Deconstructing the myth of the American west: McMurtry, violence, ecopsychology and national identity

The myth of the American frontier developed from exaggerated or fictionalized performances and literature about the West, and violence became a celebrated and traditional element of the metanarrative of the West. Expectations for violence in the Western novel continue as the metanarrative of the West enables a violent national mythology and identity. Western literature from Louis L'Amour, Cormac McCarthy and Larry McMurtry carries on American origin myths of violence as they pit evil Indians against civilization-seeking whites. This myth of a demonized and 'othered' Indian distinctly separates a national imagined community by race. Such selective and biased myths of the American West are unhealthy. It is important to interrogate the metanarrative (myths) of the West in order to see their social construction and to counterbalance those stories with different modes of understanding that promote healthier ecopsychological attitudes towards the environment and humanity.