Journeying across America from Philadelphia to San Francisco, Avram, a Polish rabbi, finds himself in the role of the hero in the 1979 Western parody, The Frisco Kid. As the film’s protagonist, he is tasked with leading a Jewish community over 6,000 miles away in San Francisco, continually acting in a manner consistent with irrationality due to his lack of knowledge of American cultural norms. As he travels across America, he continually finds himself in trouble with thieves, the law, and Native Americans, yet escapes each trial with unwavering persistence and a steady religious devotion. Set in the mid 1800’s, at the height of the American “Wild West” era, the film serves as a parody of the traditional Western hero, substituting an inexperienced, …show more content…
The Frisco Kid depicts the journey of an ignorant outsider in an unfamiliar world, critiquing the traditional Western hero by placing great emphasis on his religious piety, indicating success is attained through blind faith rather than pragmatic action. Avram’s success along his journey comes despite his general gullibility and cluelessness of American cultural norms. Although these traits may seem counterintuitive to achieving one’s goals along the western frontier, Avram asserts himself as an untraditional hero, proving these traits are requisites for his success. Tasked with leading a newly formed Jewish congregation in San Francisco, Avram must travel nearly 6,000 miles to find his new home. Having completed rabbinical school in Poland, he knows hardly anything about America, and aside from his ability to speak English, has no real skills to help him adapt to the new world he is thrown into. But, these are exactly the traits that allow him to accomplish his two goals of reaching San Francisco to lead his new congregation, and delivering the Torah (in a complete state) to said congregation. For …show more content…
As a devout Jew, Avram strictly abides by Jewish law, even when these practices are not convenient for him. For example, following Tommy’s bank robbery, as the two are chased by the townspeople, Avram refuses to ride his horse as it is the Sabbath, and would be unlawful for him to do so (59:45). Here, his innocence comes into play once again, as he is likely unaware of the hanging that awaits him if the mob catches up to him. But, even though he may not know the full extent of it, he knows there is danger if the crowd were to catch him, but places religious devotion over his own well being. Nowhere to be found is the classic “singing cowboy in the style of Gene Autry or Roy Rogers, portraying the “masculine image of the Western hero,” (49) the viewer only left with an inexperienced and stubborn rabbi to satisfy the role of hero. Later on, when Tommy peers of the cliff, and sees the search party nearing in the distance, he sprints back to Avram and the horses, urgent to ride on. Each man running with his horse, Tommy loudly questions “NOW?” pleading Avram to put his beliefs aside and ride on to safety. However, Avram stays strong as the camera jumps back and forth between the two men and the setting sun, representative of when Avram can ride his horse again. Once the sun is just barely visible over the crest of the mountain
The setting of the essay is Los Angeles in the 1800’s during the Wild West era, and the protagonist of the story is the brave Don Antonio. One example of LA’s Wild West portrayal is that LA has “soft, rolling, treeless hills and valleys, between which the Los Angeles River now takes its shilly-shallying course seaward, were forest slopes and meadows, with lakes great and small. This abundance of trees, with shining waters playing among them, added to the limitless bloom of the plains and the splendor of the snow-topped mountains, must have made the whole region indeed a paradise” (Jackson 2). In the 1800’s, LA is not the same developed city as today. LA is an undeveloped land with impressive scenery that provides Wild West imagery. One characteristic of the Wild West is the sheer commotion and imagery of this is provided on “the first breaking out of hostilities between California and the United States, Don Antonio took command of a company of Los Angeles volunteers to repel the intruders” (15). This sheer commotion is one of methods of Wild West imagery Jackson
He has endured and overcame many fears and struggles, but during this section, we truly acquire an insight of what the little boy is actually like – his thoughts, his opinions, his personality. Contrary to his surroundings, the little boy is vibrant and almost the only lively thing around. I love him! He is awfully appalled by the “bad guys” and shockingly sympathetic toward dead people. For example, when the father raided a house and found food, the little boy suggested that they should thank them because even though they’re dead or gone, without them, the little boy and father would starve. My heart goes out to him because he is enduring things little boys should never go through, even if this novel is just a fictional
The main character, Tom Tin, faces hardships and struggles many fourteen year olds do not have to face so early on. His father has mistakenly got himself into trouble and it is up to Tom to save his father and help make his family’s future bright again. Tom has good intentions throughout the novel, but he gets himself into trouble. He turns out to be an unlikely hero after pushing through his doubts and finally triumphing over his mistakes along his journey.
Cormac McCarthy was wise in choosing the Southwest as the setting for a novel of unprecedented bloodshed. No other land would have done McCarthy’s ideas justice, given that only the Southwest harbored such wanton violence. A ...
In Sherman Alexie’s “This Is What It Means to Say Phoenix, Arizona” and “Dead Men’s Path”, the reader is given a glimpse into two different stories but share many similar characteristics of traditions. Tradition is the handing down of statements, beliefs, legends, customs, information and cultures within a group of people from generation to generation. However, these two stories will reveal that the protagonists in these stories, Michael from “Dead Men’s Path” and Victor from “This Is What It Means to Say Phoenix, Arizona,” will ignore their own traditions that they face throughout the story. In other words, the protagonists are westernized and have forgotten their own culture, which reflects the theory of the melting pot. The ignorance of ancestry and traditions brings the worst fates into the lives of the protagonists in each story.
Lyon, Peter. The wild, Wild West; for the discriminating reader. New York, Funk and Wagnalls, 1969.
The image of the cowboy as Jennifer Moskowitz notes in her article “The Cultural Myth of the Cowboy, or, How the West was Won” is “uniquely
The story is an Eastern take on the Hollywood western with a dash of satire,
The notion Grossman sculpts in her article is part Frederick Remington, part Sea of Galilee. Indeed, “[f]undamentally, it’s an attitude, whether you ride a bronc or a computer keyboard“ (Grossman 1D). The cowboy church movement seems to cut in on a growing herd of believers in America who seem to think that the values of the church as it should be are undermined by the very urbanity, the very sophistication that has come to characterize modern life and popular culture. They seek their solace in The West, in a picture - however mythological it may be - of a simpler way of life. This is a phenomenon, after all, that exists simultaneously with ranchers who hang cell phones where their six-shooter used to be, who use multi-tools to mend fences and all-terrain vehicles to run down stray livestock.
Children are seen as adorable, fun loving, and hard to control. Ida Fink uses a child in “The Key Game” to be the key to this family’s life. The setting is placed during the start of World War II; Jews all around were being taken. Fink uses a boy who doesn’t look the traditional Jewish, “And their chubby, blue-eyed, three-year-old child” (Fink). As they read on the emotional connection is stronger because there is a face to go with this character. Fink draws a reader in by making connections to a family member the reader may know. A blue-eyed, chubby child is the picture child of America. A child in any story makes readers more attached especially if they have children of their own. The child is three way too young to be responsible for the safety of the father, yet has to be. Throughout the story, we see how the mother struggles with making her child play the game because no child should be responsible like
Few Hollywood film makers have captured America’s Wild West history as depicted in the movies, Rio Bravo and El Dorado. Most Western movies had fairly simple but very similar plots, including personal conflicts, land rights, crimes and of course, failed romances that typically led to drinking more alcoholic beverages than could respectfully be consumed by any one person, as they attempted to drown their sorrows away. The 1958 Rio Bravo and 1967 El Dorado Western movies directed by Howard Hawks, and starring John Wayne have a similar theme and plot. They tell the story of a sheriff and three of his deputies, as they stand alone against adversity in the name of the law. Western movies like these two have forever left a memorable and lasting impressions in the memory of every viewer, with its gunfighters, action filled saloons and sardonic showdowns all in the name of masculinity, revenge and unlawful aggressive behavior. Featuring some of the most famous backdrops in the world ranging from the rustic Red Rock Mountains of Monument Valley in Utah, to the jagged snow capped Mountain tops of the Teton Range in Wyoming, gun-slinging cowboys out in search of mischief and most often at their own misfortune traveled far and wide, seeking one dangerous encounter after another, and unfortunately, ending in their own demise.
The author, Sherman Alexie, is extremely effective through his use of ethos and ethical appeals. By sharing his own story of a sad, poor, indian boy, simply turning into something great. He establishes his authority and character to the audiences someone the reader can trust. “A little indian boy teaches himself to read at an early age and advances quickly…If he’d been anything but an Indian boy living in the reservations, he might have been called a prodigy.” Alexie mentions these two different ideas to show that he did have struggles and also to give the audience a chance to connect with his struggles and hopefully follow the same journey in becoming something great. By displaying his complications and struggles in life with stereotypical facts, Alexie is effective as the speaker because he has lived the live of the intended primary audience he is trying to encourage which would be young Indian
Nordheimer, J. (1978, December 10). All-American Boy on Trail. New York Times [New York], p. 1.
Because of the outlaw hero’s definitive elements, society more so identifies with this myth. Ray said, “…the scarcity of mature heroes in American...
Alexie Sherman’s, “The Lone Ranger and Tonto Fistfight in Heaven” displays the complications and occasional distress in the relationship between Native-American people and the United States. Despite being aboriginal inhabitants of America, even in present day United States there is still tension between the rest of the country, specifically mainstream white America, and the Native-American population. Several issues regarding the treatment of Native-Americans are major problems presently. Throughout the narrative, several important symbols are mentioned. The title itself represents the struggles between mainstream America and Native-Americans. The theme of racism, violence, and prejudice is apparent throughout the story. Although the author