Wayne and Ford by Nancy Schoenberger

Author:Nancy Schoenberger
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Knopf Doubleday Publishing Group
Published: 2017-10-24T04:00:00+00:00

Halfway through The Searchers, when years have gone by in the fruitless pursuit of Debbie, Ethan reveals he is increasingly driven by the desire not just to find the girl but to kill her. He believes that she’s been contaminated by life with the Comanches and presumes that she has been taken as the wife of his nemesis, the Comanche warrior known as Scar, played by the German actor Henry Brandon, or by one of his braves. The fact that she’s “been living with a buck,” in Ethan’s words, condemns her to death in his mind, and in the prevailing ethos of the day.

When Martin realizes Ethan’s new intention, he devotes his efforts to stopping him. Throughout, Ethan heaps scorn on Martin, calling him “blanket head” and sneering at his mixed-blood heritage. In Ethan’s mind, this racial legacy prevents Martin from being a true man, despite partnering up with Ethan, who would otherwise have much to teach him. Ethan repeatedly reminds him that Martin is no blood kin to Debbie or to himself, even as Martin carries on, firm in his conviction to see the quest completed.

Ford, whether intentionally or not, tapped into one of the great conundrums of a traditional masculine impulse: when men fail to protect those they love, or they discover or decide that the ones they’re protecting are not worthy of their efforts, those men turn deadly. And often they set out to destroy the very loved ones they had failed to protect in the first place. So Ethan, a hard man who failed to protect the woman he loved and her family, seeks to find and murder the last of her children. It’s possible that he not only is carrying out what would now be called an “honor killing” but is perhaps seeking to expunge the last reminder of his failure to protect her and her mother. There are true tales of this behavior: men who murder their families when they can no longer support—and thus protect—them.

On another level, the impulse to murder Debbie is Ethan’s way of saving her from what he considers a hellish life, an opinion strengthened by a visit to a U.S. Cavalry fort to find out if one of three white girls rescued from Indian captivity might be Debbie. The encounter makes for a chilling sight; the three former captives are clearly insane. The oldest one, a young woman, maniacally clutches Debbie’s doll when Ethan shows it to her. One of the younger girls giggles and stares eerily into space, while the third clings to her as if to life itself. It’s an unsettling portrait of the aftermath of captivity—quite different from the true story of Cynthia Ann Parker upon which the novel was based—and it deepens Ethan’s lust for revenge. “It’s hard to believe they’re white,” says the cavalry commander who has rescued them, and Ethan answers, “They ain’t white, they’re Comanche,” spitting out the final word. Ford closes in on Ethan’s face as he leaves the scene, registering

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