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Quote: “In a short time we gained the foot of the mountains, and after traversing a narrow gorge came to an open valley, at the far extremity of which was a low table land upon which I beheld an enormous city. Toward this we galloped, entering it by what appeared to be a ruined roadway leading out from the city […]” (Carter 13).

Comment: I found this excerpt interesting because of how he describes John Carters experience with the Martians and the description of the landscape. He describes the landscape on Mars similar to how authors described the American west. This excerpt simply seems like a possible American west experience taking place on Mars.
Question: Did the author mean to write this in a way that makes the story easy to connect to the American west?

“Every good man in this world has convictions about right and wrong. They are his soul’s riches, his spiritual gold. When his conduct is at variance with these, he knows that it is a departure, a failing; and this is a simple and clear matter. If falling were all that ever happened to a good man, all his days would be a simple matter of striving and repentance. But its not all. . . . Many an act that a man does is right or wrong according to the time and place which form, so to speak, the context; strip it of its particular circumstances, and you tear away its meaning.” (p278)

Judge Henry’s thoughts about personal conviction were very interesting. “The simple matter of striving and repentance” not being all that its about because of the context in that leads to an act.

Should this bring the reader to consider if good intention behind a so called “bad act” mitigate its outcome?

quote: “City saloons rose into my vision, and I instantly preferred this Rocky Mountain place. More of death it undoubtedly saw, but less of vice, than did its New York equivalents. And death is a thing much cleaner than vice.” (Chapter 3 , page 23)

Comment: The Medicine Bow saloon is a place for men who take pride in their character. They make an honest living working hard, however, will engage in a fight if prompted. This speaks to much of the books romanticization of the west. The idea that the East with their cities has been corrupted and lost to temptation, while the West is raw and wild in its beauty. Death could be around every corner, but holds a sense of dignity, and defending ones honor in the west. Thus far in the book our narrator has looked upon the west as a fantasy. The west is painted as something foreign but also desirable.

question: Saloons in popular media seem to depict a hub for all manner of wild camaraderie scattered with brawls, gambling, and prostitution. How accurate was this?

Quotation: His sunny Southern accent was again strong. In that brief passage with Trampas it had been almost fully absent. But different moods of the spirit bring different qualities of the utterance–where a man comes naturally.

Comment: As someone with a southern accent that pops out every once and a while, I thought this quote resonated with me. Sometimes it comes out particularly when I hear someone’s own accent come out.

Question: Is there any book or any studies done on American West accents? How they have transformed over the years?

Quote: “You sat in Omaha’s whole sight and dined, while Omaha’s dust came and settled upon the refreshments. It is gone the way of the Indian and the buffalo, for the West is growing old. You should have seen the palace and sat there. In front of you passed rainbows of men,—Chinese, Indian chiefs, Africans, General Miles, younger sons, Austrian nobility, wide females in pink. Our continent drained prismatically through Omaha once.” (Wister, “The Game and the Nation-Act First”

Comment: I was especially drawn to this specific passage, because in my opinion it highlights exactly why the West has remained at the center of the American cultural focus all the way up to today. The diversity of the West was, and still is, captivating to those like Wister who were raised in societies with distinct racial, cultural, and class-related boundaries. I think the free-flowing, blended narrative of the west that Wister presented in the book contributed to its success both in its era and today.

Question: How did communities such as Native Americans and Black Americans conceptualize this diversity? How often were they able to/permitted to interact with communities outside of their own the way that Wister was?

Quote – “Yes I was dazed. How did they count distance in this country? You spoke in a neighborly fashion about driving over to town, and it meant – I did not know yet how many days. And what would be meant by the term ‘dropping in,’ I wondered. And how many miles would really be considered far?”(Wister 9)

Comment – While a seemingly mundane quote, when I read it, it reminded me of the conversations we had at the beginning of the semester about what the west was. Specifically, this page reminded me of that whole conversation. It seems Wister, through the narrator, is commenting on the vast expanse from the perspective of someone who is from the eastern seaboard and molded by it. Especially considering the introduction discussing Wister’s personal history.

Question – Did Wister and the rest of the writers of his era define the popular image of the West that dominates the minds of today?

Quote: “Now, it is not usual for young ladies of twenty to contemplate a journey of nearly two thousand miles to a country where Indians and wild animals live unchained, unless they are to make such journey in company with a protector, or are going to a protector’s arms at the other end.”

Comment: When those moved out west, usually it was men looking either for gold, an escape from bad situations in their previous lives, or simply looking to start over. After 80 years of Westward Expansion, I would think there would be more on an emphasis of maybe the railroad by that time.

Question: Where there accounts, if any, of women going by themselves like the men did at any point?

““Everything,” he answered. “That young come-outer, and his fam’ly that can’t understand him—for he is broad gauge, yu’ see, and they are narro’ gauge.” The Virginian looked at Molly a moment almost shyly. “Do you know,” he said, and a blush spread over his face, “I pretty near cried when that young come-outer was dyin’, and said about himself, ‘I was a giant.’ Life made him broad gauge, yu’ see, and then took his chance away.””

I particularly like this quote because it is one of the first glimpses given into the way the Virginian thinks and how he has potentially conducted his life. The remarks made on the young man whose family does not understand his open mindedness feels personal to the Virginian. To me this indicates a similar experience in his past, perhaps one that drove him westward into the rogue, cowboy life he lives.

How common was it for young men to up and leave their families and potentially stable lives to pursue adventure in the west?

Quote: “… fortune had turned her back upon the woods…Instead of thinking about her first evening dress, Molly found pupils to whom she could give music lessons. She found handkerchiefs to embroider with initials. And she found fruit that she could make into preserves.” (Wister, pg. 59-60). “So public opinion went on being indignant over Molly’s conduct. She could stoop to work for money, and yest she pretended to hold herself above the most rising young man…” (Wister, pg. 60) “Molly Wood sat bravely up in the through car, dwelling upon the unknown.” (Wister, pg. 64). “She could hear them from afar. She could see the eyes of Bennington watching this man at her side. She could image the ears of Bennington listening for slips in his English.” (Wister, pg. 233). “Most of Bennington soon began to say that Molly’s cow-boy could be invited anywhere and hold his own… declared that she had shown remarkable sense. (Wister, pg. 320).

Comment: I thought the development of Molly’s character over the course of the novel was very interesting, especially with herself being a bit of a novelty in her hometown which found it odd for a lady of her standing to stoop down to taking jobs to provide for her family, despite knowing of their need for money. Securing independence like that at the end of the nineteenth century was a bit surprising to read considering the expectations that women are often put under when securing their place within the world during eras were female independence wasn’t the norm. This same sentiment of independence follows Molly to the west as she arrives independently into a world that both she and her family consider unknown, a place where both the land and men that inhibit it are wild. And even when her previous ideas of the west are changed with her developing relationship with the Virginian, she is still dependent on her family and past communities’ opinions on her and how they’d view the man. But eventually at the end of the book, both Molly’s will for creating her own path and her love for the man take precedence over any opinion they could conjure up as she is knowledgeable of the previous “unknown” west and the people that live there.

Question: How could social standing and wealth affect the job opportunities available to women in the west?

Quote- “She took her Browning, her idol, her imagined affinity. For the pale decadence of New England had somewhat watered her good old Revolutionary blood too, and she was inclined to think under glass and to live underdone–when there were no Indians to shoot! ” (Chapter 27)

Comment-I always find it interesting from a writing standpoint whenever a historical background is used in any story to emphasize a certain point about a character. In reference to Molly in particular, it’s interesting how the author sparingly mentions her background, as whenever it is referenced, I think it’s used to draw contrast with her surroundings in the far off region of Wyoming. Additionally, this made me think about how many Americans from the east in general migrated to the Midwest, as both “The Virginian” and Molly are far from home in that aspect.

Question-After the expansion of the nation into the west, how many did end up making the trek from the east, for one reason or another, to end up somewhere in the midwest?