Young Wild West: The Prince of the Saddle Presented by: Victoria Martinez and Leslie Moseley

Summary This Dime Novel is written anonymously, by “An Old Scout” Series: Wild West Weekly: A Magazine Containing Stories, Sketches Etc. of Western Life Published: October 24, 1902 by Frank Tousey 5 cents per publication, or $2.50 for an annual weekly subscription Plot Line

A Closer Look “At the Forks for the present. I never stop in one place any length of time. I have no relatives that I know of, and consequently no real home” “And your name?”, “Young Wild West”, “Is that all?” “Yes; that is all the name I ever knew”…”some fifteen years ago a party of hunters found me on the plains of Southern Kansas…I was lying in a clump of bushes near the smoking ruins of a cabin…a band of Comanche's had brought about an hour or so before” “My mission in life is to do good to mankind in general, and to avenge the killing of my parents and my little sister.” –Young Wild West (Chapter II: Trailing the Sioux)

Theme: Race Mission Statement of Wild’s life demonstrates clashing of races Demonstrates irony Native American’s called “Red demons”, “Red devils”, “savages” Cheyenne Charlie and Young Wild West both use dialogued language to express not simply the differences they find between between themselves (Caucasian men) and the Native Americans, but use derogatory language to insinuate hatred and coach the men around them to hold the same anger, distrust, and hate for them.

Theme: Race The dime novel brings out a negative view of racism. We are shown from the beginning how these men thought of the Indians as red devils and Hispanics as greasers. “As he stepped forward, a candidate for the ownership of the horse, one of the men in the party whispered to Cheyenne Charlie that he “hoped ther greaser would break his neck” (2). They did not care whether a man was hurt or dead because of his ethnicity. The front cover of the dime novel tells a lot about the dime novel and its theme, we see these westerns celebrating a victory, yet we do not see anything about another opponent (the Indians) therefore we can already come to a conclusion about how the story goes.

Surprising Observances I was surprised by how racism was portrayed in this dime novel, it was talked about to casually and no one was ever shocked about how each other feels about the Indians or Mexicans. They were so insignificantly called red demons/red devils and greasers.

Works Cited An Old Scout. Young Wild West: The Prince of the Saddle. Frank Tousey. New York. October 24, 1902. Print.