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Tropes In Westerns

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The Western is a popular genre which is set in the mid to late 19th century in America. The most common tropes of Westerns are shown to be centered on a masculine man who needs to save the day. Even though the West is symbolized as an option of freedom, this is only true for the men as the role of women are usually restricted and fenced in. In the film Shane and the novel Riders of the Purple Sage by Zane Grey we can see how guns play an important role in the men’s identity, and how women are treated as a object for men to save or hardly play a role at all and are completely sidelined. The Riders of the Purple Sage begins with one of the most common tropes in Westerns, a woman Jane Withersteen, is calling out for help, and a rider arrives …show more content…

Guns are seen as a part of man’s identity as throughout the film Joey would ask either his father or Shane to teach him how to shoot, and when Joey sees Shane shoot for the first time he is completely in awe and idolizes him. Another scene which shows the importance of the gun is when Shane decides to go into town and is not going bring his gun with him, he is asked by Joey’s father, Joe Starrett, why is he not going to bring his gun with him. The scenes indicates that guns are a integral art of a man’s life, and if he doesn’t bring it with him everywhere he is seen as odd for doing so. When Shane does go in to the town, he is rediculoued in the bar for buying a soda pop and is told that he should smell and act like a man. Even in Shane gun fights seem to be a part of being a man. Joey is obsessed with learning how to shoot a gun and having a quick draw despite his young age. When he first sees Shane do a quick draw he is enamored by it and brags it to his parents. The major conflict is also resolved with a gun duel with the victor being the one who has the quickest the

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Ned Blackhawk, Violence over the Land does a great job at depicting how the Early american west was created and all of the violence that the native people endured over many years. For as long as I can remember the American west was all about shooting and gun fights due to how most people in history portray it. However Ned Blackhawk does a great job bringing many hard aspects of the Early American West to light. Blackhawk brings a unique perspective to light discussing how many different empires from the Spanish to American’s bringing hardships, death and diseases to the Indian groups living on the land hinting at the title “Violence over the Land”. He discussed how over time the native population has had a very pauperized life.

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All the Pretty Horses by Cormac McCarthy, takes place during the late 1940s. It is a story about a young man named John Grady Cole, a sixteen year old who is the last of a generation of the West Texas ranchers in his family. John Grady Cole takes a journey across the border to Mexico, after his grandfather's death, to retain his dream of living the cowboy life that he grew up with. As the story unfolds, John Gady Cole encounters a variety of obstacles that determines if his dreams are meant to be or if his fate will overpower his desires. McCarthy incorporates a variety of literary devices, internal conflict, and tone to achieve his theme of romanticism and reality.

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There were many stories told about outlaws and lawmen during the 1800s in America, and many of them originated from the “Wild West.” There have been stories and legends about people who robbed banks, committed homicide, or threw wanted criminals in jail. Often, people would stretch the truth of what westerners actually did, to make their tale more compelling. The same goes for a popular stagecoach driver of the mid 1800s, a man named Charley Parkhurst, who is best known for being a woman disguised as a man.

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In the film “Stagecoach,” there are a wide range of characters: Mrs. Mallory, high class army wife; Hatfield, a shady Southern gentleman; Curly, the marshall; Gatewood, an embezzling banker; Doc, the town drunk; Dallas, a whore; and Ringo, an outlaw who just wants to live the American Dream. They are representative of the diverse society that occupied the American West in the late 1800’s. Through these characters’ interactions, and specifically through the relationship between Mrs. Mallory and Dallas, Ford explores class relations and how appearance often dictates our perception of a person’s character From these initial descriptions, one would assume that the two women are going to be at odds with one another, and they are for a large portion

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Extended essay response Jonathan Scriva Hollywood films have influenced our values and beliefs of socio-cultural groups within a film. In the context of race and gender the films Cowboys and Aliens (2011) and the searchers (1956) both share similarities. These two successful films are 55 years apart the both convey the perspectives of race and gender through the reflection of American Indians in these films. The films The Searchers and Cowboys and Aliens show that Hollywood has changed the way we see the status of Indians. In the earlier film the Indians are represented as killers and mongrels as in this current day and age we have grown to accept them and appreciate their culture.

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For many centuries in our society women have been confined into a stereotypical idea of a patriarchal society. In today 's society the idea isn’t as much viewed upon with all the rights women have been given, but the concept still lingers in some of men 's minds. More so, than today, in the 19th century women were obligated to abide to the principle of gender roles and a male dominated culture. Women were seen as to be a slave and to act a certain way towards men as well as be able to gratify man 's lust of expectations of a perfect woman. These presumptions of women had been very much portrayed in short story , The Chaser by John Collier, in which a boy name Alan Austen seeks for a love potion from an old man, for a girl he likes name Diana.

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The Western genre was invented in 1902 by Owen Wister with the publication of his novel, The Virginian, at roughly the same time that the women’s suffrage movement was in its most heated period. With the formation of a national headquarters for the National American Woman Suffrage Association and 19th amendment allowing women the right to vote, the female gender began to witness a new light within society. And with the popularity this novel, masculinity combined with the attention drawn toward feminist arguments and led to cultural changes in sex roles. Men reacted against granting women more equal rights at the turn of the century primarily because they themselves felt threatened in what they had come to understand as their gender

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