The West: Transforming Men into Cowboy

It is the fierce nature of the West that produces the fierce attitudes that cowboys must take on to endure the elements. Cowboys must change their personalities to become more like nature, hard, bitter, unforgiving, if they have any desire to survive long in the cruel, desolate land of the west. The change nature has on man is shown quite nicely in The Searchers from the viewpoints of both Ethan Edwards, John Wayne, and Martin Pawley, Jeffrey Hunter. When Ethan first shows up at his brother's house it is clear he is looking for a new life and a new beginning. As Jane Tompkins writes, "So the desert is the classic Western landscape.... It is a tabula rasa on which man can write, as if for the first time, the story he wants to live" (Tompkins 74). The desert is but a symbol man looks for for an escape of what he has done already in his live and to create a better life for himself there. Once the Edwards family gets killed and captured, with the exceptions of Ethan and Martin, the desert shifts from this land of welcoming possibilities for a new life, to a land with endless possibilities of cruel, disastrous outcomes with little chance of hope. "The man can go, in any direction, as far as he can go. The possibilities are infinite" (Tompkins 75). While having endless options may seem unfathomable, it also offers comfort that no matter where one goes, he/she can always get to the destination and it is this thinking that keeps Ethan and Martin going. While Ethan is already hard and bitter from his earlier experiences in life with the West, Martin still has much to learn and it is through him that people can understand the transformation from man to cowboy the best. When Martin first goes out with the hunting party to try and get Debbie back and they get into that scuffle with the Comanche, he is seen as weak and scared and unable to handle the situation. But by spending time with Ethan and only the land itself he starts to undergo a change making him stronger and more distinguished. The land tests men and forces then adapt to the situation. "The hero and the landscape perform a pas de deux; he rides, walks,crawls,climbs across it, stops to touch, smell listen, and scrutinize, while the land responds with an ever-changing series of vistas challenges, clues, surprises, mysteries. Characteristically, as I've said, the landscape is the site of ordeal, proving the man as nothing else can..." (Tompkins 80). By traversing the endless distances and climbing the tall buttes, man becomes patient to deal with those long treks and strong and balanced to deal with those heights. And eventually he is transformed into the bold, fierce man that takes nothing from no one and does what he deems to be right.