The Day The Cowboys Quit, is a historical fiction, based on the cowboy strike of
1883 at old Tascosa in the Texas Panhandle. The strike was the effect of the policies that were beginning to show up in Texas ranching at the time. Small ranchers we’re becoming less and less numerous as the larger ranchers squashed competition through underhanded methods. This book takes place in a time when America was growing and experiencing many changes, especially with regards to businesses.
The large cattle ranches had started to implement many rules which restricted the freedom of the cowboys. Rules such as no drinking, no gambling, no abuse of horses were accepted with little argument. However, there were rules which many of the cowboys objected to. Rules that “forbade the use of a company horse on any private business”(p. 36), or “forbade the keeping of
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After this, Charlie is forced to finally give in and enforce the rules that the other ranchers had agreed on. This led to dissatisfaction and anger among his cowboys. They had decided to strike, the same as the workers of the other ranches. However only about half of them went through with it and actually went on strike.
The cowboy strike in this book has very similar causes to the strikes of the factory workers in the north. As businesses grew bigger and bigger and eliminated competition, they were able to force people to work for very little, and under harsh conditions. In the north they often used their influence in politics to prevent strikes and unions, similarly to the ranchers controlling the sheriffs in almost every county. The transition from cowboys having freedom to just being a wage worker is similar to how skilled workers were becoming less valued in factories as they moved to assembly
Through the period of 1865-1900, America’s agriculture underwent a series of changes .Changes that were a product of influential role that technology, government policy and economic conditions played. To extend on this idea, changes included the increase on exported goods, do the availability of products as well as the improved traveling system of rail roads. In the primate stages of these developing changes, farmers were able to benefit from the product, yet as time passed by, dissatisfaction grew within them. They no longer benefited from the changes (economy went bad), and therefore they no longer supported railroads. Moreover they were discontented with the approach that the government had taken towards the situation.
James B. Weaver illustrates the true damage of monopolies on the public in “A Call to Action” (Document 4). Weaver, a two-time candidate for president of the United States, addresses the meticulous tactics which trusts and monopolies use to increase their profit at the expense of the public and asserts that their main weapons are, ”threats, intimidation, bribery, fraud, wreck, and pillage.” Arguments such as Weaver’s, suggest and end to the end of the laissez-faire capitalism that monopolies are sustained upon. Laissez-faire capitalism is essentially a system where the government takes no position in the affairs of businesses and does not interfere, no matter what harm is being done. This ideology dominated the business world of the century and allowed for vast unemployment, low wages, and impoverishment. Soon, laborers also begin to express their dismay with the way that such businesses are run and the treatment of workers in the railroad industry. An instance of this being the Pullman Strike of 1894. In 1894, laborers went on a nationwide strike against the Pullman Company; they issued a statement regarding their strike in June (Document 6). Workers are repulsed by Pullman’s exertion of power over several institutions and how his greed affects his competitors, who must reduce their wages to keep up with his businesses. This incident inspires many to take
In Fight in the Fields: Cesar Chavez, by Margo Sorenson, two teenagers were not paying attention in history class, and their teacher assigned them Saturday school, pulling weeds. Kenneth and Aleesa weren’t friends, they were caught passing a note to someone. After, they started to work on Saturday, they both drank from a blue water jug, that sent them back in time. To the year 1965, where Cesar Chavez was helping out the field workers get their own union. By putting on a strike against the Schenley Company, who grow grapes in Delano, California, and sold them around the world. While, the teenagers were in the past, they lived and worked with the Lopez’s, Juan, Rosa, and their son Luis. Luis helped Kenneth and Aleesa understand what was happening during that time with the NFWA- National Farm Workers Association and the strike to get the workers a union of their own, and they all joined the NFWA. Which ended in the year 1970 and they were able to go back to their time. Both Kenneth and Aleesa were able to experience the strike first hand, and when they went back home, they wished that they had paid a little bit more attention in class, and that they were going to from then on.
The Transportation Revolution in the 1800s, sparked up industrialization and the building of railroads that stimulated every other industry causing an economic boom known as the Gilded Age. From the outside, America seemed like the place to go to make all your dreams come true. But in reality, in was an era of serious social problems mainly caused by an economy with a free market policy, low tariffs, low taxes, less spending, and a hands-off government. This type of economy would eventually lead to the development of monopolies. These monopolies would then, in turn, lead to worker uprisings ‒caused by the suppression of unions created mostly by unskilled workers‒ that would contribute to the rapid rise and downfall of America. An example of this suppression is the Homestead Strike of 1892; due to hostility created by the unions, the employer fired all the workers, and rehired them on the basis that there would not be any more unions. After the workers started working again, the conditions were still unbearable, so the workers shut down the facility. The police got involved, the workers were pushed back, and the facility was reopened union free.
In the book there is some physical and social limitations placed on the working-class. For example Crook he is an african american and he is crippled because when he was little he got kicked in the back by a horse. For these reason he is isolated away from the other people that work on the ranch. It impacts the class because it helps the go and look for companionship even though back then it was not okay for african americans to talk to white people because of their skin color. In addition Candy another worker that lives on the ranch lost his hand. He lost it in the machine while working on the ranch. For this reason he thinks they only keep him around because he got hurt their but when he can’t do no more work he is gonna have to leave. They
Ever since he was a sixteen year old boy, Grady longed to follow in his grandfather’s footsteps into becoming a cowboy. He lives life according to the code which is valuing honor and loyalty. He loves the ardency in horses and the cowboy lifestyle. Grady also valued the ardency that was in his grandfather. He was raised on his grandfather’s ranch, which his mother sold after his grandfather’s death. After the ranch was sold Grady felt the need to move because he no longer felt an attachment to Texas while still trying to be faithful to the cowboy code, so he went to Mexico to find what went “missing” in his hometown.
...er and roam. In this vast land uninhabited between the United States and Mexico, John Grady encounter three men. “The man studied his eyes in the firelight” (McCarthy 281), looking for truth and honesty. This is who John Grady wanted to be. “Men of the country” (McCarthy 281). This was John Grady’s dream, his quest, laid out physically in front of him, but a struggle is created from the dream-like image of these men and the reality of becoming these men, although, John Grady has yet to reach this point. As the curtains close, John Grady rides off into the sunset, into vast plains, searching for the ideal qualities of a cowboy he will never find because of the unrealistic nature of his fantasy. For John Grady to live the dream, conflict between reality and fantasy leads to pain, suffering and darkens, forcing John Grady on a never-ending search for his fantasy.
In reading “All the pretty horses” by Cormac McCarthy, we are introduced to the protagonist John Grady Cole. At the beginning of the story, John Grady is attending his grandfathers funeral in the ranch that he now shares with his mother. John Grady Cole, grew up in world where being a cowboy meant freedom and a ever growing relationship with the one thing he cared about more than anything… horses. The story seems to unravel in the early 1950s when the old west began to evolve to the new ways of the west and the definition of what made a man a cowboy increasingly blurred. As the story evolves, it becomes evident that the selling of his grandfather’s ranch leaves Grady feeling adrift and incomplete. Henceforth, he deicides to set foot on his own and find a new place to call his home. We see that the loss of his grandfathers ranch and the passing of the old west he knew, serves as a reflection of how John Grady’s character attempts to maintain this cowboy lifestyle that he witnessed growing up . John Grady Cole’s character tough young, serves as a hero in his journey of becoming a man. Combined with his passion and idealistic mentality, his love for horses and the open plains of Texas/Mexico sets him off into new adventures. Realizing that each scenario encountered paves the way towards a journey of harsh reality, this story serves as one of growth and the passionate search of the old cowboy life. Grady sets out on a journey to Mexico with his comrade Rawlins riding off into the sun with hopes of finding a new home; they rode in hopes of regaining their sense of beloning.
The lack of government intervention was causing major issues and uprisings throughout the 1900’s. Places like Packingtown took advantage of the limited regulations enforced by the government and tried to maximize their profits. This led to many problems for the workers in the factory and the meat consumers. First of all, there were very long working hours. A typical day at that time consisted of a
For many Americans, the image of the cowboy evokes pleasant nostalgia of a time gone by, when cowboys roamed free. The Cowboy is, to many Americans, the ideal American, who was quick to the draw, well skilled in his profession, and yet minded his own business. Regardless of whether the mental picture that the word cowboy evokes is a correct or incorrect view of the vocation, one seldom views cowboys as being black. The first cowboy I met was from Texas and was black. After he told me that he was a cowboy, I told him that he had to be kidding. Unfortunately, I was not totally to blame for my inability to recognize that color has nothing to do with the cowboy profession; most if not all popular famous images of cowboys are white. In general, even today, blacks are excluded from the popular depiction of famous Westerners. Black cowboys were unheard of for almost a century after they made their mark on the cattle herding trade, not because they were insignificant, but because history fell victim to prejudice, and forgot peoples of color in popular depictions of the West and Western history.
Thousand of families flooded to California just so they could feed their families, but by showing the treatment the landowners show to these families, or lack thereof, Steinbeck points to the fact that they don't even plan on letting them eat, and that money is the only thing they're really worrying about. When explaining to his family that Jim Casy had gone on strike because of the poor wages, Tom says, "Yeah. What we was a-doin' was breakin' strike. They give them fellas two an' a half cents." Pa responds, "You can't eat on that." When their outlook gets so desperate, the first priority is to feed their families and hope for better times. By showing these small, seemingly insignificant, noble acts, Steinbeck shows the determination of these families to press on. The poor wages set by the landowners show that they, the landowners, care nothing for the families even in their destitution. With such low wages set, the landowners are alienating these poor families and giving reason for hostilities. This form of alienation demonstrates that these landowners plan on keeping every penny they possible can. With lower wages paid to more workers, things get done quicker while the rich can keep their pockets lined.
The horses are kicking, jumping, bucking, frightened by the loud pop of the fireworks and woohing of the crowd. A black broncho had fallen rolling in fear on the hard and cold ground. A beautiful white mustang is rearing up, fighting the restraint of a lead rope clutched tightly in two cowboys’ hands. They try vigorously to escape the hands of the cowboys. A thick cloud of dust surrounds them, flying up in their eyes, blinding them from their vicinity. This was Jack's chance, his chance to win. It is the 4th of July, 1935 and the Wild Horse Race is taking place. Each man wanting the same thing, victory. Being in such depressing times they all need a little boost of spirits in their lives. This was a way of showing that they would not let the times they were in get the best of them. Men from all over the county came to compete in this race. The cash prize was small, but in their position everything counted to them.
Over the years, the idea of the western frontier of American history has been unjustly and falsely romanticized by the movie, novel, and television industries. People now believe the west to have been populated by gun-slinging cowboys wearing ten gallon hats who rode off on capricious, idealistic adventures. Not only is this perception of the west far from the truth, but no mention of the atrocities of Indian massacre, avarice, and ill-advised, often deceptive, government programs is even present in the average citizen’s understanding of the frontier. This misunderstanding of the west is epitomized by the statement, “Frederick Jackson Turner’s frontier thesis was as real as the myth of the west. The development of the west was, in fact, A Century of Dishonor.” The frontier thesis, which Turner proposed in 1893 at the World’s Columbian Exposition, viewed the frontier as the sole preserver of the American psyche of democracy and republicanism by compelling Americans to conquer and to settle new areas. This thesis gives a somewhat quixotic explanation of expansion, as opposed to Helen Hunt Jackson’s book, A Century of Dishonor, which truly portrays the settlement of the west as a pattern of cruelty and conceit. Thus, the frontier thesis, offered first in The Significance of the Frontier in American History, is, in fact, false, like the myth of the west. Many historians, however, have attempted to debunk the mythology of the west. Specifically, these historians have refuted the common beliefs that cattle ranging was accepted as legal by the government, that the said business was profitable, that cattle herders were completely independent from any outside influence, and that anyone could become a cattle herder.
McCarthy’s plot is built around a teenage boy, John Grady, who has great passion for a cowboy life. At the age of seventeen he begins to depict himself as a unique individual who is ambitious to fulfill his dream life – the life of free will, under the sun and starlit nights. Unfortunately, his ambition is at odds with the societal etiquettes. He initiates his adventurous life in his homeland when he futilely endeavors to seize his grandfather’s legacy - the ranch. John Grady fails to appreciate a naked truth that, society plays a big role in his life than he could have possibly imagined. His own mother is the first one to strive to dictate his life. “Anyway you’re sixteen years old, you can’t run the ranch…you are being ridiculers. You have to go to school” she said, wiping out any hopes of him owning the ranch (p.15). Undoubtedly Grady is being restrained to explore his dreams, as the world around him intuitively assumes that he ought to tag along the c...
Those very same wealthy ranchers want to take away the right for cowboys to own their own cattle because they feel that the cowboys can’t be trusted. In the Story we meet the main character Hugh Hitcock and his friends Rascal and Law McGinty who all work for another friend name Charlie who owned the W ranch. In the old days, being a cattle owner and rancher was a quick way to get wealthy. Hugh Hitchcock and his friends were prohibited to own their own cattle because of the corporation and bankers got involved in the beef market. They slowly was stripped down from the things they had long considered birthrights. Their wages was a unsubstantial amount and suffer exploitation by being forced to work long