The definition of an outlaw is “One that is unconventional or rebellious”. Billy the Kid and Jesse James were two notorious outlaws, both icons of the Wild West. Billy the kid, a hard headed criminal with no mercy, a ruthless killer that so many men and women were afraid of became a problem that the law could not put up with. On the other hand Jesse James became an organized crime boss that tried to strike it rich by rebelling against the North. Jesse James also became a large problem to the law. Both men had a story to tell, two different stories that when compared, are not very different at all.
Billy the Kid, originally William Henry McCarty Jr., was born in New York, New York on November 23, 1859. William also went under many other names such as William H Bonney, Henry Antrim, Henry McCourty, and The Kid. There was so much confusion about his name because his mother remarried a man named William Antrim and Billy took his last name. Henry adopted the name but the family began calling him Billy to stop the confusion. Billy began his life of crime when he was caught stealing butter from a rancher but had gotten away with no punishment. Yet he did not stop at stealing. He got into a bar fight one night in a saloon. The 5 foot 6 boy was getting beat to a pulp when he finally pulled a revolver and shot the bully till he lay lifeless on the bar floor. Billy was captured, and under the charge of murder, he ditched the guardhouse and went on the run. This was when he became an outlaw. He arrived at Lincoln County, New Mexico and got a job from a man named John Tunstall and his life began to look better. But, a merchant and cattleman named James J. Dolan, who essentially ran the show down in Lincoln County, started causing problems. Jam...
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... cold killers, gunning down anyone in their way. These men, even if they made bad decisions, tried to live an honest life but they just could not stay away from robbing, killing, and running.
Jesse James and Billy the Kid are almost perfect examples for the definition of outlaw. Billy and Jesse lead a life of defiance, always running from the law, their lives clinging to existence, hoping death was not a breath away While running from a governor or robbing a bank, both Billy and Jesse were not the type of men that stop and smell the flowers. It is hard to think that these two men were proud of all they had done, but their choices lead them to become legends and icons of the wild wild west, and their fast lives created senerios in the minds of young and old people everywhere. Their stories were embedded in the history of America, stories of two not so different men.
A preacher’s son becomes one of the most wanted outlaws that ever lived. Jesse James was one of the toughest outlaws in the old west. Jesse committed lots of crimes most say it was to get revenge on the union soldiers for the cruel treatment him and his family received. He went from guerilla warfare to running with bloody bill and killing whatever got in there way. Jesse James grew up on a small farm, joined the army, and became one of the biggest outlaws of all time.
Comparing LeBron James and Michael Jordan is like comparing apples and oranges. It just isn’t a fair comparison. There are too many differences. There are too many variables. There are too many fallacies that are involved to make a fair assessment to determine who the greatest basketball player of all time is. Unfortunately the comparison is being made seemingly every day, and the article by Mr. Mathis is full of fallacious material. His extreme uses of exaggeration and card stacking, along with many harsh examples of hasty generalizations, makes a claim that Michael Jordan is and always will be the greatest player to play basketball. An opinion is simply and opinion and anyone is entitled to their opinion, but using fallacies to formulate his response to the issue makes it too finite and too biased in favor of Michael Jordan.
... Later the grave was robbed, the pistol and jewelry were gone. In the legendary period of American history known as the Old West, the law of the whole nation had yet to tame that frontier, which was spottily settled. This resulted in lawlessness seen in the personage of those known as outlaws and lawbreakers whose notorious reputations often exceeded their very person to mythical proportions. Belle Starr was one such outlaw.
Jesse Woodson James was viewed in two ways; a modern Robin Hood and a killer. He was born in Kearney, Missouri on September 5, 1847. Some people say it was the cruel treatment from Union soldiers that turned Frank and Jesse to a life of crime during the Civil War. During the Civil War, at age 15, he joined Quantrill's Raiders, a group of pro-Confederate guerillas. He was part of the Centralia massacre in 1864. He is also known to have been a spy for the rebel army.
In “The Thematic Paradigm,” University of Florida professor of film studies, Robert Ray, defines two types of heroes pervading American films, the outlaw hero and the official hero. Often the two types are merged in a reconciliatory pattern, he argues. In fact, this
There is a thin line that exists between the depiction of a villain and a gangster that Hollywood has mastered walking on. While villains and gangsters may do many of the same things in movies, like stealing and killing, they each do them for different reasons. Villains enjoy crime because that is what gets them off; some may feel they are doing society a favor, like Uncle Charlie in Hitchcock’s Shadow of a Doubt, and others are more simply portrayed as naturally evil or mentally ill. But Gangsters are doing what they do for something American society can relate to—to make a living and, ultimately, get to the top.
The next factor contributing to the lawlessness and violence in the West is social factors. The very lawlessness of the West attracted characters with an aggressive back round. For example, the famous outlaw brothers, Frank and Jesse James, were examples of men who had been educated in guerilla warfare, by the confederate, (southern) army, throughout the American civil war. An additional example is that some men, such as the brutal murderer Bill Longely made no such excuses for themselves. Lonely just reveled in the lawless existence of the West.
Billy and Wyatt are heroes on a quest searching for something missing in their lives, performing a spiritual deed. In the case of Easy Rider, the “something” they are looking is not just a good time, but also freedom from a conventional life. Although they are heroes, Billy and Wyatt are not your traditional heroes. Liberal counter-culture in the United States was very prominent in the 1960s, and both main characters personify that culture. Some would argue that the hippies were the enemy back in that time, so to say that they were truly representative of being in the moral right like most heroes would be ill-advised.
Clyde Chestnut Barrow was born on March 24, 1909, into a family of four children. Ironically, when the midwife told a local physician of his birth, the physician incorrectly recorded it as “baby girl Barrow'; in the Vital Statistics volume of the Ellis County Courthouse at Waxahachie. Three additional children followed Clyde’s birth, and the families financial difficulties worsened as the price for cotton bounced up and down. After some years, the Barrow’s found it impossible to provide for their children and sent them to live with relatives in east Texas. At one relatives home, Clyde developed two interests that remained with him to the end of his life: a passion for music, and an obsession with guns.
“When the legend becomes fact, print the legend,” this single quote by the newspaper editor Maxwell Scott (Carlton Young), utters throughout the whole film on what Ford is trying to get across. The whole film tells of a lively era that is so deep in the roots of American history, but we seem to lose sight of that in the here and now. The standard critical approach to Liberty Valance has been to emphasize the contrasts between its two worlds, the old and the new, and to characterize it as celebrating the mythic western frontier and remember its passing by the industrialized times it had to give in to. John Ford brought back that view in his westerns, and although it was the last film with the duo of Ford and Wayne, it can now be referred to as a classical tale of fact and legend.
Buffalo Bill was one of the most interesting figures of the old west, and the best known spokesman of the new west. Buffalo Bill was born in 1846 and his real name was William Frederick Cody. Cody was many things. He was a trapper, bullwhacker, Colorado 'Fifty-Niner';, Pony Express rider, Civil War soldier, wagonmaster, stagecoach driver, and even a manager of a hotel. He changed his name to Buffalo Bill sometime in his early twenties for his skill while supplying railroad workers with buffalo meat. He would soon begin his career as one of the most famous prairie scouts of the Indian Wars.
Ralph, P.H.(1997). From Self Preservation to Organized Crime: The Evolution of Inmate Gangs. In J.W. Marquart, & J.R. Sorensen (Eds.). Correctional Contexts: Contemporary and Classical Readings (pp. 182-186). Los Angeles: Roxbury
In “The Thematic Paradigm,” Robert Ray explains how there are two vastly different heroes: the outlaw hero and the official hero. The official hero has common values and traditional beliefs. The outlaw hero has a clear view of right and wrong but unlike the official hero, works above the law. Ray explains how the role of an outlaw hero has many traits. The morals of these heroes can be compared clearly. Films that contain official heroes and outlaw heroes are effective because they promise viewer’s strength, power, intelligence, and authority whether you are above the law or below it.
The image created for the outlaw hero is the “natural man.” They are adventurous but also wanderers, and loners. Outlaw heroes are more likely to commit a crime, use weapons and carry guns. The outlaw hero represents self-determination and freedom from conflicts. On the other hand, the official hero is portrayed to be “the civilized” man. He often follows the norms of society, and has typical roles such as a lawyer, teacher, and family man.
In "The Thematic Paradigm", Robert Ray explains how there are two distinctly different heroes, the outlaw hero and the official hero. The official hero embraces common values and traditional beliefs, while the outlaw has a clear sense of right and wrong but operates above the law (Ray). Ray explains how the role of an outlaw hero has many traits. "The attractiveness of the outlaw hero's childishness and propensity to whims, tantrums, and emotional decisions derived from America's cult of childhood", states Ray. (309) Ray also says, "To the outlaw hero's inconsistence on private standards of right and wrong, the official hero offered the admonition, you cannot take the law into your own hands." (312) The values of these two traditional heroes contrasts clearly. Society favors the outlaw hero because we identify with that character more. We see ourselves more so in the outlaw hero than in the official hero. The outlaw hero has the "childlike" qualities that most of us wish we had as adults. To civilians it may seem that the outlaw hero lives more of a fantasy life that we all wish to have.