The Searchers

“In the end, the land is everything to the hero; it is both the destination and the way. He struggles with it, defies it, conquers it, and lies down with it at night” (Tompkins 81).Ethan is the land and everything that resembles it. He is the tough bread and driven alpha male cowboy who is everything to the people around him and the story itself. The land in itself is hard, and at times, cold’ two things that Ethan has easily become as he has no emotions or feelings towards any characters or and situation. After Debbie is kidnapped and the girls have been raped and killed, although he has no attachment to the situation emotionally, he knows that it is his duty to go out and rescue Debbie from the savage Indians. He plays the stern and cold faced hero who exemplifies the vast and emotionless desert. He has no emotions or remorse because the land he was bread from showed him none in return. “He is as merciless as the land who bred him”. He is ruthless, blunt, and unforgiving. In the end he wants to kill Debbie because of how she has changed and what she now represents. But in the end, he realizes that it is his duty to protect her and to that the right thing to do is to bring her home. Because, “the land doesn’t just test men, it also rewards them”.