The Cold Dish

“Pretty animals. […] Do you think they feel pain like we do?”

Vonnie’s question, which she asks Walt while looking at hunting trophies, hints at larger themes and character development. As someone who has experienced great pain, she feels empathy for others who suffer, especially Melissa. Vonnie’s empathy for Melissa is the key motive in murdering her assailants, so this question subtly foreshadows her role.

“There was more noise from the kitchen, and whistling. Unless I missed my guess, it was Prokofiev’s Symphony Number One, sometimes in D, and it was being butchered.”

Walt recognizes a tune Henry whistles while cooking as an excerpt from a symphony by Russian composer Sergei Prokofiev. Defying stereotypes and genre conventions, Johnson presents Walt and Henry as having sophisticated taste and extensive knowledge of art and culture rather than gruff or ignorant. In so doing, Johnson enhances the novel with allusions and deepens Walt’s character, suggesting his sensitivity and vulnerability.

“Walt, your life is a mess, your house is a mess, and you are a mess. It is about time we did some cleaning up.”

As the novel opens, Walt is still struggling to find motivation in the wake of two major setbacks: the death of his wife and the lenient sentences for the young men who raped Melissa. Here, Henry addresses Walt candidly, using a metaphor to compare his physical and emotional states. He also offers to help him get his life back on track, characterizing him as a good friend. Passages like this reveal the trust and mutual reliance between these two characters, even as their bond is tested by the case that places Henry under suspicion.

“I think under certain circumstances, everybody’s capable of doing something like that.”

When Walt makes this comment to Vonnie, he is referring to the possibility that Henry murdered Cody. In retrospect, his comment takes on ironic significance, as Vonnie is the murderer. His reference to the role of circumstances also proves insightful, as Vonnie’s actions make sense only as he comes to learn more about her troubled past. His comment indirectly questions the degree to which she should be held accountable for her actions.

“Here was a battered man lying in my jail who hadn’t even been allowed to clean himself up after having been beaten. I was about as angry as I could remember being.”

Upon discovering an injured Jules Belden in jail, Walt has a strongly negative visceral reaction. Here and elsewhere, his instincts for justice and revenge align imperfectly with his legal duties as sheriff, and he attacks Jules’s attacker, Turk. At the same time, this scene explores Walt’s moral code—he is not loyal to his fellow officers so much as the idea of justice. Since Turk assaulted a man outside the law and treated him without dignity, Walt is furious. Although Walt comes to regret his actions, they highlight the ongoing tension in the novel between his personal and the official definitions of justice. His actions also mirror Vonnie’s attacks on the young men who raped Melissa, showing that he is susceptible to similar impulses.

“Good and bad, these actions had earned the Sharps buffalo rifle the title of one of the most significant weapons in history and in language. Sharps shooter: sharpshooter.”

Although the assertion that the term “sharpshooter” comes from Sharps rifles is based more on folklore than in fact, this passage highlights the critical role of this powerful weapon within the narrative. Walt’s comment on the duality of the rifle’s usage mirrors its appearance in the narrative, as both Walt and Vonnie use buffalo rifles to pursue their ends. Like the complex legacy of the rifle itself, however, Walt and Vonnie’s actions cannot be categorized simplistically as wholly good or bad.

“I was brought up on a ranch but, because of my father, the romance of guns had somehow escaped me. In his eyes, a gun was a tool, not some half-assed deity. Guys who named their guns worried him and me.”

Walt expresses concerns over those who idealize and elevate their use of guns. Within the narrative, this includes Omar Rhoades, whom Walt reluctantly consults for his expertise in firearms. On the other end of the spectrum, Vonnie expresses a strong disregard for guns, which she regards as a necessary evil. Walt’s relatively neutral yet concerned outlook suits his work as a sheriff. This is another moment when Johnson subverts western genre conventions, as many glorify violence and gunslinging.

“Scientists say there is a noise that snowflakes make when they land on water, […] a cry so small and so high that it’s undetectable by the human ear. […] It seemed that an awful lot of the voices in my life were so small and high as to be undetectable by the human ear.”

Citing a scientific study that was hampered by the discovery that falling snowflakes make a small but measurable sound, Walt muses on the voices that he can’t or doesn’t hear, figuratively speaking. As the novel progresses, it becomes clear that Vonnie is one of those voices. However, Walt’s awareness of his limitations—represented through his repetition of more scientific language in this passage—and his willingness to listen closely become hallmarks of his work as a detective.

“The truck had always been an enigma in Henry’s carefully ordered life, but it was something primal and important to him. He could have had it fixed, I mean really fixed, but he didn’t. Somehow, in all its ugly glory, it signified something about the thin-chested kid whose glittering eyes knew something I didn’t and never would. No matter how far he went, no matter what he did, he would always be from what we were going to today.”

Walt recognizes that there are aspects of Henry’s life experience as a member of the Cheyenne Nation that he cannot fully understand or appreciate. Henry’s choice to keep and use a shabby vehicle speaks to his desire to maintain a connection with his humble beginnings. Although he despises the vehicle, Walt’s comments show that he respects Henry’s purpose in keeping it, and he relies on Henry as a guide and intermediary during his visits to the reservation. This is another way Johnson subverts genre conventions, as classic Westerns disparage Indigenous people rather than empathize with them.

“The rifle, Henry, the ghosts, and me drove up the road and deposited me at my cabin. The rifle and I went in, Henry went back down the road, and where the ghosts went was anybody’s guess.”

This passage demonstrates two of Walt’s key characteristics, including his humor and his skepticism. Moments of humor similar to this are sprinkled throughout the text, with Walt offering frequent wry commentary on the world around him. His skepticism regarding Cheyenne myths and traditions, such as the idea that ghosts haunt the rifle, gives his subsequent spiritual experiences narrative weight, as Walt gains a newfound respect for Indigenous cultures.

“The further down the road I go, the more I see my relationship with him having had an effect on every single choice in my life…in a negative or positive way.”

Vonnie hints at the significance of her relationship with her father. Surprisingly, she characterizes the relationship, which we later learn was abusive, as having positive and negative effects on her life. While she never explicitly elaborates on her meaning, she later describes most of her major life decisions as being a direct response to the abuse she endured. Most significant for the narrative is her development into a vigilante who sets out to secure the justice she was denied for Melissa.

“How have you survived, doing this for so long? I mean, you still care.”

As Walt describes his wartime experiences that led him to a career in law enforcement, Vonnie notices a common thread in Walt’s work of caring for others, particularly those who are marginalized. Vonnie assumes that Walt’s work would lead him to become cynical over time through desensitization. However, as Walt’s ongoing discomfort with the outcome of Melissa’s case reveals, he is deeply sensitive. His sensitivity enhances his work at some times and makes it more difficult at others.

“Would old Little Bird or Standing Bear help me find the killer of the boy that had raped their great-great-great-granddaughter? I don’t know precisely why, but I believed they would. Lucian had told me stories about them, about their honor, their grace, and their pursuit of the Cheyenne virtues.”

Walt doesn’t specify—and perhaps doesn’t know—exactly what qualities are considered Cheyenne virtues, but he imagines that the spirits who accompany the Cheyenne death rifle are sympathetic to his cause, complicated as it is. Admittedly, Walt’s perception of Cheyenne culture and history is mediated here through Lucian, another outsider like himself. Whether or not his views are accurate, Walt eventually finds inspiration and comfort in Cheyenne mythology.

“I always wondered about men who spent their time trying to anticipate and know a fish in a world where man’s knowledge of each other could only be called scarce.”

As he overhears two men discussing fishing lures at length, Walt muses on the complications of human relationships. His comment reveals his overriding interest in the human experience, including the human element of the crimes he investigates. In these and other simple moments, Walt uses his platform as narrator to offer observations and social critiques.

“I hated it, I hated seeing it, I hated hearing about it, and I hated doing it.”

Immediately after attacking Turk in retaliation for his earlier attack on Jules, Walt feels regret and engages in self-recrimination, represented through repetition. Although the pronoun “it” does not have any clear antecedent in this passage, from context, Walt is discussing violence. This passage reveals the complexity of Walt’s character, as he tries to protect others and uphold peace under the law, but he also is subject to angry, even violent, whims and impulses. His overarching goal of reducing violence is thus in conflict with the means he sometimes employs to pursue that end.

“These…young men, when they did what they did to my niece? For me, they no longer existed. For good or bad, they were gone. […] Do you understand? […] It is the best I can afford them.”

Henry explains his thought process regarding the young men who raped Melissa. Rather than devoting time and energy to resenting them, Henry ignores and even attempts to forget them. He does so both to protect himself from the potentially self-destructive path of bitter vengeance and also as an act of mercy toward them, whether they deserve it or not. This quote characterizes Henry and later reveals his different path from Vonnie, who cannot pretend these young men no longer exist.

“I looked back as he smiled, and his words were the whisper of many voices, ‘Sometimes dreams are wiser than waking.’”

As he carries George down the snowy trail, Walt has a vision, dream, or hallucination of a warrior who resembles Henry guiding him, and the warrior offers this comment. His comment suggests that on some level, it doesn’t matter whether myths and traditions are true, so long as they offer needed wisdom and strength, as they do here for Walt. Similar to a myth or fable, the warrior spirit uses a maxim, a simple statement that conveys a fundamental truth.

“I have spent my whole life getting to a place where I don’t have to put up with things like this. […] I will not let you do this to me; I will not.”

Vonnie declares her anger and disappointment at knowing about Walt’s struggles without being able to help him. Her tone is stern and self-focused—she has been harmed by people who behave like him before, and she is scared that it will happen again. By contrast, her actions demonstrate her tenderness toward Walt. Her comments reveal her strength of personality and hint at her willingness to take drastic measures to avenge Melissa.

“I guess Vern had decided that since they were all first offenders, the rap shouldn’t cost them the rest of their lives; never mind what it had cost Melissa.”

Walt guesses why the judge was, in his view, disappointingly lenient toward the young men convicted of assaulting Melissa. This passage highlights the subjectivity of justice as a social value since Walt and the judge disagree as to what consequences the perpetrators should face. It also highlights how the legal system frequently privileges white offenders over their nonwhite victims. Unlike Vonnie, however, Walt does not use illegal methods to bring about his own sense of justice, at least not in this instance.

“It was a moment I had avoided, this personal contact, but here she was, and here I was with her. […] even though she hadn’t lost all of the stunting qualities of Fetal Alcohol Syndrome, the graceful quality that was indicative of the Cheyenne and their personal beauty was there.”

Walt finally reveals his own sensitivity as the reason for his avoidance of Melissa following the trial. Seeing her again, he finds that she has made the most of the trying circumstances she faced, supported along the way by her family and community. This speaks to her personal resilience but also signals the larger resilience of Indigenous communities that were, over centuries, systemically mistreated.

“She’s just a child, Walt, just like I was…I thought surely now, now there’d be some kind of punishment, some kind of justice. Something for her, something for me.”

Vonnie explains the connection she feels with Melissa, noting the similarities between their experiences, including the fact that justice was not served in either case. She uses repetition to create parallels between her and Melissa. Her decision to kill those who raped Melissa raises questions about how justice should be measured and who has the right to administer it.

“There’s a difference between talking about it and doing it.”

Vonnie appeals to Walt for sympathy and support, and he offers them to her—to an extent. Here, he draws a line between contemplating violent vigilante acts and performing them. It is normal, he implies, to have such thoughts, but it is important to restrain oneself from acting on them. Much like Vonnie, Walt struggles with his own anger and violent behavior, but unlike Vonnie, he regrets his actions.

“I took a moment to think about the Old Cheyenne and how revenge doesn’t ever fit when there aren’t any bad guys. It wasn’t that revenge was a dish best served cold, it was that it was dish best not served at all. I thought about what it was the Old Cheyenne really wanted; it wasn’t hard to figure out. The dead just want the same thing as the living: understanding.”

Walt concludes that seeking revenge is not worthwhile. In so doing, he makes an explicit reference to the idiom that gives the novel its title. While the conflict between punishment and lenience can never be fully resolved, Walt’s realization that there are no purely evil “bad guys” demonstrates the fair-minded approach he strives to bring to all his work.