Joy Simmons

Dr. Rick Van Noy

English 680

October 31, 2000

Abandoning the Old and Embracing the New: A Critical Review

of Walter Webb’s The Great Plains

Walter Webb’s The Great Plains is the story of life in the barren and harsh lands of the Great Plains. From Webb’s viewpoint, the Great Plains comprises the majority of the Western United States with only a few exceptions. The three criteria that are used to categorize an area as plains-like are a virtually level land surface, a treeless, unforested area, and an insufficient amount of rainfall resulting in an arid climate. An area can be referred to as a plains if it exhibits at least two of these conditions. Based on these three distinctions, Webb divides the Great Plains into different regions depending upon which of these three standards characterize a particular region. The “High Plains” have all three traits. Traveling east of the High Plains to the timberline, the land accumulates somewhat more rainfall, but is still treeless and level. This area is known as the “Prairie Plains.” Traveling West of the High Plains, the land is no longer level as it stretches to the Pacific Coast. Therefore, the High Plains, exhibiting all three plains traits, lie in the center and are flanked on either side by plains-like regions that still retain at least two of the three distinguishing characteristics.

Webb informs the reader in the Introduction that the purpose of this book is to “show how this area, with its three dominant characteristics, affected the various peoples, nations as well as individuals, who came to take and occupy it, and was affected by them; for this land, with the unity given it by its three dominant characteristics, has from the beginning worked its inexorable effect upon nature’s children […] the historical truth that becomes apparent in the end is that the Great Plains have bent and molded Anglo-American life, have destroyed traditions, and have influenced institutions in a most singular manner” (8). Webb clearly achieves this purpose through his examinations of the “Western Man” in relation to his use of tools, weaponry, means of travel, agricultural modifications, and formation and adherence to laws. He uses the device of compare/contrast to drive home his points by establishing clear distinctions between Eastern and Western institutions and ways/methods of living. At times, he verges on the stereotypical, especially in his portrayal of the effect of Plains life on women, but overall, portrays a thorough and interesting historical account of life out west.

The Great Plains is set up in a logical order. Webb begins with the Introduction, which serves the dual purpose of identifying the author’s intentions for writing the book, and placing the reader within the proper framework to both understand and appreciate Webb’s objective. Chapter Two deals with identifying the climate of the Great Plains. Here we learn not only how they were built, but also what types of plant and animal life are sustained in this region. The next three chapters give a historical account of man moving into the plains area and what he encountered there. We learn about the Plains Indians, their use of horses and weapons. We learn about the Spanish Explorers on the Plains and how their colonization ultimately failed because of the unsuitability of the colonial system. And then, we see the advent of American colonization into the region of the Great Plains. Beginning with Chapter Six and ending with Chapter Nine, Webb does an excellent job outlining and illustrating the extent to which these new settlers had to suffer the hardships that accompanied life on the Plains. We are given a spectacular picture of the Cattle Kingdom, and how “life on the range” evolved. Webb then introduces us to the differences in transportation and fencing out West, outlines the troubles settlers had with finding water, and hypothesizes that traditional Eastern laws failed miserably in the Western climate of the Plains because of their unsuitability to the climate—both natural and social. Webb concludes his book with two chapters—one deals with the literature of the Great Plains, and is possibly the best source to examine for an ecocritical approach to The Great Plains themselves. The final chapter, dealing with the mysteries surrounding the mythology of Plains life, examines such issues as the effects of the Plains on Americans (although these are typically men!), why the West is considered romantic and lawless, and the meaning of the Great Plains in American Life.

I believe that Webb achieves his purpose in Chapters Six through Nine. Through the course of these four chapters, Webb vividly paints us a picture of the Western Man, the cowboy, who lives on his horse, rides the range, six-shooter strapped to his side, following the “code of the West.” Due to the unique conditions of life in the Great Plains, many traditional laws were quite unsuitable. Therefore, men worked out their own set of guidelines to follow. The “code of the West” dictated a strict set of behaviors structured around the principle of fair play. For example, never shoot an unarmed man or a man in the back unless you were prepared to be treated the same way. Through the deciphering of the Western man, Webb proves how this very different way of life changed not only the settlers, but also the whole image of the West. The old traditions and institutions no longer worked in this new and harsh land, and so they had to form new ones in order to survive.

Webb clearly characterizes the Great Plains as an obstacle for the American pioneers to overcome. This obstacle could only be overcome with the realization that the Plains were a totally different type of world. Survival meant the abandonment of all knowledge, ideals, and philosophies that worked in the East. Webb says that “[n]ew inventions and discoveries had to be made before the pioneer farmer could go into the Great Plains and establish himself” (205). He quickly points out that the Industrial Revolution helped the pioneers overcome the obstacles of water, fencing, and agriculture in the forms of windmills, barbed wire, and dry farming. These were concepts and innovations that evolved strictly because the old ones would not work in this new land. Of course, these changes came about only after a time of struggle for the pioneer. He first had to acknowledge that the old ways and methods consistently failed in this wild frontier.

Perhaps the greatest key to survival for the man attempting to tame this wild frontier was a conscious rejection of all that he had known previously. Only then could he accept the new life that lay before him, and in doing so, go forth into that land, making it his own. Webb sums up the differences between the Western man and the Eastern Man when he says “one went on foot, the other went on horseback; one carried his law in books, the other carried it strapped round his waist […] one represented tradition, the other represented innovation, one responded to convention, the other responded to necessity and evolved his own conventions” (206). By giving, in exhausting detail, a vivid account of Plains life and how it was overcome by the pioneers, in various aspects of everyday life, Webb clearly shows the extent to which the defining characteristics of the Great Plains shaped not only those pioneers, but their descendants also. While Webb proceeds from a primarily historical perspective, one can only imagine that these influences still have far reaching consequences in our own time today. His final chapter deals with these issues, but only in a very minimal way when he ponders the effects of the meaning of the Great Plains in American Life. He is mostly concerned with the way that the important innovations, such as handling cattle from horseback, the use of barbed wire fencing, and the introduction of the windmill to make a dry claim tenable, are still used today. In their continual use there lies a new tradition; a tradition that is followed because it was born of failure, sweat, and an abandonment of all that came before.

From an ecocritical standpoint, Webb forces the reader to feel the Great Plains. After reading of this new Western Man--lawless, but following the code of the West because he had to in order to survive--we develop a sense of place from which we can dream of this wild frontier and imagine what it must have been like for those who first initially faced it. We can envision what it must be like today, and fervently hope that some of the romance and lawlessness still live and flourish. We hope that somehow Mother Nature has prevailed over man, not conquering him, but making her presence felt enough so that man has a healthy respect for her power; a respect that demands man push himself to the limit in this foreign and untamed landscape. We fervently want this, because this man demands a respect from us that we desperately want to give him because he appeals to that wild nature inside of us all that society demands we repress.

Webb further develops our sense of place in his discussion of the literature of the Great Plains. As mentioned earlier, this is perhaps the best chapter to consult to obtain a greater understanding of the landscape and its inherent imagery; to understand how the landscape of the Great Plains is perceived in terms of identity and meaning. Through the literature written about this vast area, we come to understand the different ways people make sense of their place on Earth. Webb breaks the literature of the area down into two main groups—the literature of the frontier and the literature of the farm. The literature of the frontier is best characterized by a sense of adventure and unusualness, thus demanding that a sort of glamour surround such fiction. This allows the natives of the area the comfort of a fond nostalgia in which to place the reality of their existence. It is an escape. The literature of the farm, however, portrays the harsh realities of Plains life. We see the ugliness, the drudgery, the tragedy, and yet this type of literature still retains the broad possibilities of appeal simply because of the truth it speaks. In this type of literature, the reader is forced to acknowledge the reality of childhood—all of those times of suffering, and in reading of these types, the reader comes to an awareness and an acceptance of those facets of life that shaped them. Through this process comes the recognition that there are others who also suffered, so that a sense of kinship is born within the heart of the reader. Webb gives wonderful examples and excerpts of each type of literature, ranging from Owen Wister to Hamlin Garland and Willa Cather.

Webb’s account of the Great Plains is primarily a historical endeavor. We are treated to a glimpse of the life that the American pioneers expanding westward faced with both uncertainty and a will to survive. We feel ourselves growing as they must have, through the innovations in agriculture, fencing, transportation via horseback, and a new way to obey the law. The six-shooter and the code of the West were all the laws that these men needed. Although Webb deals only superficially with what life out West must be like today, we clearly see how the characteristics of the region---the levelness, the lack of timber, and the insufficient rainfall—shaped these men and their actions.

The one area where I feel Webb failed his readers is in his very obvious exclusion of women in this historical account of Great Plains life. Webb noticeably diminishes the role of women in this area and era, telling his readers that all women were depressed at the sight of the vast Plains stretching out before them; depressed most often to the point of madness. In fact, the entire book is based mostly on men, except for a mere page and a half in the final chapter where he explains why women have been excluded from his discussion. He states that “[m]en loved the Plains [but] the Plains repelled the women [because] there was too much of the unknown, too few of the things they loved” (505). These types of statements naturally reduce women to a mere stereotypical image of how men perceived them, and yet, regardless of Webb’s own treatment of women, this may or may not have been the case. Perhaps further study or inquiry into women’s roles would have made this account of the West more complete.

Works Cited

Webb, Walter. The Great Plains. Toronto:, Blaisdell Publishing Co., 1931.