relationship with his son. He is stubborn, cantankerous, elderly, and disabled.
Most Westerns have a heroic archetype as protagonist. Almost every scene is about Charlie Flagg, a cattle and sheep rancher. The story is based around actual events - specifically, the Texas drought of the early 1950s - which the author experienced both as a friend and relative of ranchers and as a reporter for the ranching industry. The Time It Never Rained is an unusual Western by Elmer Kelton.
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