Citation :
To make sure we get this connection, the film ends with the onscreen appearance of the enigmatic man who introduced it in voiceover, The Stranger (Sam Elliott), a grizzled but kindly cowboy who looks and feels like he wandered out of a Zane Gray novel. He's another perfect metaphor; the cowboys of reality existed a long time ago in a place that's become mythical, but the modern cowboy mythology reached its heyday in the 50's. The Cowboy Spirit is much like The Dude Spirit, the desire to wander freely in the world, unmolested and unbothered but only mythological characters can have that freedom. As for the rest of us? Well, The Stranger ties it up in his closing monologue. Life is always about intergenerational give-and-take, a story that's not always pretty, but as the Stranger says, "that's the way the whole durned human comedy keeps perpetuatin' itself down through the generations, westward the wagons, across the sands a time." It's a beautifully written line to wrap up what has seemed to be a MacGuffin-laden shaggy dog story, but it's really been all about the outrageous circumstances that lead to the conception and birth of Maude and The Dude's child, a convoluted tale to out-do "Tristam Shandy." Even the title is an intentional misnomer. This story isn't about the Big Lebowski." It's about the Little Lebowski, who, someday, is going to grow up to be trapped in his or her own generation, too.
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