All three of the characters in The Man Who Shot Liberty Valence do not fit the mold that Matheson creates in her article of the typical alpha male cowboy. The three might have some minute similarities to the male that Matheson descried in the article. The character played by John Wayne does not resemble the article because he has feelings for Hallie. He is in love with her, and never tells her. He is almost afraid to tell her his feelings. A man that is supposed to have no fear and conquer all that he sees does not let his woman find another man. Even during the movie Wayne’s character feels it right to tell Hallie that he will be leaving for a week. If this were the cowboy that Matheson describes, his “fanatic devotion to duty,” (899) would lead “him to ignore his wife [Hallie].”(899) though Wayne’s character could “draw a gun faster than anyone else,” (891) he does not act like “he is the law.”(896) this does not “offer definitions of masculinity,” because being a man means dealing with your emotions. Wayne’s character decides in his drunken rant to burn down part of his house. As it burns, and Wayne’s character is sobers his woman, Hallie, is still with another man. This is not what I believe to be an alpha male.
Rance Stoddard does not resemble the mold of a cowboy, simply because he is not one. He is a city boy, who studied law, and decided to move to the West, a place where the gun does, what lawyers do in the East. On arrival this “normally decent law-abiding citizen,” found himself, “enmeshed in situations that require them to become criminals.”(896) He ends up killing a man, the one thing that he stood against throughout the whole beginning. Ranke feeds into Matheson’s opinion that, “moral individualism and pervasive corruption are closely linked to Wayne’s Westerns.” What Rance lacks is the ruggedness and hardboiled figure that Wayne’s character projects from the very beginning, laying the casket. He is too confined by society’s rules and regulations to resemble the ultimate alpha male.
Valence, the bad cowboy, proves himself to be an outlaw. His sociopathic ways cause everyone in Shinbone to fear and loath him. In many ways he does relate to Wayne’s character but at the same time he shows behaviors that John Wayne’s character would scoff at. He does not as Matheson’s outlaw is said to “lumber about like an ape.”(895) He also doesn’t “appear to be civilized man,” he appears as the savage that he is a cruel ruthless killer. He does resemble the Matheson mold that a man in the West “settles his own problems,” and he “is indeed the sum of his actions.” He does what is needed of himself to survive. Robbing and killing are his ways of living because he knows that he will not be caught for his actions. In my opinion Matheson does not do a good job at describing any of the three characters, their descriptions are similar but not accurate.
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All three of the characters in The Man Who Shot Liberty Valence do not fit the mold that Matheson creates in her article of the typical alpha male cowboy. The three might have some minute similarities to the male that Matheson descried in the article. The character played by John Wayne does not resemble the article because he has feelings for Hallie. He is in love with her, and never tells her. He is almost afraid to tell her his feelings. A man that is supposed to have no fear and conquer all that he sees does not let his woman find another man. Even during the movie Wayne’s character feels it right to tell Hallie that he will be leaving for a week. If this were the cowboy that Matheson describes, his “fanatic devotion to duty,” (899) would lead “him to ignore his wife [Hallie].”(899) though Wayne’s character could “draw a gun faster than anyone else,” (891) he does not act like “he is the law.”(896) this does not “offer definitions of masculinity,” because being a man means dealing with your emotions. Wayne’s character decides in his drunken rant to burn down part of his house. As it burns, and Wayne’s character is sobers his woman, Hallie, is still with another man. This is not what I believe to be an alpha male.
ReplyDeleteRance Stoddard does not resemble the mold of a cowboy, simply because he is not one. He is a city boy, who studied law, and decided to move to the West, a place where the gun does, what lawyers do in the East. On arrival this “normally decent law-abiding citizen,” found himself, “enmeshed in situations that require them to become criminals.”(896) He ends up killing a man, the one thing that he stood against throughout the whole beginning. Ranke feeds into Matheson’s opinion that, “moral individualism and pervasive corruption are closely linked to Wayne’s Westerns.” What Rance lacks is the ruggedness and hardboiled figure that Wayne’s character projects from the very beginning, laying the casket. He is too confined by society’s rules and regulations to resemble the ultimate alpha male.
Valence, the bad cowboy, proves himself to be an outlaw. His sociopathic ways cause everyone in Shinbone to fear and loath him. In many ways he does relate to Wayne’s character but at the same time he shows behaviors that John Wayne’s character would scoff at. He does not as Matheson’s outlaw is said to “lumber about like an ape.”(895) He also doesn’t “appear to be civilized man,” he appears as the savage that he is a cruel ruthless killer. He does resemble the Matheson mold that a man in the West “settles his own problems,” and he “is indeed the sum of his actions.” He does what is needed of himself to survive. Robbing and killing are his ways of living because he knows that he will not be caught for his actions. In my opinion Matheson does not do a good job at describing any of the three characters, their descriptions are similar but not accurate.