Beautiful Ruins

The narrative jumps to Shane pitching his film. Called Donner!, it depicts the struggles of carriage-maker William Eddy, whom Shane describes as a “good family man, handsome, honest, but uneducated” (123). Donner! begins with William Eddy, his family, and the Donner Party heading out toward California. Along the way to their destination, the Donner Party experiences hardships such as bad weather, wagon wheels breaking, and the loss of cattle. Shane paints a picture of “everyone turning feral except William Eddy, who retains his human dignity to help the rest of the party get across” (124).

Once the Donner Party reaches the Sierra Nevada Range, they become trapped in snow. The party breaks down and begins to starve until William Eddy kills a bear for its meat. Soon, the abundance of bear meat begins to dwindle, and William Eddy’s wife convinces her husband to make the trek to California to bring back help. When he protests, she tells him to do it for their children who will otherwise die.

William Eddy and a party of 15 set out to look for assistance amidst a terrible blizzard. As they make the journey, they become weaker and more famished. A man named Foster concocts a plan to keep the party fed; he states that the members of the group should all draw lots to determine who will be eaten.