Heroes come in all shapes and sizes; tall, dark, handsome, ugly, astute, or mentally handicapped, and Shane is no exception. He rode into their lives with temperance and vigor, and left a legacy behind. How does one deal with a shady business man who is hell bent on wanted and willful destruction of freedom? Brute force has always been the heroes approach. Shane rode into a small town in Wyoming and met a family, who with all their respect needed a hero. Both of the stories that I will tell, including Shane’s and the story of Tombstone had their similarities, and also had their differences. What is it about the dark clothed eerie figures that instill so much fear in the hearts of vigilantes? Perhaps it is their silence that speaks such strong words, or maybe it’s their strong value system that gives them the upper hand. In any case, they become a formidable force to be reckoned with. I will attempt to distinguish the differences and similarities between a fictional hero written about in 1889, and an account based on a real person that took place in Tombstone Arizona a few years before in 1881.
I’m going to discuss the novel “Shane.” First I will discuss his appearance, followed by his character, and follow-up with a choice he was forced to make that we will cross reference with our next character shortly. His character had a dark appearance, with a “lean and hard face that had been burned from high forehead to firm.” Schaefer (2) Looking at the cover, you will notice Shane is dressed in a black suit with a black vest, and dark cowboy hat. His gun hangs ominously at is his side to thwart any threats. He has a somewhat thin posture; however, he seems quite solid. His sneer says “Don’t even think about it,” and compliments his gun....
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... themselves to venture out and settle a score; the only difference was the number of people involved in each story. But the fact remains, the good guy secured a victory in each instance
Shane had a deep feeling of responsibility to his ready-made family as he so eloquently illustrated in his final battle with Fletcher, and Wilson. He also played a role model to Bob, who was an impressionable boy. On all accounts, Shane was a book of fiction from the mind of Jack Schafer, interesting, and descriptive as it was, it lacked the power I believe it needed to keep the reader wanting more. If I were to pick a favorite plot, it would be the story of Wyatt Earp and his complex series of plotlines that led him to a strong finish, sealed into the actual history books of our modern era. Wyatt held strong in the face of a ruthless band of hooligans and proved crime doesn’t pay.
In the short story “The Hunter” the author Richard Stark introduces Parker, the main character of this book. The main character is a rough man, he’s a criminal, a murderer, and even an escaped convict. He’s described as crude and rugged and though women are frightened by him, they want him. Parker is not the classic criminal, but rather he’s intelligent, hard, and cunning. In this story the author carefully appeals to his audience by making a loathsome criminal into a hero, or rather, an anti-hero. The author, Richard Stark uses ethical appeal to make his audience like Parker through the use of phronesis, arête, altruism and lastly the ethos of his audience.
In “The Thematic Paradigm,” University of Florida professor of film studies, Robert Ray, defines two types of heroes pervading American films, the outlaw hero and the official hero. Often the two types are merged in a reconciliatory pattern, he argues. In fact, this
Yet even though Dillon was compassionate, he was also quite judge-mental, another characteristic of the typical hero of the West. By falsely assuming men killed other men (Ben Tollivers Stud), and automatically assuming that if a man has a record he is up to no good and a liar, (Johnny Reb) Dillon portrays his judgments in a negative manner.
Director Jim Jarmusch’s film Deadman displays many of the accepted conventions for Western genre films, but manipulated in such a way as to create a revisionist, rather than a classical, western. The most obvious example of this manipulation are the characterizations of the hero, William Blake, and his Native American partner, Nobody. Blake is an awkward easterner who travels westward unaware of the different rules governing western life, instead of the rugged, knowledgeable outdoorsman who “does what he has to do” to defend justice and honor. Nobody’s character is unusually independent, educated, and kind towards Blake, instead of the traditional Western genre’s violent, unintelligent Indian.
As Geronimo approached his late teens, he was already leading military operations. At 17, he had been at the helm of four successful raids against the Mexican army. During this time, he fell in love with a woman named Alope. The couple had three children together and loved each other faithfully until disaster struck. While away, Mexican troops attacked his tribe’s camp and killed his wife and children. Following Apache tradition, he burned all of his family’s things and went to the woods to grieve. Out of anger, he gathered up a group of approximately 200 Apache men to avenge the deaths of his loved ones. It took ten years but he finally got his revenge. He tracked down and killed every single Mexican tro...
The enduring cultural expressions of the frontier were adapted into unique narrative traditions known as the “Western”. The Western genre portrays a story of conquest, competing visions of the land, and the quintessential American frontier hero who is usually a gunfighter or a cowboy. These Western archetypes can be observed in, The Outlaw Josey Wales, a film that employs revenge motifs that lead into and extended chase across the West and touches on the social and cultural issues of the American frontier.
These sagas reveal the contentions that can arise between men in a stateless society, and follow a deliberate sequence of injuries; then cases of revenge and then settlement. They also valued heroic qualities like courage, loyalty, physical ability, and over-zealous defense of rights and honor.
guilt, greed, betrayal, and murder are no strangers. In this story an honorable warrior and
Western movies such as Rio Bravo and El Dorado illustrate America’s rugged and picturesque scenery explaining life as it was in the wide open country, at a time when few laws were in place to safeguard the public. These two films tell the story of four men who arrest and
In the novel No Country for Old Men by Cormac McCarthy, the increased brutality and violence along the Texas-Mexico border leads to various moral conflicts among the citizens as well as authority figures. Because of this ominous presence, the characters, especially the older men, are forced to combat such violence and brutality, with varying degrees of success. Although experience and ethical obligations can allow for some success, it is ultimately achieved by those that are able to conform to such brutality rather than fight it. In the novel, Anton Chigurh represents the new era of men in Texas through his defiance of law and justice whereas Sheriff Bell stands for the old values of the country and Llewelyn Moss holds a position in the world between the two ultimatums. Throughout the novel, the drastic societal alterations affect characters differently depending on their moral values and physical capabilities thus revealing how the country has become too violent and brutal for the men who rely on justice
Throughout the ages, men and women have been at the heart of myths and legends, evolving into tragic heroes in large part due to the embellishment bestowed upon them over the ages. From Odysseus and Achilles to Brutus, Hamlet, and King Lear, epic poems have revolved around the tragic hero. Pat Tillman was a man of many aptitudes and virtues, never satisfied by the mediocre, striving for more adventure, more meaning, in his tragically short time on Earth, and personifying the phrase carpe diem. Even Pat Tillman had tragic flaws; his unwillingness to be typical, his undying loyalty to family and country, and his curiously concrete set of morals amalgamated to set in motion Tillman’s eventual death. These, whatever the outcome might have been, are not by any means, the archetypical tragic flaws. They are, as Jon Krakauer later described, “tragic virtues.” Where Men Win Glory is not solely a tribute to Pat Tillman. What makes it truly unique is its exhaustively comprehensive history preceding Tillman’s death, and equally essential, the events that transpired following his death, including the cover-ups, scandals, corruption, falsified documents, indignities, and lies that facilitated, also, in emphasizing the core themes, of which Tillman was the epitome. Tillman’s fidelity and devotion to the people whom he loved, the use of misinformation and cants surrounding his death, and others’ responses to what Tillman considered paramount in his life all played a key role in the tragedy of a man who won glory.
In “The Thematic Paradigm,” Robert Ray explains how there are two vastly different heroes: the outlaw hero and the official hero. The official hero has common values and traditional beliefs. The outlaw hero has a clear view of right and wrong but unlike the official hero, works above the law. Ray explains how the role of an outlaw hero has many traits. The morals of these heroes can be compared clearly. Films that contain official heroes and outlaw heroes are effective because they promise viewer’s strength, power, intelligence, and authority whether you are above the law or below it.
Because of the outlaw hero’s definitive elements, society more so identifies with this myth. Ray said, “…the scarcity of mature heroes in American...
In "The Thematic Paradigm", Robert Ray explains how there are two distinctly different heroes, the outlaw hero and the official hero. The official hero embraces common values and traditional beliefs, while the outlaw has a clear sense of right and wrong but operates above the law (Ray). Ray explains how the role of an outlaw hero has many traits. "The attractiveness of the outlaw hero's childishness and propensity to whims, tantrums, and emotional decisions derived from America's cult of childhood", states Ray. (309) Ray also says, "To the outlaw hero's inconsistence on private standards of right and wrong, the official hero offered the admonition, you cannot take the law into your own hands." (312) The values of these two traditional heroes contrasts clearly. Society favors the outlaw hero because we identify with that character more. We see ourselves more so in the outlaw hero than in the official hero. The outlaw hero has the "childlike" qualities that most of us wish we had as adults. To civilians it may seem that the outlaw hero lives more of a fantasy life that we all wish to have.
While the bodies pile up in what we call our Nation's Backyard, the rest of the country chooses to deny the facts and to remain blind to the truth. The gruesome statistics, and tales of violence in "The Murder of Thirty of My Neighbors" by Jim Myers has the ability to force just about anyone into understanding the severity of the situation the residents of service area 109, also known as eastern Capitol Hill, are facing. It isn't often that people see or hear about this violent world, partly because they would rather not deal with it and also because the politicians who have the power to do something about it are the ones helping to keep the rest of society ignorant. That is why it is important for someone like Myers to step in and invade the serenity of these ignorant lives and prove that violence and murder are the reality for many people living in America. Myers speaks of the cold-blooded murders, drive-by shootings, robberies, and hate infested streets he sees every day in the place he calls home. He uses these violent facts, blunt statements, and sometimes even sarcasm to convey the seriousness of this matter as well as the reality he and his neighbors have come to accept as normal.