Crossroads

Content Warning: This section of the guide includes discussion of illness, death, and animal death.

The ranch is used as a motif in the novel to represent Renewal Through Second Chances, Personal Growth Through Confrontation With the Past, and The Necessity of Accepting Change. West grew up on the ranch and established a life and career there, while also being able to remain close to his family. Indya came to the ranch frequently in her youth because her father found it to be a relaxing and healing place while he was dealing with cancer. The ranch brought West and Indya together and became the physical “crossroads” at which their intersecting lives would meet before always diverging again. Through all these previous visits, West and Indya remained “tethered” to one another while at the ranch and then went back to their own lives as soon as Indya’s family left (117). When Indya returns in middle age, she sees that the ranch hasn’t changed and is in dire need of modern improvements; her decision to revive the ranch becomes the renewal that she, West, and everyone else working at the ranch need most.