[PJ-Comix]

I was taken with the sexual undertones of the novel. I suspect a menage a trois was going on between the Starretts and Shane. Note all the latent showing out between Joe and Shane "pulling the stump."

I think you are reading too much into that stump allusion. As Freud once said, "Sometimes a cigar is just a cigar."

[parsifal]

I am not so sure. Page 36: "Shane carried no gun."

A gun is a well known phallic symbol. Shane had a gun and was better with his gun than Joe Starrett. Was Shane metaphorically neutering himself? parsy.