The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance examines the Old West in a flashback. It compares and contrasts how the past emerges into the present. As viewers, we are trying to understand how the forces of civilization, now the present, can conquest “the law of the West,” from the past. In the duration of the present, the heroes of the Old West are only called a myth. There are three different individuals in the movie. There is Ransom Stoddard, Tom Doniphon, and Liberty Valence. Random Stoddard is an attorney of law from the East, who went to the West convinced that he could administer justice through the knowledge of law and his books. Tom Doniphon is the “good” Westerner, who is known for his skills as a gunfighter and Liberty Valance is the “bad”
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He was beaten by Valance and brought to town by Doniphon. Stoddard demands Valance to be arrested but Doniphon mentions how his law books mean nothing out West and if Stoddard wants to take on Valance, he needs to act like a man and start carrying a gun. This is not the only time when Stoddard comes into conflict with Valance though. There was another scene and that is when the town had to elect two representatives to the Statehood Convention, where not just Stoddard but the townspeople want protection of their rights, the founding of schools and the railroad. But Valance does not allow of this, as he wants to keep the territory for himself, so he proceeds to dare Stoddard to a faceoff, even if Stoddard cannot hold a gun. On the scene where Stoddard and Valance are face-to-face, he surprisingly kills Valance and goes to the political …show more content…
He is part of progressing the West with his Eastern morals. He represents blind progress as mentioned earlier and has no idea on how to survive in the West. As I brought up the example of Doniphon and Valance having a long, hard stare. Stoddard does not understand the meaning behind it. In fact, he gets upset and questions them, in which he never receives. Stoddard does not understand the West or the beauty of it as Doniphon does. Doniphon sees Valance as a source of own conflict whereas Stoddard sees Valance as an example of evil and legal conflict, which must be taken care of by new laws and social reform he wants to bring to the West. (BRING UP QUOTES about how he wants to take him to
He was beaten by Valance and brought to town by Doniphon. Stoddard demands Valance to be arrested but Doniphon mentions how his law books mean nothing out West and if Stoddard wants to take on Valance, he needs to act like a man and start carrying a gun. This is not the only time when Stoddard comes into conflict with Valance though. There was another scene and that is when the town had to elect two representatives to the Statehood Convention, where not just Stoddard but the townspeople want protection of their rights, the founding of schools and the railroad. But Valance does not allow of this, as he wants to keep the territory for himself, so he proceeds to dare Stoddard to a faceoff, even if Stoddard cannot hold a gun. On the scene where Stoddard and Valance are face-to-face, he surprisingly kills Valance and goes to the political …show more content…
He is part of progressing the West with his Eastern morals. He represents blind progress as mentioned earlier and has no idea on how to survive in the West. As I brought up the example of Doniphon and Valance having a long, hard stare. Stoddard does not understand the meaning behind it. In fact, he gets upset and questions them, in which he never receives. Stoddard does not understand the West or the beauty of it as Doniphon does. Doniphon sees Valance as a source of own conflict whereas Stoddard sees Valance as an example of evil and legal conflict, which must be taken care of by new laws and social reform he wants to bring to the West. (BRING UP QUOTES about how he wants to take him to