The Origins Of The Literary Western

The concept of the Wild West lies at the core of the American ideology and the republican ideology of an independent state ruled by Law. The conflict between Law and Justice is always at the centre of a western. The reason is not hard to find: the wild frontier lands which used to belong to the native American population was an easy prey for all kinds of adventurers, outlaws and gangsters; ordinary settlers, in their turn, had to suffer from both Indians and rustlers. This resulted in immediate measures, such as lynching, which was viewed as an act of justice, on the one hand, and a kind of substitute for ineffective law, on the other.

The Wild West is the quintessence of American national identity. The ideal of a brave and strong, independent and free man best fits the idea of Americanism. These feelings of common Americans are readily exploited in politics and business. Thus, for example, quite a few Presidents of the United States turned to the image of a cowboy when their aim was to win popularity among the American people. The examples are not hard to find: the outgoing President of the Unites States George Bush Jr. has often been pictured disguised as a cowboy with a Stetson hat and cowboy shoes on. The images of the Wild West and a cowboy have been infrequently exploited in advertising, for example, in the popular advertising campaign of the Marlboro brand of cigarettes.

The concept of the Wild West has so far prominently established itself in the cultural pattern of the United States. The history of the concept is based on the history of "the western US during the later part of the 19th century, when communities were settled but there was not much law and order.

The western got its start in the "penny dreadfuls and later in the "dime novels". Penny Dreadful was a term applied to nineteenth century English fiction publications, usually lurid serial stories appearing in parts over a number of weeks, each part costing a penny. The term, however, soon came to encompass a variety of publications that featured cheap sensational fiction, such as story papers and booklet libraries. The Penny Dreadfuls were printed on cheap pulp paper and were aimed primarily at teenage boys from the working class. “Dime novel”, though it has a specific meaning, has also become a catch-all term for several different (but related) forms of late 19th century and early 20th century U.S. popular fiction, including true dime novels, story papers, five and ten cent weekly libraries, thick book reprints and sometimes even early pulp magazines. The term was being used as late as 1940, in the short lived pulp Western Dime Novels. Dime novels, in spirit at least, are the antecedent of today's mass market paperbacks, comic books, and some would say television and movies.

These cheaply made books were published to capitalize on the many fanciful yet supposedly true stories that were being told about the mountain men, outlaws, settlers and lawmen who were taming the western frontier.

First attempts to describe the Wild West in literature were made by the American writers of the 19th century James Fenimore Cooper ("The Leatherstocking tales) and Owen Wister (“The Virginian” (novel dedicated to Theodore Roosevelt ) ).

“The Virginian” by O.Wister describes precisely the period in the later part of the 19th century which is usually associated with the concept of the Wild West.

Owen Wister (1860 - 1938) was an American writer of Western novels. He graduated from Harvard University where he was on friendly terms with Theodore Roosevelt, the would-be President of the US and settled in New York. Due to poor health, he spent summers in the West to restore his physical well-being, and on the basis of these experiences he started to produce Western sketches.

The novel is a sample of popular fiction. The author himself describes his book as “a colonial romance”. He claims that his novel is primarily historical: it is an attempt to restore by means of literature "a vanished world, “historic yesterday”.

The character of the narrative is polemical: stimulated by his journalistic spirit the author invites the reader to investigate the Wild West together with the narrator and discuss the most burning problems of the time, he invites Americans from the civilized East to share his knowledge and admiration of the West.

The author's realistic perception of the Western and the Eastern lifestyles is revealed in the wide thematic content and the range of topical issues discussed:

* Nature and Civilization
* Law and Justice
* Equality and Democracy
* Religion
* The American East and the American West
* Education and literature

Still, in the narrative the author maintains to combine both the romantic and realistic vision of the West, as in the descriptions of the Western nature:

Town, as they called it, pleased me the less, the longer I saw it. But until our language stretches itself and takes in a new word of closer fit, town will have to do for the name of such a place as was Medicine Bow. I have seen and slept in many like it since. Scattered wide, they littered the frontier from the Columbia to the Rio Grande, from the Missouri to the Sierras. They lay stark, dotted over a planet of treeless dust, like soiled packs of cards. Each was similar to the next, as one old five-spot of clubs resembles another. Houses, empty bottles, and garbage, they were forever of the same shapeless pattern. More forlorn they were than stale bones. They seemed to have been strewn there by the wind and to be waiting till the wind should come again and blow them away. Yet serene above their foulness swam a pure and quiet light, such as the East never sees; they might be bathing in the air of creation's first morning. Beneath sun and stars their days and nights were immaculate and wonderful.

The attention of the reader is drawn to the structure of this paragraph as we can see it falls into two parts [6]. The author contrasts the gloomy picture of the towns', as they are called although the author makes it quite clear that hardly do they deserve such a name and the beauty of nature. For him the settlements are nothing but litter: "More forlorn they were than stale bones, "Scattered wide, they littered the frontier, "They lay stark, dotted over a planet of treeless dust, "Houses, empty bottles, and garbage, they were forever of the same shapeless pattern. He compares them with "a soiled packs of cards each being "similar to the next, as one old five-spot of clubs resembles another. The author uses a number of metaphors littered the frontier, dotted over a planet of treeless dust, epithets of the same shapeless pattern and comparisons, but we can easily notice that all connotations in this part of the paragraph are negatively coloured.

Yet in the next sentence the author can't help noticing "a pure and quiet light: "Yet serene above their foulness swam a pure and quiet light, such as the East never sees; they might be bathing in the air of creation's first morning. Beneath sun and stars their days and nights were immaculate and wonderful. The mood of this piece as well as many others in the novel could be described as affected. The affectation which for the author might have seemed the intrinsic quality of romance O. Wister even introduces a Biblical allusion "they might be bathing in the air of creation's first morning. Beneath sun and stars their days and nights were immaculate and wonderful.

The next analyzed passage I'd like to introduce, contains the description of the cowboy whose image is placed in the centre of the concept of the Wild West.

Lounging there at ease against the wall was a slim young giant, more beautiful than pictures. His broad, soft hat was pushed back; a loose-knotted, dull-scarlet handkerchief sagged from his throat; and one casual thumb was hooked in the cartridge-belt that slanted across his hips. He had plainly come many miles from somewhere across the vast horizon, as the dust upon him showed. His boots were white with it. His overalls were gray with it. The weather-beaten bloom of his face shone through it duskily, as the ripe peaches look upon their trees in a dry season. But no dinginess of travel or shabbiness of attire could tarnish the splendor that radiated from his youth and strength.

In this passage we once again see the already mentioned affected manner of narration. The author pursues a goal of romanticizing the hero. This romantic mood is achieved with the help of the named above set of stylistic devices such as metaphors The bloom of his face, epithets The weather-beaten bloom, comparisons as the ripe peaches look upon their trees in a dry season and hyperboles more beautiful than pictures. Thus, the author stresses the most important constituents of his cowboy beauty, youth and strength.

This combination should be treated as the most important feature of the image of the Wild West in literature which, as we have discovered, is the main source of the contemporary concept.

Guilded Age

Date: 2015-12-24; view: 796