The Western Formula

A seemingly traditional approach towards the Western frontier is the reason for John Cawelti’s assessment from The Six-Gun Mystique. His description of the Western formula being “far easier to define than that of the detective story” may clearly be a paradigm for many authors, but not particularly for Stephen Crane. The standards Cawelti has set forth for a successful Western is quite minimal by thought, but at the same time relevant. Crane signifies a …

…of righteous ecstasy, the moment when you know you have the moral advantage of your adversary, the moment of murderousness. It’s a moment when there’s still time top stop. There’s still time to reflect, there’s still time to recall what happened in High Noon, there’s still time to say: “I don’t care who’s right or who’s wrong. There has to be some better way to live” (Tompkins 239).