Wister's The Virginian: Entertaining and Instructive Novel
If ever there was an instruction manual on how to behave and fit into the Wild West society, The Virginian, written by Owen Wister in the 1900's, is said manual. Wister's purpose in this novel is to provide entertainment for his intended audience, Easterners who have not yet ventured west, and to depict a clear picture of everyday Western life and those who live it. He wants to give the reader knowledge of what behavior is expected in the West and an idea of what and what not to do in order to fit in with the occupants of the Western land. In order to achieve his goal, Wister writes from a very observant first-person perspective, uses a compare/contrast organization between east and west, and includes a substantial amount of revealing dialogue between the story's characters. Wister's combination of these three strategies opens a window for his intended audience, as well as for readers today, to truly view the West without having to experience it first hand.The first strategy that Wister utilizes is telling The Virginian from a very observant first person perspective. The narrator, an Easterner who is visiting the West for the first time, realizes that he is an outsider in every sense, and closely observes these new people and
The last strategy that makes The Virginian an effective manual and entertaining novel for the novice Easterner is Wister's use of extremely revealing dialogue. One particularly revealing piece of dialogue is when The Virginian replies to a question from the narrator, "Yes, seh, there is a right smart of oddities around. They come in on every train" (10). With this small statement Wister reveals many aspects of the West. First of all, he reveals the difference in dialect between The Virginian and the Easterners by his pronunciation of the word "sir" as "seh." Next, he reveals the sarcastic tone of The Virginian toward the newly arrived Easterner by turning around the narrator's question to say that the Easterners, not the natives of the West, are the odd ones. Furthermore, this sarcastic statement is a foreshadowing of how the narrator is going to be treated by the Westerners throughout the rest of the novel. A second revealing piece of dialogue is seen when the narrator hears The Virginian's friend Steve refer to the cowpuncher as "...such a son-of-a------" (14-15), and is confused when The Virginian takes no offense to this remark. The narrator then comes to the conclusion that Steve means no harm by these words and that this is used as a joking term among the Westerners. This reveals to Wister's Eastern audience that language can take on different meanings in this new land; what they think to be a great insult could be no more than friendly banter in the Western society. The last and most revealing dialogue in The Virginian is when the narrator again hears the words "son-of-a-------", what he thought to be a friendly exchange in the West, spoken to the Virginian by a man named Trampas. Instead of laughing lightheartedly as he had upon hearing these words earlier in the novel, the Virginian draws a gun on Trampas and says to him, "When you call me that, smile." Here the narrator realizes tha
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Approximate Word count = 1292
Approximate Pages = 5 (250 words per page double spaced)
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