The Way It Ought To Be

Throughout this semester from the texts we have covered in class I have learned numerous amounts of things but some of the themes stuck out more than others and actually spoke to me. After analyzing all notes from the books, movies, and excerpts the connection that I made that seemed the most clear to me was between “Black Elk Speaks” and Shane. These two texts for the class showed me people have dreams; their communities could prosper from if the sacrifices are willing to be made. The dreams could be taken away by those with other beliefs those who come together though with true belief and unity will survive.

Beliefs are what drive people towards what they do, what they believe in defines their character and their character is how other people view them. The quote from the end of the movie Shane, “A man has to be what he is, Joey. Can’t break the mold, I tried and it didn’t work for me.” This meant to me that no matter how hard you try your dream of where you are going or what you want to do is going to be greater than all and you won’t stop striving for it. In Shane, Joe’s dream is to be a successful homesteader living of the fruit of the land providing for his boy Joey and his wife Mary. He envisions that he has the right to live and bring up your family he said, “Families grow like crops, straight and strong.” This means that they are in dire need of the essentials to have even the slightest chance. That chance is all he needs, that is his dream and he is not going to let anything stand in the way of his family and them being healthy and living a good life. Sometimes in times of dire need you need that extended arm of help to aid you in your struggle, and Shane was that for Joe. He came by and once he was treated well after...

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...r life that they needed to survive was at stake. The Indians knew without the fight they couldn’t have survived. Shane had a different type of ending to it though. Shane saw that Joe was willing to give up everything that he had worked so hard to create, his family, community, and his homestead. With this seen by Shane he went back to what he knew he was good at gun fighting. He instead of sending Joe with all of his life at steak he did what was necessary to keep him from going into a suicide mission to end he stepped in instead by knocking Joe out. I found the scene very symbolic because where Joe laid unconscious was next to the very stump that brought their friendship together is the same thing that separated them. Volunteering himself with nothing to lose Shane goes into town and made Joe’s business his own, settles the fiasco with his skills of gun fighting.