Comparing Sexuality in Greys Riders of the Purple Sage...

Sexuality of the Frontierswoman in Greys Riders of the Purple Sage and Doctorows Welcome to Hard Times The presentation of femininity in Doctorows Welcome to Hard Times is a strong departure from the heroine of Zane Greys Riders of the Purple Sage. Through the metaphor of the gun as the embodiment of masculinity, both authors closely examine the complexities of the sexualized relationship of a frontierswoman to the men of her society. Doctorow mirrors the tensions present in Greys novel though Molly acts as an extraordinarily different vision of what the West required of a woman than Jane Withersteen. Both novels reach a sexual climax as the heroine engages the men of her society in a violent action of blood and birth.†¦show more content†¦The book opens with the failure of Blues manhood. He, bearing the title of Mayor, failed to have both the courage and the skill to protect the town, especially the women, from the Bad Man. Molly mocks his failure even as she watches Blue fill the cylinders of [his] gun: Christ that Bad Mans the only man in town!...I cant believe it...u sing a lady, for Godsake, marching brave behind a ladys skirts (Doctorow 16). This moment, with Blue symbolically taking up his manhood and with Molly simultaneously deriding his status as a man, encompasses much of the tension between the failed masculinity of the citizens of Hard Times and their feminine counterparts. Ultimately, Blues gun fails him and he is saved from the Bad Mans superior skill and ruthlessness only by Mollys struggling and pulling (19). Doctorows portrayal of failed masculinity as the founding sin of Hard Times contrasts strongly with the more traditional Western. Zane Greys Riders of the Purple Sage is a close parallel in many ways to the opening of Welcome to Hard Times. The scene opens with the Bad Man of the piece, Tull, preparing to whip Venters. Venters failure to defend himself comes as a result of surrendering his guns to Janes safekeeping. This symbolic castration leaves him at the mercy of the other men, and leaving him behind a ladys skirts (Doctorow 16). Jane risks herself and places herself in the enmity of the community by defending