Weekly Article 2

Cowboys are one of the most stereotyped things that America has right now.When you think about the west you think about the white hat, horse, boots, handkerchief, and some sort of plaid shirt. I know I do and of course John Wayne is a humongous symbol of the American cowboy thanks to all his shows and movies. However the west was not all “shoot ‘em up” like some of the movies made it out to be. Yes life back in the old west was a tough; however it was not all action all the time.

                The reason why movie industries are so interested in the west is because back then there were almost no laws that applied because there was almost no one there to enforce them. The reality is that life was a struggle. There were always a lot of work that had to be done, a lot of waiting and watching just for something to happen. As well as strategy on how you are going to move one thing to another place without damage or losing anything. The “west”, in movies, is often portrait as the lowly dusty town in the middle of nowhere with saloons, floozies, bank, sheriff, and other things needed for survival, which in a way is true. However a lot of the people in bars are made out to be slobbering drunks and aggressive ones at that to. People in the west did have salons to drink at but it was mainly there for something to do after time in the mines for so long and a way for people to bury their soul if they were down on their luck with the work they were in.

Cowboys were often portrait in movies as heroes or even villains, but most cowboys were just normal workers and a lot of cattle ranchers. The cowboy gets their name from the fact that they herd cattle, mainly on horseback, which cattle as you know are a cow. So these cowboys being called heroes by swooping into town and save the day from the evil rich man are merely folk tales trying to spread a good idea for a story, even if I think that story is redundant I’m sure for that time it was fairly new and amazing. Cowboys were mainly hired ranch hands that help with herding, training new horses as well as breaking their spirits, and other tasked asked upon them by the person they are working with.  The movies often had most of the main cowboys as very witty folk who were sometimes smart-alecks which was probably not for the most part true because a lot of cowboys were not that much educated to have such a vocabulary.

Movies also portrait the cowboys all as great fighters, which is in no way true for the majority of them probably did not even know how to fight. I am sure we all have seen those old western movies with the saloon fight scene where everyone hits anyone they can with whatever they can at that time. Most of them have that one main character guy going a bunch of karate moves and beating everyone up in the fight. However it is highly unlikely that anyone in America knew karate around that time. Most cowboys were on the ranch doing their repetitive daily jobs. Movies often make cowboys way more then they ever should have been when in reality they were not so different from any other guy just trying to do his job, with an awesome hat I might add.