The Cowboy Image And American Frontier Spirit

Owen Wister is regarded as "father of American western cowboy novel" and occupies an important position in American literature. His The Virginian is taken as a sign of the formation of American cowboy novel. Cowboy novel from then on has been one of the most American-characteristic genres and is favored until the present day. As the first western cowboy novel, The Virginian exerts great influences on later numerous western cowboy novels in themes, plots, characters, etc. With the appearance of the novel, Wister paves the way for hundreds of Westerns that are modeled after him. Thus the elements in Owen Wister's novel become stereotyped.The reason for The Virginian's long popularity lies in the fact that what Wister creates in the novel is a new and typical cowboy. Wister's cowboy is different from the cowboys in the dime novels. The one-dimensional cowboys in the dime novels are often either strong, rough or the pursuers of love. However, Wister's cowboy is an all-round and multi-dimensional cowboy. This cowboy is not only a handsome, brave and upright cowboy with manly characteristics, but also a man full of tenderness. His affection for his lover and animals shows clearly his heroic spirit. Although he is not a gentleman born to an aristocrat family, he is a man with innate gentility. His politeness overpasses any inherited gentleman. Therefore, the cowboy in The Virginian is a full, brave and respectable hero.Since the Virginian is such an excellent cowboy, the frontier spirit cherished by Americans can find its best expression in the Virginian. His self-reliant and adventurous spirit and the spirit of meeting challenges, upholding justice and keeping optimistic not only enable him to conquer difficulties and survive in the harsh environment, but also let him know how to better seize opportunities, which finally make him realize his dreams. This is another important reason for the appeal of the cowboy novel to modern people and for people's worship of the cowboy and eagerness of living a life like the cowboy. This is also the reason why there are so many researches on the novel both at home and abroad. The principal purpose of the thesis is to analyze the cowboy image or the qualities of the Virginian and the frontier spirit embodied by him, so as to find out the deep reasons why Americans worship cowboys like the Virginian and let people have a better understanding of American cowboy novels and cowboy culture.This paper consists of three parts: introduction, main body and conclusion.Chapter One is a general introduction to Owen Wister and his masterpiece—The Virginian. The significant roles of Owen Wister and his novel—The Virginian in cowboy literature throw some light on the reasons why Owen Wister and The Virginian rather than other writers and their works are chosen in the thesis. At the same time, an overview about the researches on Owen Wister and The Virginian in both America and China is offered so as to indicate how this thesis is created on the basis of the achievements of the predecessors.Chapter Two focuses on the cowboy image or the qualities of the Virginian. The qualities of the cowboy are the main reasons why he is worshiped and regarded as a hero. The manly characteristics of the cowboy, his verbal ability, his insight, tenderness and gentility are all the basis of his heroic spirit.Chapter Three elaborates the frontier spirit embodied by the Virginian. The frontier spirit of self-reliance and adventure and the spirit of bravely meeting challenges, upholding justice and keeping optimistic can find their best illustration in the cowboy, which further enhance his heroism.The last part is a summary of the whole thesis. It is the qualities and spirit of cowboys that made and still make Americans worship the cowboy heroes like the Virginian. In today's society, with the development of mass media, cowboy's spirit is highly embellished due to people's nostalgia, which makes the cowboy a repertoire of American culture. With the globalization of the Hollywood and the increasing importance of cowboy novels in American literature, more stress will be put on cowboy novels and cowboy culture.