American Literature: The American Frontier
The frontier seems attract men and retain them that they never leave and may rather die here than moving out. Some is associated with family ties. The jinx of the family, which is not new to American drama, is well embodied in True West. Each individual is born into a household and as such bears the burdens of the generations previous him or her. Though Austin has strained very hard to escape the hold of his family, all of his efforts have failed. He has strained to get a sense of individuality from his labor and his activities, but in the completion they are all worthless in regard to the identity molded for him in the household. He attempts to contradict that he is fragment of the family, but in the end he cannot. In the end, we can see that he is just like his brother who is; together like their father—unqualified in dealing with existence in the regular world. The frontier sticks with them.
This is the same case in Country for Old Men. It’s in the early 80s, we are introduced to Sheriff Ed Tom Bell has supervised over his minute south Texas border section for decades. In all that period he has referred only one felon to death row in and is then protected in his confidence that “it takes precise very tiny effort to rule respectable people.” Unbeknownst to him, though, a native welder known as Llewellyn Moss has, when out stalking neighboring the Rio Grande, come across the bodies of six drug couriers who have murdered each other off in a pact gone badly. Moss has found and went with a haversack holding two million dollars in money found nearby the spot of the killing.
This shows us how dangerous the west is but those attracted to it still live here. Moss, who was a former sniper throughout his expeditions of duty in Vietnam, is oblivious that the satchel has a radio transponder. After a delay of thoughtfulness allows the drug dealers’ chiefs to recognize him, Moss and his new wife get themselves escaping from the cartel hit men who have been posted to recuperate the bag of money. Sheriff Bell sees himself challenging a flow of viciousness the likes of which his silent community has under no circumstances before experienced
The old West vs. the new West is not a theme meant for historic discussion, but a cause that maintains a banded fight to the death. Austin is the symbol of the order fashioned by the out-of-town new West whereas Lee is the characteristic of the desert ancient west and the confusion it signifies. In the finale it appears that the disorder is the sturdier force.
The wild topography slowly intrudes upon and ultimately takes over the play and way of life. Certainly, by the conclusion of the play it is rigid to envisage a more devastated place. In Shepard's view, though, the edict of the suburbia is the defective model in the first abode. One cannot practice a real individuality inside its restrictions; only the liberty represented by the disorder of the desert can permit that. It is this autonomy that the old man has wanted, that Lee has practiced, and that Austin now pursues for himself.
We also see this old Wild West in In Search of Snow. This is a story of Mexican and American bond: opening in hate, it transverses in limited months, more drawbacks than most individuals experience in a generation and ends in an ancestral bond. We see that Mike McGurk's mum passed away when he was seven. His dad, an unprofessional wrestler, runs a gas place in Arizona. Turk's notion of a decent time is exchange four-letter abuses with his son. To develop a better sense of this idiosyncratic dysfunctional household and community filled with violence where, we are told had ``no word for love’. Taking the instance of Turk untruthful claim about his 16-year-old son's age, Mike, so that he can enlist in WW II, then he is actually dismayed that the Mike didn't murder a damn Kraut.
Symbolism has been used a lot to show the nature of the American frontier. Below are some of the symbols that have been used to drive the point home.
Austin and Lee
Austin and Lee can be comprehended as contradictory extremes of the American frontier. These two represent the nature of the West; Old and new. Austin is the hard-working worker, Lee the visionary. They butt heads through the whole play, but over this often-violent association are lastly able to live in the west and how the two interact to be what is known as the American frontier. For Shepard, this hostile relationship is an essential one. Only through great skirmish is art ever shaped.
Houseplants
The indoor plants in Mom's kitchenette symbolize the order and structure that permeate the suburbia of the new West. Austin's solitary job when he is house-sitting for his mum is to look after the houseplants and ensure that they are irrigated. For some time he does his work, remembering to look after the plants. But as Austin starts to understand that the principles he has and the individuality he has shaped for himself are conflicting to what he considers is right and true, he starts to abandon the houseplants. By the completion of the play the flowers are all dead. When Mom comes from from Alaska, she alleged she has done so for she has missed her indoor plants. For her they signify the order for which she has arisen to trust so deeply. On seeing the houseplants lifeless, Mom leaves the household, incapable to manage with the sagacity of chaos that has occupied her home. This represents the chaos to come to Austin’s life and subsequently the west.
His dread for scorpions and rattlesnakes signifies the hazards he encounters here (and will go through later) from natural dangers. But, such intimidations will attest to be far less hazardous to him than dangers from other humans. The continuous modification of light and dark here may signify the adjustment of virtuous (linked with Bell) and malicious (related with Chigurh) in this text. The imprint that light can be hazardous is one of the numerous paradoxes obvious in this book. Lastly, the reference to a shuttle and loom represents the theme of destiny that appears like a chief motif in No Country for Old Men.
Works Cited
Shepard S. True West. McGraw Hill, 2005. Print
Urrea Luis, A. In Search of Snow. New York, 2009. Print
Movie: No Country for Old Men
