The landscape of the American West also has a feeling of solidarity and emptiness. Empty, baron land that seems to go on forever with little to no social ties can also have a relation to the cowboy. "The hero imitates the desert's fierceness in his hard struggle to survive, its loneliness in his solitary existence..." (84). Also the fact that theres "No sex, no women, no home" in the desert causes a hero to have a strong relationship to the land (82). Without a warm home and loving family to come home to, Edwards becomes a man of the desert. The landscape becomes the one constant thing that the cowboy can count on and what gives him is rough, alpha male outlook and persona.
Wednesday, September 15, 2010
The Searchers CS
" To be a man in the Western is to seem to grow out of the environment, which mean to be hard, to be tough, to be unforgiving" (Tomkins 73). In The Searchers, John Wayne's character Ethan Edwards was the definition of a man of the West. In the first scene of the movie it showed him returning from a long, rigorous journey which included fighting on the confederate side of the Civil War. He was a raw, uncleaned, hard-edged man, which he continues to show throughout the rest of the movie. Tomkins describes " The qualities needed to survive on the land are the qualities the land itself possesses--- bleakness, mercilessness" (73). Edwards is a pitiless, dominating and masculine figure to which his opponents are intimidated by, much like the desert itself is. In his travels to find his lost niece Debbie, he shows learned skills of the wilderness, such as how to build a fire, survive on the dry and desolate terrain, navigate a trail and live without any sense of urgent danger. Cowboys, such as Edwards, feel at home in the open West. "... Far from the conveniences of modern life, far from any outside help...with only the nature at his disposal, he makes himself comfortable" (81).
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" To be a man in the Western is to seem to grow out of the environment, which means to be hard, to be tough, to be unforgiving" (Tompkins 73). In The Searchers, John Wayne's character Ethan Edwards was the definition of a man of the West, according to Tompkins. In the first scene of the film, it showed him returning from a long, rigorous journey which included fighting on the confederate side of the Civil War. He was a raw, unclean, hard-edged man, which he continues to show throughout the rest of the movie. Tomkins describes " The qualities needed to survive on the land are the qualities the land itself possesses--- bleakness, mercilessness" (73). Edwards is a pitiless, dominating and masculine figure of whom his opponents are intimidated by, much like the desert itself is. In his travels to find his lost niece Debbie, he shows his instinctive skills of the wilderness, such as how to build a fire, survive on the dry and desolate terrain, navigate a trail and live without any sense of urgent danger. Cowboys, such as Edwards, feel at home in the open West, "... far from the conveniences of modern life, far from any outside help...with only the nature at his disposal, he makes himself comfortable" (81).
ReplyDeleteThe landscape of the American West also exudes an essence of solidarity and emptiness. The desert’s vast, empty, and baron land that seems to go on forever, with little to no community or social ties, also relates to the cowboy. "The hero imitates the desert's fierceness in his hard struggle to survive, its loneliness in his solitary existence..." (84). The fact that there’s "No sex, no women, no home" in the desert causes a hero to have a strong relationship to the land (82). Without a warm home and loving family to come home to, Edwards becomes even more a man of the desert. The landscape becomes the one constant thing that the cowboy can rely on and is what gives him is rough, alpha male outlook and persona.