In High Noon, women are portrayed as weak. We see Amy beg Kane to leave, saying “don’t be a hero, go, please go.” She is constantly pulling him away from his duty, after marriage he’d be giving up the tin star to start a store. Amy being a Quaker is constantly referred to, but not positively. It is the reason he is giving up his job as a Marshall. In the end she does not even stay devoted to her religion as she resorts to shooting one of Miller’s henchmen. Ellen leaves town when Frank Miller comes back. Kane’s devotion to his duty of protecting the town is much greater than his devotion to his own wife, as he lets her leave on their wedding day so that he can stay and face Miller. These actions portray women as weak creatures and secondary to men, as Tompkins says, “Women and children cowering in the background” (41), an idea unfortunately held by Americans during the 1950’s. Tompkins attributes this as a reaction to the rise of women’s power and literature, as well as a rise in involvement in things outside the home. “Just as the women’s novels that captured the literary marketplace at mid-century had privileged the female realm of spiritual power, inward struggle, homosociality, and sacramental household ritual, Westerns, in a reaction that looks very much like literary gender war, privilege the male realm of public power, physical ordeal, homosociality, and the rituals of the duel” (42).
The contrast in the portrayal of women between High Noon and the Ballad of Little Jo can be attributed to the time in which the movies were created. The Ballad of Little Jo, released in 1993, is clearly a product of the change in the view of women that happened between the 1960’s and the 1990’s. In this movie, we see a woman become disenfranchised through rape and an illegitimate child. Having nowhere else to turn, to avoid being sold as a prostitute, she decides to dress as a man. Jo shows her strength in the things she has to do as a man, and shows us that she was a better man than even the men were.
In High Noon, women are portrayed as weak. We see Amy beg Kane to leave, saying “don’t be a hero, go, please go.” She is constantly pulling him away from his duty, after marriage he’d be giving up the tin star to start a store. Amy being a Quaker is constantly referred to, but not positively. It is the reason he is giving up his job as a Marshall. In the end she does not even stay devoted to her religion as she resorts to shooting one of Miller’s henchmen. Ellen leaves town when Frank Miller comes back. Kane’s devotion to his duty of protecting the town is much greater than his devotion to his own wife, as he lets her leave on their wedding day so that he can stay and face Miller. These actions portray women as weak creatures and secondary to men, as Tompkins says, “Women and children cowering in the background” (41), an idea unfortunately held by Americans during the 1950’s. Tompkins attributes this as a reaction to the rise of women’s power and literature, as well as a rise in involvement in things outside the home. “Just as the women’s novels that captured the literary marketplace at mid-century had privileged the female realm of spiritual power, inward struggle, homosociality, and sacramental household ritual, Westerns, in a reaction that looks very much like literary gender war, privilege the male realm of public power, physical ordeal, homosociality, and the rituals of the duel” (42).
ReplyDeleteThe contrast in the portrayal of women between High Noon and The Ballad of Little Jo can be attributed to the time in which the movies were created. The Ballad of Little Jo, released in 1993, is clearly a product of the change in the view of women that happened between the 1960’s and the 1990’s. In this movie, we see a woman become disenfranchised through rape and an illegitimate child. Having nowhere else to turn, to avoid being sold as a prostitute, she decides to dress as a man. Jo shows her strength in the things she has to do as a man, and shows us that she was a better man than even the men were. This also addresses the transgender issues the nation was grappling with during the late eighties and early nineties. Through both High Noon and The Ballad of Little Jo, we see the roles of women reflect those of the women in the time the movies were created.