The Lone Ranger Unplanned Isolation And Heroism On...

The Lone Ranger: Unplanned Isolation and Heroism on Turner’s Frontier Turner’s frontier hypothesis glorifies the independent hero displaying fortitude in the face of arduous challenge. However, in Frontier Literature, the constant theme of unplanned isolation underlies protagonists’ development from frontier wanderer to true frontier hero, serving as a prerequisite for the protagonists’ display of fortitude along the frontier. In L’amour’s The Gift of Cochise, McCarthy’s All the Pretty Horses, and Weir’s The Martian, unplanned isolation serves as the backdrop for the protagonists to prove their worth as the frontier hero. Each text provides a character of ostensible powerlessness—Angie as a woman, John Grady Cole as a young boy, and Mark†¦show more content†¦Her ability to dictate her family’s housing location bifurcates her from the rest of the 19th-century women of her time, but she never truly encapsulates the spirit of Turner’s western hero while with Ed Lowe. Her implic it subservience to Ed in the eyes of outsiders prevents her initially from exhibiting her heroic qualities until she loses Ed in the gunfight. Her advancement along the frontier after the loss of Ed prompts Cochise to visit and ultimately revere Angie as the ultimate frontierswoman and western hero. Cochise only decides to pay Angie a visit after her successful defeat of his best fighting men, unsure of how â€Å"a lone woman with two small children [has] fought [the Native Americans] off, [when] the woman [is] scarcely more than a girl† (L’amour 56). Cochise’s actions exemplify the fact that his deference to Angie grows not merely because she advances on his land, but because she, as a single mother, successfully thrives in the American west without her husband. Only after demonstrating her own rugged individualism through her masterful shooting and her conquest of the Apache land does she earn the esteem of Cochise and the Native Americans. Furthermore, Angieà ¢â‚¬â„¢s heroic identity is best evidenced through her response to Cochise’s question about why she chooses to stay in Apache land after losing Ed when she â€Å"look[s] at [Cochise] with surprise [stating] the land is [hers], the spring is [hers]†¦ the Apache do