Failure of the Myth: The American West as Fraud

Abstract

The American West has been mythologized for its uniqueness, endless economic opportunities and the decisive role it has
played in shaping the American character and democracy. As a matter of fact, Western mythology since its earliest times propagandized
the West, despite its aridity and shortage of water, as “The Garden of the World” where the rugged and resourceful individual could
easily secure a life full of abundance and live happily. Such Eden-like descriptions prevailed throughout the nineteenth century and were
even renewed when the region was officially highlighted as the future of the nation and as a “safety valve” for economically poor city
dwellers. However, 1930s would initiate a mounting opposition against the West and the publication of Walter Prescott Webb’s The
Great Plains (1930) would reshape, not only Turner’s regionalist and sectionalist ideas by portraying the Great Plains as a separate
cultural entity, but also brand the Western topography with only one word, aridity. Eventually, the second half of the twentieth century
proliferated in alternative fictional and historical representations of the West and marked the rise of a new type of Western which
parodied and reversed the formula conventions for different ends. Likewise, E. L. Doctorow`s Welcome to Hard Times (1960), shatters
the happy ending of the classic Western by re-presenting the cyclical failure of a frontier town. In addition, neither the hero, portrayed as
a short-sighted coward nor the other characters, depicted as materialistic and self-centered, nor the topography, described as
uninhabitable, fulfill the requirements of the genre. Furthermore, Welcome to Hard Times, depicts the western mythology of progress and
abundance as fraudulent as it is based on “get in, get rich, get out” (Limerick, 1987: 100) economic schemes.