The Western Formula Essay -- essays research papers

A seemingly traditional approach towards the westerly frontier is the reason for John Caweltis assessment from The Six-Gun Mystique. His description of the Western manifestation being far easier to define than that of the detective story may clearly be a paradigm for many authors, but not curiously for Stephen crane. The standards Cawelti has set forth for a successful Western is quite minimal by thought, but at the same time relevant. Crane signifies a different perspective to these standards. Cranes thoughts for the use of the Western expression are just approaches towards the west, from the introductory setting to the coarse grin one cowboy would make towards another. These do not in position assort to Caweltis Western formula. Cranes deviation from the formula western signifies his deeper approach towards issues such as human existence and morality&8212the ethical code that we follow for success. Crane possibly does this because he personally finds more signifi bottom of the inningce in the inner meaning of an issue rather than its surfacing argument.Caweltis Western formula holds a strong premiss that men are assertive and women are insignificant. He is standardizing the black and white of the West. There is an unequivocal struggle between good and evil&8212and guns and violence can only solve that. Jane Tompkins standpoint on a Western seems to be a middle ground between Cawelti and Crane. She recognizes that violence is a central account to a Western, but as well explains how we think of violence. In this day of age, we as a society have prohibited violence as a means of solving problems&8212Crane does not directly follow this in his stories, but definitely questions it. Cawelti on the other hand marks violence as the only answer&8212another black and white circumstance. This radical discrepancy between the sense of eroding masculinity and the view of America as a great history of men against the wilderness has created the need for a means of symbolic expression of masculine potency in an unmistakable way. This means is the gun, particularly the six-gun (Crane 299). Tompkins makes us aware that a stereotypical Western will hold two men as the key factors and a struggle between them. Where Crane tries describing macho cowboys in The Bride Comes to Yellow Sky, he directs more of the theme towards the role of a woman and how it plays agains... ...r, no struggle between evil and good contradicts the formula western. This was not a black and white, hero and villain situation, rather an annoyance. The entire story had complete irrelevance to a stereotypical Western except for the fact that there were three daughters of the hotel owner, Scully, and they made food. That could be the only potential relation to Caweltis feel on womens insignificance.It seems that Tompkins is the interpreter between Crane and Cawelti. Cawelti defines the standards and Crane seems to contradict them. Tompkins jumps in and explains what Crane has do ne and why it is not done like Cawelti. Now she does not directly acknowledge either writer, but clearly works for both. So rather of offering you a moral, I call your attention to a moment of righteous ecstasy, the moment when you know you have the moral advantage of your adversary, the moment of murderousness. Its a moment when theres still time top stop. Theres still time to reflect, theres still time to recall what happened in High Noon, theres still time to say I dont condole with whos right or whos wrong. There has to be some better way to live (Tompkins 239).