Comparing Shane And The Riders Of The Purple Sage

Another similarity between the two genres is that space is dangerous, unknown, and untamed just like the West. In Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep, Mars is terraformed is a place where humans can live. People are given incentives to move there, but not every has the luxury and it is not the greatest thing for everyone. For humans that are young it seen as a positive, but for androids it is portrayed as a horrible place. When Roy Baty is asked why they left and came back to Earth, Baty describes it as a horrible place that they do not want to return to and instead are trying to blend in the human society that is remaining on Earth. The West in the nineteenth century America was not the greatest place for everyone. For instance in the novel,

In all the films and novels that I discussed, we can see some of the similarities with them being the ‘cowboy,’ the setting it self, and the search/expansion. The ‘cowboy’ is usually portrayed as a silent person or as someone who does not speak as much, instead they let their actions speak of them. This is seen in both in Shane and The Riders of the Purple Sage. And it is also seen at some extent in Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep? and Star Wars. The setting in all four examples, are either shown or described in vivid details. For instance in The Rider of the Purple Sage, Grey gives a large amount of detail describing the setting and how it plays in a role in emphasizing the importance of the characters. And in Blade Runner, you see the lights of the city and they stand out and make it memorable. In all of the examples, the main character is seen to be searching for something, a place where he belongs. So all in all, there are great amount of similarities and you can see how the science fiction genre was influenced by the Western genre with the ‘cowboy’ and setting, as both are described as dangerous, and a symbol for freedom to