The Searchers

The west is a harsh unforgiving environment that kills weak men and toughens those who can survive. In the movie The Searchers, John Wayne plays Ethan, a tough man who has been tested by the west, time and time again and has grown silent, unforgiving and strong because of it. The environment has made him this way, through trials and near death experiences, Ethan has become a harsh man who has no place to call home. The Searchers features the experienced cowboy, Ethan taking under his wing the young innocent boy Martin, on his adventure for justice. At first Martin is ignorant to the ways of the cowboy and does not stop to allow his horse to rest when he realizes his family is being attacked. While the audience can understand Martin’s actions it is soon revealed that Martin kills his horse due to improper care. At the beginning of the film Martin is truly not one with the environment; however, throughout the film Martin becomes more like the harsh, strong, cowboy the audience expects and he becomes less concerned with his social life, as he continually leaves his love to find the Indian Scar and serve him justice by gun. Jane Tomkins explains that “[the West] is an environment inimical to human beings, where a person is exposed, the sun beats down, and there is no place to hide. But the negations of the physical setting – no shelter, no water, no rest, no comfort – are also its siren song. Be brave, be strong enough to endure this, it says, and you will become like this – hard, austere, sublime” (71). As Tompkins explains it the more time Martin spends in the environment the more he becomes like Ethan, a hard man who gets involved in fistfights, kills men who oppose him and becomes a silent sufferer. As testament towards the change in Martin, near the end of their journey Ethan confesses that he is so fond of the man Martin became that Ethan includes Martin in his will, as the only beneficiary; a sign that Martin has in fact become the cowboy the environment breeds. If the land is hard enough, the men who inhabit that land will become like the land, this is truly the main message of the movie The Searchers.