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AKE 223 American West

Mythical West Created by People for Their Own Benefits

            Today almost everybody is familiar to American West in a way. One way or another people watch, read, or listen about western America and main stars of it. When a person is asked about what she or he knows about the Wild West or American west, one of the first thing is cowboys or something related to cowboys. But it is important that in what ways that person depicts the cowboy. In 21^st century what people think or know about cowboy’s are mostly nothing but myth. Owing to novels, magazines, news, and finally Hollywood movies about cowboys make their depiction mythical in time. So today when it comes to any topic about American West or Wild West, the cowboy depiction which occurs in people’s mind is not a real depiction but a mythical depiction of it. And these kinds of depictions were created by people who wanted to benefit from it.

            First of all to talk about mythical image of cowboys and Wild West of America we should know what a myth literally means. It is stated in Oxford dictionary “a traditional story, especially one concerning the early history of a people or explaining a natural or social phenomenon, and typically involving supernatural beings or events” (Myth). And Richard Slotkin explains that myth “is the primary language of historical memory: a body of traditional stories that have over time, been used to summarize the course of our collective history and to assign ideological meanings to that history” (Slotkin, Richard).

As a matter of fact myth is a cultural tool which represents fears and expectation of that culture which bonds a society together with common stories and archetypal figures. About the use of myth in modern societies, Jack Lule writes “although modern societies believe they have replaced myth and ritual with science and technology, myth is indispensable for human understanding of the world” (Lule, Jack). To ignore a myth as nothing more than fanciful tale is a prevalent mistake. In reality, myths generally have some sort of historical origin but over time that knowledge can go through a process of “fictional elaboration” (Slotkin, Richard) in which properties of the event or person are exaggerated and thus, history becomes mythical.

            But why do people create things such mythical characters and stories? Actually it is a mixture of a little bit of nationalism, a little bit of local culture, and a little bit of self-interest. Up to now on people created many myths all around the world some of them were just natives who wanted to feel more elated about their history, some were people who wanted to profit from this myth. If topic is American West, it is generally people who tried to profit or capitalize on these myths.

            To realize and understand this cowboy myth, real characteristics of a cowboy must be known. Starting with cowboy’s literally meaning “a man who rides a horse and whose job is to take care of cattle in the western parts of the U.S.”(Cowboy). It is stated “ the tasks associated with the range cattle industry-rounding up cows, branding calves, castrating bulls, breaking horses, and trail drives to railheads or northern pastures- required youth, strength, endurance, and cool courage.”(Goldstock, David).And they were bowlegged because of horse driving so long.

 So they were nothing but young males, who were strong enough to deal with cattle and the harsh conditions of the wilderness. Most of them were living alone since they must have spent most of their time with cattle in wilderness and cattle towns, only a few of them were living with families who works in little towns. Actually it was Spanish people who introduced horses to other people in North America. In time American people combined their own styles and techniques with Spanish style and they created what we call cowboy literally.

Betzwood Cowboys, 1914.

According to David Courtwright “The expansion of the range cattle industry reached its peak in 1885, with perhaps 7.5 million head feeding on the Great Plains north of Texas and New Mexico. The industry thereafter rapidly declined owing to a combination of overgrazing, harsh winters, westward expansion of farming, and barbed-wire fences.”(Courthwrite, David).

 Cowboys were alone during the drive, to protect themselves against wild animals and thefts most of them had gun. But during those times there were many accidents because of many cowboys who used guns without any basic training as it is written “but whatever the cowboys’ gun bought in the way of deterrence and emergency use was paid for by an increase in accidental death and injury”(Goldstock, Ronald). And they were earning approximately $50 per drive and those drives lasted almost a month. This actually was a good wage for that time but none of cowboys were economizer enough to keep the money and live an easy and pleasant life.

Most of them spent their money on gambling, alcohol and woman until the next drive. “When these ricketyyoung men rode into town they hit the saloons, false-fronted palaces full of smoke, gamblers, tubercle, bacilli, and spittoons. There they used their hard-earned wages to treat themselves and their comrades to round and round of drinks, or what they took to be drinks…. The end of trail binges often ended in the red-light district…. Cowboys were equally avid customers of cattle-town prostitutes…” (Courthwrite, David)

 It is crystal clear that basic job is to take care of cattle and to earn money by doing this. In fact cowboys were generally young drunk male who worked for a low price and spent it for drink, game and woman.  How and why did people create a mythical image of cowboy? The answer is mostly people who have a profit from these kinds of images. As these mythical images were used in theatrical shows, TV series, cartoons, and some presidential candidates used it for their own benefit.

            To talk about these mythical cowboy images, the date should return to 19^th century since one of the earliest depiction of Western America and cowboy image occurred in that era, besides all tales of cowboys which were created by society, those were created by a person to benefit from them and at first it was more like in a theatrical sense. Buffalo Bill’s Wild West Shows were its first depictions. William Fredrick Cody presented those shows to earn money and attract more people to come to West. He characterized himself and many cowboys as heroic characters who deal with harsh nature, natives and wild animals. According to Eric V. Sorg “More dime novels were written about him than any other western character, and he mythologized himself as hero of his Wild West show. Like the West itself, the man was a product of the long legacy of romantic thought about the frontier.”(Sorg, Eric). Cowboys were depicted as protectors and heroes of the west who fight with savage natives, and get control of many wild animals by doing several tricks.

                                        

Buffalo Bill’s Wild West Show, 1902.

            After Buffalo Bill’s show in the early 19^th century western movie sector has started to make movies about Western America and cowboys. It was only the beginning of a new genre in movie industry. It was stated in a newspaper as: “Westerns and western stars are still the backbone of the movie industry. When our cireuses found business slip-ping, it was the old Wild West show that brought back the crowds”(western most profitable move). There are several movies of which total grosses are in the list of Best Rentals and Grosses of American Movies which written in American Movies: Top 5 Box Office Hits, 1939 to 1988  (in terms of box office gross ticket sales in U.S. theaters). West side story of 1962 is second with $19,645,570, How the West Was Won of 1963 is the first with $20,932,883, Midnight Cowboy is the third with $20,499,282, and there are many films as Wild Wild West, The Good, The Bad and The Ugly which are really famous at the same time.

            Not only the movies were made but also cartoons. There are many cartoons which have a part to do with creation of mythical cowboy image. Some of them are Marshall BraveStarr is an American Space Western animated television series. Lucky Luke Set in the American Old West, it stars the titular character, Lucky Luke, the cowboy known to “shoot faster than his shadow”. His name is inspired by that of Luciano Locarno, an Italian American sheriff who lived between 1860 and 1940. Desperate Dan is apparently the world’s strongest man, able to lift a cow with one hand. The pillow of his (reinforced) bed is filled with building rubble and his beard is so tough he shaves with a blowtorch. Yosemite Sam is commonly depicted as an extremely grouchy gunslinging prospector, outlaw, pirate, or cowboy with a hair-trigger temper. And Woddy is a stuffed cowboy character that leads the other toys in adventures in the movies.

            As it is mentioned in the essay there is a huge gap between real cowboys, their life, styles, conditions and mythical cowboy’s life, style. Cowboys who lived in late 19^th century were men who tried to earn their money with hard conditions and then most of them wasted their money with alcohol and women, but cowboys who are depicted as mythical hero were and still are the ones who generally work for not only money but also for people to save them and to put things into an order. And one of the main reason which led these mythical cowboy depictions is developed out of human interest.

Work Cited

Courtwright, David. Violent Land: Single Men and Social Disorder from the Frontier to the         Inner City. Harvard University Press, 1998. Print.

“Cowboy.”. New Oxford American Dictionary. Eds. Angus Stevenson, Christine A.            Lindberg. Oxford University Press, 2010. Print.

Goldstock, Ronald. Guns in America, A Reader. Ed. Jan E. Dizard. New York: New York  University         Press, 1999. Print.

Lule, Jack. "Myth and Terror on the Editorial Page: The New York Times Responds to          September 11, 2001." Journalism and Mass Communications Quarterly. 2nd ed.:  2002. 275-293.

“Myth.” New Oxford American Dictionary. Eds. Angus Stevenson, Christine A. Lindberg.   Oxford University Press, 2010. Print.

Slotkin, Richard. "Myth and the Production of History." Ideology and Classic American       Literature. Eds. Sacvan Berkovitch and Myra Jehlen. Cambridge: Cambridge   University Press, 1987. 70-81.

Sorg, Eric. Buffalo Bill: Myth & Reality. Santa Fe: Ancient City Press. 1998.

"WESTERN MOST PROFITABLE MOVIE." Morning Bulletin. Rockhampton, Qld., 2 Aug          1950: 9. Web. 25 Dec 2013 <http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article56952311>.