analyzed by Steven Bradley

1. What is the genre?

Global—Western > Transition

Secondary—Worldview > Maturation

2. What are the conventions and obligatory scenes for the genre?

Conventions

The hash, hostile wide-open landscape is a ‘character”. The environment is the main villain given the perspective from which the story is told, though it could also be seen as the hero of the story, if the story were told from the perspective of a different narrator.

Hero, victim, Villain roles clearly defined through the story. Because of the transition sub-genre, the story plays around with these roles and muddies them in that the characters take on different roles depending on your point of view. Miller is a traditional western hero, with the rest of the hunting party serving as victims of a villainous environment. However, Miller’s desire to kill every last buffalo is villainous and the environment can be seen as the hero protecting the buffalo, the victims. Ultimately Miller as traditional western hero confronts the real villain of his story, society as represented by the character McDonald.

Hero’s object of desire is to stop the villain and save the victim. Miller’s ultimate object of desire is to kill all the buffalo, but his micro-desire throughout is to save the hunting party from the harsh environment. When the environment is seen as hero, its object of desire is to protect the buffalo from being eradicated by the hunting party.

Hero operates outside the law (selectively or as a matter of course). The trade for buffalo hides is unregulated and Miller (the hunting party in general) is ruthless in his desire to kill off every last buffalo. The environment as hero operates under its own laws.

The power divide between the hero and villain is very large with the villain being far more powerful than the hero. Both the environment and society prove to be much more powerful than Miller despite his short term victories and apparent superiority over each.

Speech in praise of the villain. There are a number of speeches that praise the environment and warn against its power. The characters all have a great respect for how harsh the environment can be, especially the mountains in winter. Miller (the sometimes villain) is also praised throughout by all the characters given his skills and knowledge of the land.

Specific to Transition Sub-genre: Hero is part of society at the beginning of the story and exiled from society by the end or Hero representing the old ways clashes with the newer more nuanced ways—The town of Butcher’s crossing exists solely to facilitate the exchange of buffalo hides. When the story ends, the market for buffalo hides has collapsed and both the town and the buffalo hunters, such as Miller, are no longer wanted by society.

Obligatory Scenes

Inciting attack by the villain: The hunting party can’t find water and they, thier horses, and their team of oxen suffer from dehydration.

Hero sidesteps responsibility to take action: Miller refuses to change direction and head back toward the river when the hunting party can’t find water.

Forced to leave the ordinary world, the hero lashes out. Miller grunts. grows restless, and blames the land for changing, when he can’t find the entrance to the mountain pass that leads to the valley where the buffalo graze.

Discovering and understanding the MacGuffin. The hunting party realizes Miller plans to kill every last buffalo and that he won’t lead them out of the mountains until he’s eradicated the entire herd.

Hero’s initial strategy to outmaneuver the villain fails. Miller’s plan to wait out the winter and carry out as many hides as they can in the spring fails when a log careens down the river as they’re crossing, killing Schneider, and dragging the oxen and the cart with all the buffalo hides down the river.

Hero, realizing that they must change their approach to salvage some form of victory, reaches an ‘all is lost moment’. Miller accepts the loss of Schneider and the buffalo hides while crossing the river and he reminds Andrews they have more hides waiting for them in the mountain and they’ll go back and get them as they always planned.

The showdown where the hero and villain face off. Miller sets fire to McDonald’s shack and skillfully maneuvers his horse to push all the stacks of buffalo hides into the fire. When he’s pushed the last of the hides into the fire, Miller on his horse and McDonald on the ground, shadow box before they stop and stare at each other.

The hero’s sacrifice is rewarded. Miller sacrifices himself and his way of life by destroying the shack and the hides and then riding into and merging with the darkness on his dying horse. He remains free to do whatever he wants. Society’s reward is that it can continue without Miller and others like him and it can avoid dealing with the destruction to the environment that resulted from its material desires.

3. What is the point of view?

Third Person limited (inside the head of the narrator: Harvard dropout Will Andrews)

4. What are the objects of desire?

External/Conscious: Miller wants to hunt a large herd of buffalo only he knows exists.

Internal/Subconscious: Miller needs to stop destroying his resources for profit.

5. What is the controlling idea / theme?

Justice prevails when Miller, an uncompromising buffalo hunter sacrifices his way of life so society can move on without him.

6. What is the beginning hook, middle build and ending payoff?

Beginning Hook – When the hunting trip Miller convinces Andrews to finance is threatened because Schneider doesn’t want to deal with the harsh wilderness of the Colorado mountains, Miller must decide whether to find another skinner, delaying their trip and risking bad weather or convince Schneider to reconsider despite his unwillingness and potential to cause problems on the hunt. Miller convinces Schneider by saying he wanted the best and the hunting party makes final preparations before leaving for the Rockies.

Middle Build – When the hunting party sets out they face one environmental challenge after another until a blizzard traps them in the mountains, Miller must decide whether or not to wait in the mountains until spring so they can carry as many hides as they can back to Butcher’s Crossing or to head down the mountain without the hides before winter sets in. Miller decides to wait out the winter, ultimately leading to the death of Schneider and the loss of all the hides they carried down the mountain.

Ending Payoff – When Miller, Andrews, and Charley Hoge return to find Butcher’s Crossing mostly abandoned and later discover McDonald has no money to buy the hides waiting to be collected in the mountains because the market for them has crashed and ruined his business, Miller must decide whether to preserve or sacrifice his way of life. Miller sets fire to McDonald’s shack and buffalo hides, destroying the last remains of his way of life, before riding a dying horse into the darkness.

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