It is argued that true Westerns all conform to the same mold of the prewar Westerns: A lonely hero who wanders the West looking to settle down, but is never able to give up the violent life he has led. John Cawelti says the Western takes place on the border between two lands, between two eras, and with a hero who remains divided between two value systems (Altman, 220). Schatz describes the Western world as one of a precarious balance in which forces of civilization and savagery are locked in a struggle for supremacy (p. 47). …
