The earth in a western is bigger than all things. this is especially true in The Searchers, where scene after scene places the tiny insect that is man against the expanse of the desert and rocky cliffs. Thompson herself notices the power of the landscape in this movie, using it as an example of the lonely and unchanging earth framed by a door, symbolizing it stretching beyond the confines of the "town". Thompson talks about this phenomenon, saying, "let the buildings grow smaller, until finally they are a tiny silhouette against a range of desrt mountains rising up behind. now let the sky dwarf everything, until town is nothing but a squidge on a vast plain."( page 87)
The land becomes larger than life, as they alpha cowboy must. John Wayne's character understands this, has embraced the land almost completely. in the beginning, there was land. and from it he emerges. and in the end it is that land to which he returns. the town does not draw him in as it draws in the others.
To call this movie The Searchers is to state an untruth. for Ethan does not search, his purpose in life is to roam. the search for his niece is only an excuse to do that which he has been doing for years. a pilgrimage into the desert that will never end, until he is fully part of the land. At the end of the movie, we understand why he returns to the desert. he realizes that he is still too human, choosing to embrace his niece and return her to a life he cannot have, that he does not want. and so he leaves the focus of his life for years, to return to his original path. to become as unmoving as the cliffs we see in the distance, to purge the merriment of the town from his blood with dust and desert.
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