JY The Searchers

The blankness of the plains implies- without even stating-that this is a field where a certain kind of mastery is possible, where a person can remain alone and complete and in control of himself, while controlling the external world through physical strength and force of will.” (Tompkins 75). The main character in “the Searchers”, Ethan Edwards, has achieved this “mastery” of the western deserts. The land has molded him into a man that can face any hardship that the western world throws at him. For example when he comes back from fighting for the confederate army and finds his family killed and abducted he stays in control of himself. Ethan uses the skills that these western plains have taught him and tracks down the Indians that were responsible for this massacre. He uses his “physical strength and force of will” (Tompkins 75) to take revenge on these Indians.

Ethan has “grown out of the environment” (Tompkins 73) and this environment had taught him to be tough and unforgiving. Without this environment in which he lived his whole life John Wayne’s character would not have had the toughness or skills to rescue Debbie from the Comanche and avenge his family member’s deaths. The western deserts gave him skills that are not attainable to the westerners who lived in town

Tompkins also explains how the landscape”challenges the body to endure hardships” (Tompkins 71). First on the physical level were you see that cowboys in the west often are unshaved, dirty, and their faces are worn just as Ethan looked in The Searchers. Cowboys are often fighting to find food, water, and shelter which begins to wear on the weak after a while. But not only does this landscape challenge the physical side of westerners but as Tompkins says it sends a spiritual message of “come and suffer.” This message is clear in The Searchers where Ethan suffers throughout the whole movie. He loses his family and travels miles and miles through the hot dry west only to find that his niece Debbie is living with the Comanche’s. The west takes a great toll on Ethan but his toughness perceivers.