Model
Digital Document
Publisher
Florida Atlantic University
Description
The existence of a vast frontier prior to the twentieth
century afforded great opportunities and produced an optimism among the American people. When the lands filled up,
the frontier vanished and with it that optimism. In order
to recapture the feeling of hope associated with the existence
of a frontier, a whole mythology was built around the
Old. West and its chief representative, the cowboy. Modern
Texans, the subjects of Larry McMurtry's novels, are well
acquainted with legends of the Old West. But the myth bears
little resemblance to their own lives in a hectic, rapidly
changing modern Texas. It is necessary for the McMurtry
character to appreciate his heritage but sever himself from
it in order to cope with the twentieth century. In a
closed society limitations must be accepted and one must
find contentment in his own era rather than trying to escape
to another.
century afforded great opportunities and produced an optimism among the American people. When the lands filled up,
the frontier vanished and with it that optimism. In order
to recapture the feeling of hope associated with the existence
of a frontier, a whole mythology was built around the
Old. West and its chief representative, the cowboy. Modern
Texans, the subjects of Larry McMurtry's novels, are well
acquainted with legends of the Old West. But the myth bears
little resemblance to their own lives in a hectic, rapidly
changing modern Texas. It is necessary for the McMurtry
character to appreciate his heritage but sever himself from
it in order to cope with the twentieth century. In a
closed society limitations must be accepted and one must
find contentment in his own era rather than trying to escape
to another.
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