Comparing Larry McMurtry's Lonesome Dove to the Reality of the American West - Essay Example

Lonesome Dove and the West The story of the Lonesome Dove presents to us the struggling difficulties of the Americans, specifically the rangers to have meaning to life in the midst of all the routinary events in Texas. It also creates a different view of the West being exciting and tremendous when it comes to the challenges that the characters face. All the things happening in the story are just glimpses on the real life not just for the former rangers but also for the people surrounding them. Having the story as the main surface of the Western history, we are given the picture of the how the West and the Americans try to advance in different terms. This is also an obvious example on how the Americans try to look for the thrill in the midst of the challenges and once again, rise and see the co-called modern reality of boundary expansion. Going back to the story, we can recall that each character has different internal conflicts that make up and or create their identity. A brief example of this is Woodrow Call and Augustus McCrae who have different persuasions and trips in life. Call is a loner which solely justifies his need for distance seeing that he is a very responsible person and a leader in image as seen and felt by people around him. McCrae on the other hand has his on longing for love and acceptance from Lorena Wood which in the end, only after he dies shall he get upon the realization of Wood that the short time marriage that MacCrae offered at the middle part of the story is indeed significant. Other characters also have their own mini conflict if that is the perfect way to see it, and these conflicts when joined all together will form one particular dilemma that can only be triggered by Call and McCrae's wanting to travel and search for the best time in their lives traveling away from the Lonesome Dove. It is surprising and or rather ironic to know that while the title suggests of the name of the place where the characters belong and where their identities are formed, the events happen away from the place of the subject. The characters are moving away from their identities which can all be related to the idea of American expansion. By the time the story is written, in the late 80' s to be specific, Americans have been struggling to fight against the Indians, all for the sake of land. This issue on land can all bring us back to the movies that proliferated in the early 80's with a topic of mostly protecting the boundaries which in history Americans try to defend. In short, this story of the Lonesome Dove presents to us a myth like art which can be seen as a rationalization of the movement being made in history, the movement of development from the part of the Americans and even from the European people as they join the world in settling for a culture that will soon be part of their identity and social living. However, the movie is not enough to conclude white male supremacy and its longing for Western expansion because it will be a harsh generalization to say such idea exists when others, specifically those in Europe are themselves finding a way to move to different directions to look for lands to toil and improve. The decline of the western as a commercially viable film and television genre in the 1970s and 1980s is not tied only to its traditional association with white male supremacy, however. After all, other currently popular action genres, including those that have absorbed some of the western's traditional thematic concerns, are similarly dominated by white male protagonists (e.g., the science fiction film: The Road Warrior "solves" the problem of the vanished wilderness by blowing up the world and starting from scratch, placing Mad Max as the reluctant and cynical avatar of a new civilization in a post-apocalyptic frontier). Rather, the western was rendered obsolete primarily because of its close ties with the nineteenth- and early twentieth-century myth of free-enterprise capitalism. In the present postindustrial era, as more and more people find themselves permanently un- or underemployed and underpaid, as distinctions among social groups along race, gender, and class lines grow ever wider and more apparent, as the United States' decline as a world political and economic power grows more and more undeniable, America and Americans are increasingly concerned with keeping pace in this ominous new environment rather than dominating it. (Fore, S. page 52) If this is then the case, how can we relate the story and its movies becoming a hit in the United States at one point This is not because people agree to say that American expansionism is indeed a fact and cannot be opposed. This is to say that also at one point; there is a part where people go back to its tradition. At one point there happened in history that Americans did fight with the Indians, but that it to say that it is already part of history and people are remembering it. Yet, how the story is presented is a bit mythical if that's the perfect way to say it since the characters are limited to simply dreaming a meaningful travel for an individual quest which happened to be related to each member of the traveling group. A dream it is to say to hopelessly travel without assurance. Perhaps thrill seeking can describe the search for development by the Americans but to travel without direction can be considered fiction in that sense. What can be considered true in the movie and perhaps more appealing as the truth is its portrayal of the hardships being faced by the rangers. The hardships of life that they too are people longing to have better way of living an that sometimes they have to work more than the normal working time just so they can have enough and still save a little. The fightings with the Indians can be called normal as they in reality happen but too much of something can be misinterpreted to be totally fiction. This is the reason why the story Lonesome Dove may be taken as a story that parts of it are also made of imagination though it also gives the readers a glimpse of the real American expansionism 'but with direction.' Indeed, the West came from a strong push by Europeans to explore and establish commercial ties with the "East." Christopher Columbus-at least, according to most historians-thought he was en route to China and remained convinced for many years that he had found Cathay. So, somewhat quickly, "east" became "west, " and the New World that Columbus encountered (discovered, as far as Europeans were concerned) immediately became a frontier. Spanish explorers spread out into Mexico, the southeastern corner of North America, and Central America, while French expeditions made their way into Canada and upper North America. English settlers soon followed on the Atlantic seaboard. Although most of those who arrived came for one of three reasons-"God, Glory, or Gold"- virtually all who crossed the ocean had multiple motivations. Certainly after the initial waves of conquistadores and missionaries, many arrived seeking little more than the liberty to pursue their own lives or religions with a minimum of interference from the state, or even to obtain land- something denied them in Europe. (Birzer, B. page 5-6) This therefore would bring me to thinking that the story the Lonesome Dove in a sense is a masterpiece however, it was overly romanticized in its portrayal of the West. I like how McMurtry shows the strength and goodness of Call and McCrae because in reality, there is indeed a kind heart in every individual. That talks about the reality and the truth about human nature that applies even to the development-searching Americans. It is also a reality to have portrayed that these heroes no matter how they are called protagonists also have flaws in them. But then again, more than just heorism and toughness and strength, people from the West, in reality has something in them that can never be removed, that is the search for happiness with direction. That is something that the story removed from the characters which assumingly claimed for the truth and reality of history of the West. (Miller 2007). SOURCES Fore, S. 1991. The Same Old Others: The Western, Lonesome Dove, and the Lingering Difficulty of Difference. Journal Title: Velvet Light Trap. Volume: not cited. Issue: 27. Miller, C. 2007. Creating the American West. Journal Title: Policy Review. Issue: 141. Hoover Institution Press. Schwiekart, L., Birzer, B. 2003. The American West. Contributors. Wiley. Hoboken, NJ. Read More