What Are The Similarities Between Joaquin And Ridge?

Though-out Ridge’s novel we see a story that is much similar to that of Ridge’s life. Joaquin and Ridge were both educated. They both left home in search of a better life and both had to realize that life, because of their race, was already being shaped for them. The story of Joaquin was tragic yet romantic. It was dreamy and exciting. Ridge’s personal background helped shape the justification of violence and also romanticized the story of Joaquin Murieta to accommodate the much needed excitement missing in California.

Ridge, also known as Yellow Bird, starts his book off by telling his audience that the creation of his book was simply his duty to write it. Somebody needed to write the missing part of History. Ridge states that he has no

support of violence or the life of an outlaw, although he seems very interested in Murieta’s life. He admires Joaquin from the start and throughout the book he never stops. He states, “The character of this truly wonderful man was nothing more than a natural production of the social and moral condition of the country in which he lived” (Ridge 7). The book then introduces this amazing character, along with his one true love, Rosita. Ridge wanted to recreate how most people looked at a “foreigner.” He was educated and had the chance to try his luck in America. He had high hopes and expectations. Joaquin is pictured as being a dreamer and strong-willed. He thought very highly of the Americans. Ridge wanted his character to be starry eyed over the Americans to show his audience that Murieta was willing to befriend the Americans without ever being prejudice. Meeting only a couple, he assumed they must all be nice. He wanted to live among the winning side of the country.
Once settled into America, he was indeed lucky, his mining claim turned out to hold a great fortune. However, that luck soon wore out and we now see how Joaquin’s life will be changed. Instead of the confident and well respected man people saw him as, his character was deeply overrun with hatred. This is due to a couple unexpected meetings with prejudice Americans. They not only took advantage of Rosita, but they killed his brother and publicly abused him, although he was innocent. This was the true turning point in his life. Joaquin is thrown into an unescapable life of an outlaw.
“Yellow Bird, who as author openly declares himself Cherokee also shows us his hero appearing in all the glory of “his real features” (Jordan 14). Much of Joaquin’s beginning has a few similarities to Ridge’s. To start with, Ridge also had a few dreadful encounters with the Americans. Being a Cherokee-American was not ideal at this time. When he was young he was “Removed from his Cherokee homeland, and then forced to flee the relocated and chaotic Cherokee Nation” (Jordan 2). Ridge had to experience this hatred first hand. Hatred like this was probably confusing for him at first. Being treated as an animal just because of who you are can form a complex attitude towards his oppressors. Even those that do not torment him will still be seen as cruel people. Like, Joaquin, it had to happen to him more than once to really grasp his own hatred towards the Americans. Both Joaquin and Ridge saw the American people as possibly a positive influence for their lives, but they had to be proven wrong.
This emotion was the driving force for Ridge’s book.

According to Kowalewski, “Ridge seems to have been torn between writing a moralizing indictment of Anglo imperialism and an action-filled potboiler sure to make money” (212). He built a character that was beaten down and torn away from a good life. He had no chance for any other life except being an outlaw. He created a fairytale based on the oppression seen to all races during this time. Despite the rich hatred, Ridge wanted to have a character be victorious, against all odds. Here was this handsome man that could never run away from bad luck yet, he also seems to have an advantage over others. Joaquin did all the things Ridge could never do. He was a writer not an outlaw. As Jordan puts it on page 13, “Yellow Bird’s novel is built upon a coherent systems of images.” These images are examples from his life. He had deep emotions against the Americans and the only way to prove that was by writing about. His background was correlated with Murietas life and through Murieta he had the opportunity to put the Americans in their place. No one was there to stop Murieta. He was the perfect character to help ease the pain Ridge had. Ridge clearly manipulated the truth in his novel. Joaquin possesses many skills and talents that were lacking by the Americans. Ridge did this to make his oppressors seem dumb and inferior. Jordan states on page 15, “Yellow Bird’s hero, with his “superior intelligence and education,” is constructed as

the paragon of real civilization in a text where most Americans have “just sufficient civilization” to render them barely literate and racist.” The only way Ridge could get justice for what they did to him was to show them as being stupid.
Ridge highly justified Joaquin’s violence. He justified it by showing Joaquin with no other way to live. As Ridge put it, “the tyranny of prejudice had reached their climax” and Joaquin was from that moment was forever changed (Ridge 15). Joaquin was made out to be innocent from the start. He was young and just looking for a good way to live his life. He did everything right, according to Ridge. It was not until the Americans came that he was recreated. He did not want to be an outlaw, but his soul was so angered that he had to release it. Ridge wants his audience to believe it was all the Americas fault. Because of their actions, Joaquin had to rethink his whole life. He wants his audience to have sympathy on Joaquin and to accept his actions as being reasonable. The violence in Joaquin’s life, stems from Ridge’s own life situation. In Ridge’s life he had to witness his father being stabbed by “hotheaded young braves” along with his grandfather and cousin. Which, happened to Rosita and Joaquin, when Americans forced them off their land.
Rosita and Joaquin are together throughout the whole novel. Joaquin of course needs a heroine. Someone of his stature and noble character needed someone by his side. Ridge portrays Joaquin as being a brute when it comes to being an outlaw but when it comes to Rosita we see a tender man. Rosita and Joaquin would have been a beautiful couple if seen together. The way they are described, makes them seem untouchable. Their love is uncontainable. Joaquin, like every romance novel is the protector and Rosita is committed to him forever. When he reads that her brother is dead, he breaks the news ever so gently to her. He drops the paper and with a quivering lip and tearful eye he tells her. Then she falls into his chest and while he holds her, she cries with tears like “molten lead” (Ridge 77). This scene fits well with what Jordan states, “Many of Joaquin’s bandits are found reading romances as well as newspapers and other literature, and they frequently act as if they stepped out of a romance” (Jordan 15). It is true that Ridge balanced the violence with the romance. He wanted his readers to both fall in love with his characters and to want to be like them. Rosita loved Joaquin no matter what he does. Once he dies nothing between them changes. In the end she is, “Silently and sadly working out the slow task of a life forever blighted to her” (Ridge 240). Without Joaquin life is a chore and grueling work. It was not only Rosita that was forever devoted to someone. Many of the bandits have a woman that is unwilling to leave their side, even if death is guaranteed. An example of this is after Reyes Feliz was mauled by a bear and his “faithful girl” never left his side. Many of the women can also ride with the men, but can also be beautiful and eye-catching in jewelry at the same time. Ridge shows us what true love is. It is unfailing and is being true to one another even after death. He captures male audiences with the action and violence and gets woman audience with the romantic story of love in an unexpected place. Another way he shaped Joaquin to be more delicate was by how turned off he was at violence sometimes. He would feel badly for killing a good man, as with Ruddle (Ridge 44). He would try to stay away from killing someone whenever possible. He would even come clean or try to avoid killing them by telling them that he did not have bad intentions. He was invented to be sensitive and considerate. When he does have to kill he “regrets” it and terms it as “unnecessary cruelty” (Ridge 68). This is what makes him a hero in some way, he kills but only because he has to or to get justice from the wrong-doers.
The life of Joaquin was full of violence, which was much different from Ridge’s.

The two had the same start in life. They had the same obstacles and both seemed to overcome them. These men were strong and brave. The only difference is how they individually handled life after hardship. Ridge and Joaquin at one point went from job to job. They both had a job working in the Gold Rush, which turned out to be hard for “foreigners” (Jackson xvii). Life after mining turned Ridge into a writer. The life for Joaquin after mining was outlawry. The Gold Rush played a big part in many people’s lives. It was a hard life and there was not much guarantee that you would make it big or make it at all. There was tension among many groups of races and in many cases would turn into violence. It was a time where drinking was out of control and there was not room for a love story. According to Jackson, “California might have developed its own folk hero sooner if gold mining had been a more romantic business” (xix). It was not a pretty scene at the mining camps or anywhere that had a slight involvement with the Gold Rush. Everywhere seemed to have a form of entertainment that came from their homeland besides California. Jackson states, “Californians were hunting for every hint of romance in their past…And the Murieta that Ridge had invented was as romantic a figure as the most doting Californian could ask for” (xxxix). The situation was in dire need for a swooning character to sweep everyone off

their feet. Someone had to rescue them out of their misery and that savior was Ridge. He knew just what to say to capture everyone’s attention. Although it took a while, his story finally caught on and encouraged more authors to recreate Joaquin Murieta. Ridge made a glamorous tale out of an ugly situation. He wrote his novel because he knew it would make it, since nothing similar existed.
In conclusion, Ridge formed Murieta out of his emotions. He was a puppet to express how the Americans wronged him and others like him. His character was made out to be superior above most others. His story was mixed with violence and romance, which made the story impractical yet alluring at the same time. Ridge created a character that only could exist in a book. A hero that is willing to kill, yet is so tender at the same time. He recreated the Gold Rush to be a more desirable place to be. A love story that could withstand any turmoil was what he created for his audiences. Murieta is an image of everything Ridge wanted to be like. By creating Joaquin Murieta, Ridge was able to please audiences everywhere and gave peace to his own battered soul.