Every truly picaresque novel is satirical, and Berger tries to dispel some Western myths in Little Big Man. The heroes of legend are not all that heroic. Kit Carson denies hapless Jack alms, Wyatt Earp knocks him out for belching, and Wild Bill Hickok is a tired, sad, paranoid man. Berger pokes fun at the naïve acceptance of the clichés of Hollywood's version of the West. Mrs. Winifred Burr, nurse to the hypochondriac Ralph Fielding Snell, does not believe Jack's claim about Little Bighorn's survival because she has seen a movie in which all the whites are killed, and Snell knows that Crazy Horse wore a feather cap war because he had bought from a dealer "of the highest integrity". Although Berger presents a positive view of Indians, he debunks the image of the noble savage. Jack sees them as "uncouth, bad, smelly, disgusting, and ignorant." Their camps stink, they eat dogs, and their women and children maim their wounded enemies. Their arrogance annoys Jack: "The greatest people on earth! Christ, they wouldn't have had those iron knives if Columbus hadn't touched these shores. And who brought them the pony in the first place?" Berger's point is that the West is so clouded by myth that the truth about it can never be known. Eyewitness accounts, even those of Jack Crabb, are unreliable because of the way things are distorted to fit preconceptions and satisfy stereotypes. Little Big Man satirizes romantic illusions in general. After their wagon train is attacked, Jack's sister Caroline follows the Cheyenne because she thinks they want her and because she wants to be an Indian princess. His illusions are intact even after seeing his family members raped and killed by drunken Indians. The savages dispel her misconceptions by not recognizing that she is a woman. Years later, he reminds Jack how the Indians "brutally stole" his "virginity." Since the truth is not interesting enough, he invented his own myth and comes to believe it. Even Jack is not immune to such illusions. Thirteen years after running away from his adoptive parents, "I was still in love with Mrs. Pendrake as passionately as ever, after all those years, battles and wives. That was the real tragedy of my life, as opposed to the hardships." Berger implies that it is man's nature to ignore or embellish the truth, and that while such lies may comfort him, they can also paralyze him..