Throughout her characterization of her father in Mari Sandoz's novel "Old Jules" she paints a complex picture of who he is both in the context of him both in his family and as a frontiersman settling on the great plains. There is a duality of attitudes she adapts towards him as both a symbol of the west, and as a individual: flawed, determinate, and willful. In essence, she constructs him as a real human being and through the tale of his life shows life in the West in American History.

Old Jules is portrayed as a harsh but self-made man, unyielding in the face of the opposition the West offers and reactionary in support of what he has worked so hard to build. He is a shrewd business man and amasses a prime homestead spot and works very hard to build a life for himself, and eventually, his family. His personality is strong and confrontational to say the least, but this is shown to stem from his desire to work the land. He takes pride in what he accomplishes, which we see in the things he shows his various wives when they first come out to see him. He plants fruit trees, collects stamps, and builds a wooden house out on the prairie, all things that while might seem simple and trivial to a woman arriving from Europe, are evidence of hard work and dedication in the West.

While Old Jules is a symbolic figure of the self-made western settler, his relationship with his family casts a less favorable light on him and skews the complete construction of him as a heroic figure. Rather this construction complicates the image of what makes a hero in western literature and challenges social constructs of the romantic west. Through her representations of her father as a farmer and his goals, it is clear that Mari Sandoz does love him, but it is a complicated love due to the sometimes violent nature of his relationship with his wife and children. We see little tenderness in their interactions, and this can challenge the reader's sympathy towards Old Jules as a character. However he was a real person and is constructed neither a complete saint or a demon but a man, and above all else in the end, he is Mari's father, flawed though he may be.