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Myth and the American Cowboy

Page history last edited by PBworks 16 years, 3 months ago
"Oh, make no mistake. It's not revenge he's after. It's a reckoning."

~Doc Holliday

Tombstone (1993)

 

 

 

Myths: An Introduction 

In order to appreciate the legacy of myth of the American west and the cowboy, it is important to actually define the word “myth”. Essentially, Richard Slotkin explains that myth “is the primary language of historical memory: a body of traditional stories that have over time, been used to summarize the course of our collective history and to assign ideological meanings to that history” (70). In essence, myth is a cultural tool which bonds a society together with common stories and archetypal figures, which represent the fears and desires of that culture. Of the use of myth in modern societies, Jack Lule writes “although modern societies believe they have replaced myth and ritual with science and technology, myth is indispensable for human understanding of the world” (277). To dismiss a myth as nothing more than fanciful, fictional tale is a common mistake. In reality, myths generally have some sort of historical origin but over time that knowledge can go through a process of “fictional elaboration” (Slotkin 78) in which properties of the event or person are exaggerated and thus, history becomes mythic.

 

 

A Shift from Reality to Myth:

 

 

Wild West Shows

 

Dime Store Novels

 

Hollywood:

The B Western had a very light hearted depiction of the cowboy.  This cowboy was a spotless man, a man who"always roped better, rode better, sang better, and shot better than anyone.  They were strong, handsome, and intelligent, and they never smoked, cursed, or drank whiskey.  They always had coins to pay for their food, and they never had to change clothes, brush their teeth, or go to the restroom" (Tucker 181). 

 

 

 

The Myth of the Cowboy:

The figure of the American cowboy is for the most part a mythological figure. That isn’t to say that the American cowboy never existed because we know he did. However, the image of the historical cowboy has been distorted by Wild West Shows, dime store novels, and finally Hollywood, to depict the cowboy as men that "always roped better, rode better, sang better, and shot better than anyone.  They were strong, handsome, and intelligent, and they never smoked, cursed, or drank whiskey.  They always had coins to pay for their food, and they never had to change clothes, brush their teeth, or go to the restroom. When in reality, the cowboy was a mere, simple shepherd on horseback.  Is this mythic perception of cowboys bad?  Not necessarily. As it is mythic, it does have some positive lessons to teach contemporary Americans. For example, one only has to look at the “Cowboy Code” constructed by American performer Gene Autry, to see how "the B Western message saved a generation of young people" (Buttram 193),:

 

1. A cowboy never takes unfair advantage, even of an enemy.

2. A cowboy never betrays a trust.

3. A cowboy always tells the truth.

4. A cowboy is kind to small children, to old folks, and to animals.

5. A cowboy is free from racial and religious prejudice.

6. A cowboy is always helpful, and when anyone’s in trouble he lends a hand.

7. A cowboy is a good worker.

8. A cowboy is clean about his person, and in thought, word, and deed.

9. A cowboy respects womanhood, his parents, and the laws of his country.

10. A cowboy is a patriot. (MacDonald 134)

 

However, since the mythical figure of the cowboy tends to overpower the historical cowboy figure, it leaves the general population with a false sense of historical perspective. In reality, cowboys were “common workingmen who became American folk heroes” (Carlson ix). Rarely did they have time to uphold such chivalrous values listed in the “Cowboy Code.” Just about the only rule that reflects what cowboys were really like is rule number seven, because a cowboy’s life revolved around his work. 

 

As another example let’s look at the figure of the cowboy as a gunfighter. The mythical cowboy gives one the impression that the American west was incredibly violent and that you couldn’t enter a saloon without being involved in or witness to a drunken gunfight. The truth is, “the shootout that's dear to Hollywood seldom, if ever, occurred in these cattle towns” (Schultz et. al.). However, cowboys did carry guns and/or rifles but typically only used them for defensive purposes such as, to ward off cattle thieves or predators such as wolves.

 

Due to the mythic qualities that accompany the cowboy, it is a surprise for some to learn that the true heyday of the open range cowboy only “lasted a very brief time, roughly from about 1865 to about 1890” (Schultz et. al.). Although the perceived time period of the open range cowboy is hard to define, it is typically imagined to be longer than simply 25-30 years. This goes back to the break with historical perspectives people experience with mythological symbols. Richard Slotkin explains why people feel such confusion concerning the cowboy period of the American West as he writes that myth “gives us history impacted in a metaphor whose referents are (or are asserted to be) eternal and timeless” (80).  People feel confusion about the timeframe of the cowboy era because the mythical aspects of the cowboy figure, lend it its sense of timelessness. 

 

 

 

Works Cited:

 

Buttram, Pat. "Reel Cowboys."  Tucker, Albert B.  The Cowboy Way:  An Exploration of History and Culture. Ed. Paul H. Carlson. Lubbock: Texas 

Tech University Press, 2000. 179-200.

 

Carlson, Paul H. The Cowboy Way: An Exploration of History and Culture. Lubbock: Texas Tech University Press, 2000.

 

Lule, Jack. "Myth and Terror on the Editorial Page: The New York Times Responds to September 11, 2001." Journalism and Mass Communications

Quarterly. 2 ed.: 2002. 275-293.

 

MacDonald, J. Fred. "Television and the Red Menace: The Video Road to Vietnam." The American Historical Review. Vol 91. 3 ed.: 1986. 134-

144.

 

Schultz, Stanley K. and William P. Tishler. American History 102 Civil War to the Present. 2004. University of Wisconsin. 9 December

2007 <http://us.history.wisc.edu/hist102/weblect/lec03/03_01.htm>.

 

Slotkin, Richard. "Myth and the Production of History." Ideology and Classic American Literature. Eds. Sacvan Berkovitch and Myra

Jehlen. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1987. 70-81.

 

 

Further Research:

 

For more discussion about how cowboys were portrayed in television, visit The American West on Television page of this wiki.

 

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