Analyse of the violent American Far West in the book "The Collected Works of Billy The Kid" (1996) by Michael Ondaatje.

As Hollywood has so clearly mythologized through movies such as The Duke and Dirty Harry, being an outlaw in the Far West seemed to be a very risky way of life. Michael Ondaatje showed just how violent this part of American history might have been by writing a book about one of the West's most notorious outlaws, a book appropriately called The Collected Works of Billy The Kid. The Far West in this book is …

…who kills people when he wants, even without a reason, Pat Garrett who is like a terrible scientist killing people precisely, Livingstone who does not hesitate to torture dogs for his own benefit, and the locals who do not hesitate to use excessive violence. Ondaatje complicates our glorified ideas about the Old West by these cruel acts and murderers. BIBLIOGRAPHY (1 source): Ondaatje, Michael. The Collected Works of Billy the Kid. New York: Vintage International Edition, 1996.