Trap Of Gold Analysis

In “Trap of Gold”, Louis L’Amour develops the theme, “ greed and ambition can be harmful”, through the use of Wetherton and the mountain. First, Wetherton loves his family greatly and values them above all things. He had been gone from Horsehead and his family, his wife Laura and his little boy Tommy, for some time looking for gold before he found any trace of it. “Wetheron had been three months out of Horsehead before he found his first color” (L’Amour 149). Later, as the story progresses and Wetherton continues to mine, he becomes aware that greed and the need for gold is controlling him, and the base of the structure is weakening, putting himself in more danger with every chunk of quartz he removed with his pick. “Now the lust of gold was getting to him, taking him by

His innate caution took hold, and he drew back to examine it at greater length. Wary of what he saw, he circled the batholith and then climbed to the ridge behind it from which he could look down upon the roof. What he saw from there left him dry-mouthed and jittery. The gigantic upthrust was obviously a part of a much older range, one that had weathered and worn, suffered from shock and twisting until finally this tower of granite had been violently upthrust, leaving it standing, a shaky ruin among younger and sturdier peaks. In the process the rock had been shattered and driven by mighty forces until it had become a miners horror. Wetherton stared, fascinated by the prospect. With enormous wealth here for the taking, every ounce must be taken at the risk of his life” (L’Amour 149-150). The mountain contained at the time’s worth thousands and thousands of dollars worth of gold, and during the old west thousands of dollars would bring a person a long ways. Since there was so much gold presented to Wetherton in one spot, greed got the best of him, having the mindset of “one more day” of mining and there being so much and the gold being very concentrated, the trap of