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Populär Culture Review
from the reader— are mere devices that have little bearing on our
understanding o f a character’s identity.
The Meeting Point
The “M an with No Name” theme seems to be exclusive to
westem s because westems are a genre uniquely well fit for this motif. A
quick study o f the American frontier, both the real west and the fictional
west o f literature and film, makes that plain, and Frederick Jackson
Turner is as responsible as any for both perceptions. “In this advance,”
Turner said, “the frontier is the outer edge o f the wave— the meeting
point between savagery and civilization” (60). It also happens to be the
meeting place between descriptive names and family names.
Descriptive names were an integral part o f native America.
Names like Sitting Bull and Crazy Horse instantly provide a warrior’s
image; Pocahontas was a childhood nickname, meaning roughly, “little
wanton,” given her as a reflection o f her playful nature. Fiction, o f
course, amplifies this naming Convention, and so we get in Cooper’s The
Last o f the Mohicans a plethora o f descriptive names on the wildemess
side: le Gros Serpent, le C erf Agile, Hawkeye (A.K.A. Pathfinder and
Leatherstocking), le Renard Subtil. These names the characters eamed,
and they butt up, in this story’s frontier meeting point, against
distinguished family names such as Heyward and Munroe.
These are the types o f names that have value in civilization— the
names you are bom to, not the names that come from your actions or
persona. O f course, “civilized” names have descriptive elements as well,
but these are far removed from the people who hold them. Few people
know someone named Smith or Cooper who actually shoes horses or
makes barreis. Rather than literal meanings, civilized names hold Status
and a sense o f value; a person with one name would often, with no other
data considered, be assumed to have better qualities o f manner and
morals than another from a different family. M uch o f this comes from
wealth, family history and the fact that those with distinguished ancestors
sometimes feit a responsibility to those ancestors and to the family name.
W ister’s M ary Stark Wood is a very proud scion o f the historically
distinguished Stark family, a direct descendent o f Molly Stark, who she
admires fiercely despite never having known her. This Connection by
itself could gain her entry to a half a dozen or so organizations that
represent the elite upper ernst o f 19th-century American high society. A
memorial to her ancestor occupies honored wall space; every important