Genre In Jane Tompkins's West Of Everything

Jane Tompkins’s West of Everything is an energetic and lively account of the most beloved and legendary American genre—The Western. Western films and novels have become a large part of many American’s lives and continues to influence filmmaking to this day. People from all over the world visit western states to have what they think is the cowboy experience. West of Everything expresses a heavy concern with the role of gender in the genre, however, and points out that it is a male dominated field. Jane Tompkins has much to say about guns, cows, and a strange relationship between the male characters that epitomize manliness and handsomeness in these works. Tompkins constructs an interesting piece of prose that reads unlike any history book the reader may have come into contact with before. It is, in fact, presented like a …show more content…
She concludes, firstly, that death looms over every person alive, yet seems to just miss the cowboy. His rugged handsomeness and never-ending need to stay at the brink of survival keeps death a step behind. Tompkins argues that the cowboy’s ability to stave off death subliminally convinces the western’s audience that “strength counts more than prayer.” She argues that the cowboy persona—that of individuality and a knack for violence denounces the old ideas of Christianity and its ability to bring peace with death. Only the individual can achieve that; the cowboy does not need the help of religion to survive.
This, of course, is an idea that would be well received by those looking for a new and exciting idea, yet it leaves a bad taste in the mouth of a historian look for real answers. The author compares an incredibly popular Christian book with a western that hit shelves soon after. She states that the change in popularity from the Christian book to the Western leads to the conclusion that the American cowboy does not need Jesus—nor does the American