Lenihan, and Cawelti describe undergone many transformations throughout history, defining what constitutes a ‘Western’ film is not that simple. This is also noted by Raymond Durgnat and Scott Simmon who state that it is “hard to square a static image of the genre with its constant and profound response to its changing times.” (69) But as the notion of ‘genre’ suggests there are recurring structural patterns in Western films, a formula that according to Hausladen is repeated in most Westerns with only subtle variations: “(1) the cowboy as hero; (2) the frontier experience as storyline; and (3) the West as landscape/setting.” (Where the Cowboy 297) Although the first two components, the cowboy and the frontier experience, unquestionably are important in Westerns, it is the third component, the setting, which is of particular interest in a discussion of the mythic
Twain’s A True Story, Repeated Word for Word as I Heard It use of vernacular speech allows for the story to be... ... middle of paper ... ...in but also illustrates the distinct viewpoint between the southerners and northerners and the black and white people of the post-Civil War United States. Vernacular storytelling is an important aspect of not only American short stories but in American history itself. Vernacular speech portrays the awful but true themes of racism, southern life and post-Civil War struggles in an intriguing manner. When first reading A True Story, Repeated Word for Word as I Heard It and The Goophered Grapevine the themes may not have appeared similar but through the use of vernacular storytelling both Twain and Chesnutt give an accurate account of racial inequalities. As seen in both, A True Story, Repeated Word for Word as I Heard It and The Goophered Grapevine the use of dialect literature helps preserve this serious issue of racism, found prominently in post-Civil War history.
After World War I, individuals of America and therefore the authors among them were left enlightened by the consequences of war on their societies. America required a literature that might justify what had happened and what was happening to their society. Writers of America turned to what's currently called modernism these days. The influence of nineteenth Century realism and naturalism and their correct illustration of the life in America and other people was evident in post war I modernism. This paper can attempt to prove this by presenting the essential concepts and of those literary genres, literary samples of every, and create connections between the 2 literary movements.
Focusing on the novel as a piece of literature and exploring setting, characters, and plot, Rubin is able to break the stigma that Tom Sawyer is strictly a historical story. While there are some slight overlooks and complications with Rubin’s “Tom Sawyer and the Use of Novels”, the essay is able to critique and evaluate the novel’s real purpose outside of being a snapshot of American history. Rubin ends his essay by writing: “It may not provide us with all the facts we want about American life, but it can… tell us what American life means” (216).
The Romantic era writers, Washington Irving and Edgar Allan Poe, had many similarities but even more differences, in both writing theme and style. This is very evident in their works, “Rip Van Winkle”, by Irving, and “The Fall of the House of Usher”, by Poe. Washington Irving and Edgar Allan Poe were both writers who exemplified the writing style of the Romantic era. Both writers used their great talents to take the reader into the story. For example, Irving, in “Rip Van Winkle”, starts the story by saying, “Whoever has made a courage up the Hudson must remember the Kaatskill Mountains.” He also involves the reader in the story by taking us into the everyday lives of the Van Winkles and goes into some detail describing Rip’s “business”.
Rowlandson tends to use the Bi... ... middle of paper ... ...sh to be shot” (Bierce 471). Later, Farquhar thinks about possible ways to escape the situation. This story is an example of realistic literature because it accurately shows the psychology of an ideal man during a life or death situation. American literature during the age of Realism accurately portrayed realistic actualities of life, speech, and thoughts during the Civil War and Post War era. From the beginning of American literature and the ways of the Puritans to the age of Realism, religious ideologies and philosophies influenced writers during each time period, in which the reader can accurately decide from which a writer is by his/her style, religious connotations, themes, and belief in intuition or reason.
The Western is a genre that brings out other genres as well in their plot – war, melodrama, romance, comedy, and action, for example. The Western genre had become so flexible that Brokeback Mountain had been able to introduce successfully new ideas into its plot, and although it had a more romantic feel to it because of the relationship between Ennis and Jack, it was still recognized as a Western film. This relationship between the two cowboys is one of the major changes that are prominent in the movie. Ennis and Jack being gay lovers was a newly introduced concept in the Western genre. It could be argued that there is and has always been some sort of underlying element of homoeroticism in Western films before, but not like it was in Brokeback Mountain, where it was so readily explored, and even as such made the central theme of the movie itself, and as seen in most W... ... middle of paper ... ... incorporated it at all, and others, like Hell's Hinges, where Blaze, after being attracted to Faith becomes more of a hero than a villain, and The Virginian, where the Eastern schoolteacher Molly got along really well with The Virginian, but even in where the element of attraction was introduced, there was still a severe lack of it in the earlier Westerns, as unlike Brokeback Mountain, they were not typically solely focused on the romantic aspect of it all – but it still held true that the genre was ever-changing and still is to this day, and though the traditional aspects and concepts of the Western are still used in order to identify as such, the Western films of today are not solely focused on what they were in the distant past.