Analysis Of The Western Film 'The Searchers'

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During the 18th century, an artistic movement developed called “ The Castas Paintings” which described and categorized in an artistic manner the racial combination of people and its outcomes in the New World (Latin America). The Spaniard’s socio-racial ideas spread and influenced North America where Ford’s western film “The Searchers”, represented people’s attitudes against other races at that time. The film mainly depicts Ethan’s obsession with the kidnapped niece Debbie, as again embodying the obsession and control of the woman’s body as a ground zero for interracial sex. The mentality played by the film’s characters can easily be related and compared with the society in the New Spain. The Castas chart can describe Debbie’s role in the film as well as explaining Ethan’s attitude and desire to kill his niece after it was clear that she had become an Indian. John Ford’s film, “The Searchers”, chronicles a man’s obsessive quest of an Indian tribe who murdered his sister’s family and kidnapped his little niece. The Searchers was not different from other western films …show more content…

The immigration of the European white women was not as much as men during colonization in the new world. The few women that immigrated held a high social status and did not mix with non-whites. In consequence, the scarcity of white women, contrasted with the availability of indigenous women. This is how the Castas Chart took place to describe all possible combinations of races and outcomes without including the white woman. The society during colonization reinforced their ideals of white supremacy by the concept of superiority expressed in Spanish as “Limpieza de Sangre”. White women were not allowed to marry or to sexually encounter with a non-white man. This is the reason why the Castas chart did not include nor represent the white woman in their

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