The conventions of the western genre are specific and engrained in American society as the epitome and personification of the "final frontier." The American dream was established first with the Revolution from the British and further enhanced and engrained in history with the ride West. Many of the recurring concepts in westerns include the pivotal battles between civilization and wilderness, between humble homesteaders and hot-headed gunslingers, and between the internal struggle of "all for one or one for all." Shane fits into the genre of a classic western because there is a heavy conflict between wilderness against civilization as seen in both physical and personified representations, the story formula follows that of moral versus immoral
