One of the most obvious themes of "Shane" is the tension between the fence-favoring homesteaders and the open-range cattle man Luke Fletcher. In the book, the homesteaders are shown as the small-time operators threatened by a powerful, wealthy man with a large herd of cattle and a government beef contract. In later years, author Jack Schaefer would regret this aspect of his novel, that "Shane" was, "aiding the advance of settlement, giving his push to the accelerating onrush of the very civilization I find deserving contempt."