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... West
March 25, 2004
The West, Father of Gunslinger Johnny and the “Martha” Stewart of the Frontier
The frontier has created a playground for hot-headed cowboys, villains, and young, sassy fems, but these fellow inhabitants are simpler and more complex than one thinks. ... Clayton also displays tagged feminine qualities in the instance when he catches Martha sniffing her long-lost loves’ coat, Ethan. ... In Ford’s The Searchers Martha Edwards, for example, is the “ideal” mother who is educated, religious and pure, and the preservationist of the domestic space and family. ... Debbie, who has big eyes, flawless skin, and a thin body just like her mother, is a stereotypical woman the West creates, but this process is halted when she is abducted. ... But unlike Martha, Debbie assimilates to NM life and therefore, her chastity is taken as well as her white heritage in the eyes of Edwards. ...
Another American female created by the West and blown to the extreme is Zane Grey’s Jane Withersteen, one of the main characters in Riders of the Purple Sage. Withersteen’s appearance, even more extreme than Martha’s and Debbie’s combined, is of ideal beauty. ... Here she commits herself to a life as a mother and wife all at once; she becomes a “Martha”. ... At the end, she finally ties down her evolved man and hero, Martin, and instantly is welcomed into the worlds of Betty Crocker and Martha Stewart.
In conclusion, the west is place that creates simple, pigeon-holed extreme versions of men and women, but also is a creator of complicated, hermaphrodite-like characters as well. ... It normally follows that his significant other is often a chastity belt wearing, Betty Crocker/Martha Stewart wannabe; I am god’s gift to motherhood and the domestic space as well. On the opposite side of the spectrum, the West also births characters who blur the lines between the genders and take on hermaphrodite-like images. ... All of these figures are exhibited in Ford’s The Searchers, Mark Twain’s Roughing It, and Grey’s Riders of the Purple Sage and will continue to carry on as the idealized Anglo-American characters of the West.
Approximate Word count = 2309
Approximate Pages = 9.2
(250 words per page double spaced)
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