The Path to Power Setting & Symbolism

The Path to Power Objects/Places

Texas Hill Country

This is an important location in the book since this is terrain that the Johnsons managed to do reasonably well in. It is marked off as territory that "not even the Buntons would try", unless they were the Johnson Buntons. It is introduced simultaneously as a paradise and as untamed, extraordinarily difficult country. The native tribe of the area are the Comanche. There was grass there, but the settlers used a horrendous grazing strategy and tore up the turf within a few short years. The land, as it had been, was essentially ruined. Fortunately, ruin in this sense, means change. After all, what had made the Texas hill grasslands in the first place was the devastation wreaked by fire.

San Marcos

This is the place where Lyndon B Johnson received his higher education. It was while he was attending higher education here...
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