The Virginian And O Pioneers: A Literary Analysis

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Historically, the main focus in Western movies and literature is men. The characters were cowboys, cow-punchers, buffalo hunters, farmers, lawman and male Native Americans. Women were represented on the big screen and in literature riding alongside the man on the wagon train, or tending to men at home or on reservations. If women were cast as the protagonist, their characters were domesticated and pious, in charge of conserving family values and religion, or working in the oldest profession. When the plot focused on romance, the female was front and center paying the role of the main character’s love interest. The female protagonists in The Virginian and O Pioneers! did not submit to the will of their environment or the men in their lives; suitors or kin. Whether living on the Great Plains, riding in horse drawn carriages or hoping on railroads to run away from the oppression of their city lives, the female protagonist in these stories were described as steadfast and independent. O Pioneers! and The Virginian recounts the story of two women, the same as far as drive, …show more content…

Molly is self-reliant, responsible, efficient, but somewhat snobbish, and was raised far from a place like the frontier west and the likes of cowboys, ranch hands, and homesteaders. Molly represents the civil order and genteel manners of eastern culture; quite different from the inhabitants of the rugged plains. It is this genteel and civil life that Molly leaves behind. She wishes to be independent and does not wish to marry a very persistent gentleman suitor. So, she accepts a job as schoolmarm and moves to the plains of Bear Creek, Wyoming, where she will learn to adapt to a more rugged life and meet a new suitor, the Virginian, who embodies the rugged life and values of the frontier west. Molly attempts to fulfill her own dreams of independence and

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