1. The Virginian
By Owen Wister
1901

2. The
Prototypical
American
Hero

6. - Love story on the surface - Mythologizes the Johnson County,
The Virginian
- First novel of a prototypical
American cowboy
- Love story on the surface
- Mythologizes the Johnson County,
WY war, 1890s
- Takes side of large ranchers
- Describes frontier justice
- Main character is a “natural
aristocrat among men”

7. The Virginian Meanings for Today
- West is the antithesis of the East in an era of government corruption, greed and inefficiency.
- Westerners became autonomous and heroic.
- The cowboy represented fairness, chivalry, hard work, self-reliance and independence.
- The Virginian describes the ideal nation as seen by the middle class.
- The cowboy came to represent middle class individualism, freedom, equality and opportunity.

8. Who is the Virginian?