American Old West Essays

  • American Old West Myths

    846 Words  | 2 Pages

    In the American old west myths,legends,and fairy tales are all highly exaggerated and hard to find real ones,but some you read are true. The American Old West was a brutal environment that can very easily be considered the deadliest of the world due to its environments that it suits some but in total this world is where the Myths,Legends,and Fairy tales come from there for some are fake but some are real.Ex-Billy the kid. The Religion that the old west was known for was the Catholic religion that

  • The Blanton Museum of Art

    524 Words  | 2 Pages

    home to many different types of paintings. The paintings range from different landscapes in America to cowboys to Native Americans. There are five paintings in the Blanton Museum of Art that can convey an image and culture of the American Old West with vivid and detailed images of cowboys, Native Americans, and the landscape represented, which is an important aspect of American culture and the frontier spirit. The paintings Sioux Village near Fort Laramie by Albert Bierstadt, Dakota Indians by William

  • Analysis Of The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance

    2413 Words  | 5 Pages

    contrast these movies focusing on firstly their depiction of the national identity and mythology of the old west. Secondly, it will look at the differences of the portrayal of different character types, with specific reference to minority groups and women. Finally this essay will look at the two films comments on the development of America and American democracy in the civilising mission of the old west. The Man who shot Liberty Valance is shot in flashback form, telling the story of Ransom ‘Ranse’ Stoddard

  • The American West

    1215 Words  | 3 Pages

    The story of the American West is still being told today even though most of historic events of the Wild West happened over more than a century ago. In movies, novels, television, and more ways stories of the old west are still being retold, reenacted, and replayed to relive the events of the once so wild and untamed land of the west that so many now fantasize about. After reading about the old west and watching early westerns it is amazing how much Hollywood still glorifies the history and myth

  • The Western Frontier

    1588 Words  | 4 Pages

    western. The West was a form of society rather than an area. It is the term applied to the region whose social conditions result from the application of older institutions and ideas to the transforming influences of free land. By this application, a new environment is suddenly entered, freedom of opportunity is opened, the cake of custom is broken and new activities, new lines of growth, new institutions and new ideals are brought into existence. The wilderness disappears, the West proper passes

  • Weird West: Reciprocal Shift In The Western Genre

    2119 Words  | 5 Pages

    The Old West was, at the peak of its popularity, an artistic representation of Americana. Leading men such as John Wayne and Clint Eastwood were larger than life and representative of America’s view of its place in the world—a rugged avenger who does what he wants to right all wrong—and with the shift in American culture came a reciprocal shift in the Western genre. The Weird West incorporates elements unfamiliar to the West, whether they be originally from this Earth or otherwise. In some cases

  • Hero And Antihero's: Butch Cassidy Vs. Silverado

    1412 Words  | 3 Pages

    Silverado The cowboy scenario in the west was only a very short period in American history, but it made a big enough of an impact on people’s views and took on a life of its own. As time progresses the views of the west change from the colorful mythologies to the more monotone realities. This vision of the west and the heroes and antiheros within it has evolved over time, in the beginning it was more romantic but as time went on different takes on the west started to unfold as focus faded from traditional

  • The Origins Of The Literary Western: Dime Novels And The Virginian By O.Wister

    1583 Words  | 4 Pages

    The concept of the Wild West lies at the core of the American ideology â€" the republican ideology of an independent state ruled by Law. The conflict between Law and Justice is always at the centre of a western. The reason is not hard to find: the wild frontier lands which used to belong to the native American population was an easy prey for all kinds of adventurers, outlaws and gangsters; ordinary settlers, in their turn, had to suffer from both Indians and rustlers. This resulted in immediate measures

  • American Progress Analysis

    588 Words  | 2 Pages

    that represent the image of the American West in different periods of time are: Thomas Cole’s View from Mount Holyoke, Northampton, Massachusetts, after a Thunderstorm, commonly referred to as The Oxbow (Painting, 1836), John Gast’s American Progress (Painting, 1872), and Dorothea Lange’s The Road West, New Mexico (Photograph, 1938). Each of these images capture the progress of the settlers journey westward in different periods, and their shifting views of the West as dangerous, tameable and tame

  • The First Transcontinental Railroad

    1072 Words  | 3 Pages

    between east and west, and transformed the dormant frontier into an essential component of the Union. A very different situation existed before the completion of the transcontinental railroad. The western region of the United States was almost completely separated from the east. Travel between the two regions was agonizingly long and difficult, and transportation of goods was costly and inefficient. There were three main routes that could be taken to travel from the east to the west. The first was

  • Stereotyping of the Native Americans in the 1820's and 1830's

    3089 Words  | 7 Pages

    Stereotyping of the Native Americans in the 1820's and 1830's For Americans moving west in the 1820's and 30's there was little firsthand knowledge of what the frontier would be like when they arrived. There was a lot of presumption about the Indians. Many felt, through the stories they heard and read, that they had sufficient information to know what the Indians would truly be like and how to respond to them. Unfortunately, as is described in James Fenimore Cooper's Leatherstocking Tales, white

  • Was the WIld West Really Wild

    524 Words  | 2 Pages

    If you said the words Wild West to someone, no doubt they would picture a mustached man sitting at a card game in an old saloon surrounded by cowboys and prostitutes. A player opposite him would be hiding an extra card up his sleeve, and soon enough he would be called on it and face off in the city square. Both players would step back and there’d be a long moment before the cheater moved for his hip holster, however he wouldn’t be fast enough. The gamer would draw his revolver and shoot the cheater

  • Buffalo Bill

    1504 Words  | 4 Pages

    Buffalo Bill One of the most colorful figures of the Old West became the best known spokesman for the New West. He was born William Frederick Cody in Iowa in 1846. At 22, in Kansas, he was rechristened "Buffalo Bill". He had been a trapper, a bullwhacker, a Colorado "Fifty-Niner", Pony Express rider (1860), wagonmaster, stagecoach driver, Civil War soldier, and even hotel manager. He earned his nickname for his skill while supplying Kansas Pacific Railroad workers with buffalo meat. He was

  • The Outcasts Of Poker Flat 'And Under The Lion's Paw'

    696 Words  | 2 Pages

    determination, independence, and strength associated with the Western character. 2. The Haskins from “Under the Lion’s Paw” have the most clear motivation to travel to the West when they’re previous farm was destroyed

  • Mythologization Of The Wild West

    618 Words  | 2 Pages

    The West was a great era and all, but it is often mythologized. People think that cowboys were romantic, all white, could make a fortune in the west, and western towns were lawless. To tell you the truth, it’s the very opposite. Cowboys were poor, not everyone was white, there were harsh conditions. There was more than just fighting, whites, and men. The Wild West was from 1865-1895. The West was located near the mississippi river. The wild west is named that because the untamed territories were

  • Reasons Why was Jesse James Famous

    1231 Words  | 3 Pages

    My historical figure is Jesse James. Jesse is from the Old Western time period. Jesse is a notorious bank robber. He is viewed by many as the American Robin Hood. There are few who don’t know his name. He is arguably the most known and influential criminal known to Old Western American history. September 5, 1847, in Kearney, Missouri marked the birth of Jesse James. Jesse was brought up by a very renowned farming family. He and his brother Frank received a great education. His father, Robert James

  • Portrayals of the American West

    731 Words  | 2 Pages

    Portrayals of the West It usually begins with an empty, grimy street, a vast silence broken only by the creak of a gently swinging wooden saloon sign; a lone figure with a cowboy hat placed low over his eyes, hand positioned just over the handle of his gun, walks slowly into view. Another dark, frightening figure emerges from the shadows on the other end of the street. A classic Western confrontation scene is about to be played out – an act so common that it has often been spoofed, yet still remains

  • The Wild West Essay

    1481 Words  | 3 Pages

    The American frontier is comprised of the geography, history, and cultural expression of life in this revolution of American westward expansion that began with English colonial settlements in the early 17th century and ended with the adoption of the last mainland territories as states in the early 20th century. Immense attention is primarily targeted towards the western part of the United States during the 19th century, a period widely known as the Old West, or the Wild West. I wanted to know more

  • The Myth of the Old West

    2022 Words  | 5 Pages

    Over the years, the idea of the western frontier of American history has been unjustly and falsely romanticized by the movie, novel, and television industries. People now believe the west to have been populated by gun-slinging cowboys wearing ten gallon hats who rode off on capricious, idealistic adventures. Not only is this perception of the west far from the truth, but no mention of the atrocities of Indian massacre, avarice, and ill-advised, often deceptive, government programs is even present

  • Westward Expansion Research Paper

    1650 Words  | 4 Pages

    own State. So that is the story behind how Texas became their own State. The Cattle Drive In Kansas at the time of 1867 the great cattle drives railroad continued for about the next 20 years. That was one of the Cowboy’s busiest years. Americans headed west because that was when California was having a Gold Rush around 1849. The Texas cowboy’s drove their cattle to on the California trail to San Francisco. The cowboy’s could buy longhorns in Texas for about 10 dollars. After they bought the