Shane Literary Elements

Western

Late 1889 and early 1890 in Wyoming territory during the period of conflict between rancher and homesteaders known broadly as the Wyoming Range War and more specifically as the Johnson County War. The bulk of the action takes place at either Starrett's farm or the nearby collection of buildings constituting the closest “town” and which is run by the most rancher in the area.

First person perspective from Bob Starrett from the perspective of adulthood recalling the events as the fictional present during which he was a young boy.

A wistful innocence which slowly gives way to a maturing understanding of the complexities of adulthood mixed with occasional hero-worship and mythologizing of a certain historical period

Protagonist: The homesteaders and the mysterious stranger Shane. Antagonists: The ranching industry and hired gun Wilson.

The competition over land and usage rights between homestead farmers and the ranching industry which reaches a fever pitch when Joe Starrett hires Shane and Fletcher hires Wilson to draw him into a shootout.

The showdown between Shane and Wilson in which Wilson’s death become emblematic of the victory of the homesteaders over the ranchers, thus breaking their economic stranglehold over them.

Shane’s decision to return to the saloon to stand up to Chris following his humiliation foreshadows how Shane will ultimately have to give up on his effort to put his violent past behind and live a different kind of life by strapping his guns back on in order to head to the saloon as the site of his gunfight with Wilson.

“This Shane never carried a gun. And that was a peculiar thing because he had a gun.” The understatement here is the term peculiar to describe Shane as a man without a gun because he soon enough demonstrates the kind of talent with the weapon that only comes with keeping it as a constant companion.

The insistence that Shane is not gone, but remains “all around us and in us” has been interpreted by many as an allusion to Shane as a Christ figure whose spirit never leaves those who believe.

The driving imagery of the narrative juxtaposes that which has become obsolescent and worn out its usefulness (the stump, Fletcher, Wilson) with that which represents the taming of the frontier and the arrival of civilization to the West (the corral Starrett is building, Shane dispatching of Wilson, Chris bringing a bottle of soda pop to Bob).

Bob’s descriptions of Shane are often filled with paradox: “He was far off and unapproachable at times even when he was right there with you. Yet somehow, he was closer, too.”

The substance of the novel as character study is the parallels that Bob draws between his father and Shane as two men each missing parts that are perfectly filled by the other as well as the more starkly drawn parallel between Shane and Wilson; one of whom knows his time is over and one of whom who remains tragically ignorant of this truth.

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Interestingly, one of the few uses of personification in a novel taking place on a farm in the late 1800’s directs the human attribution not toward animals, but a gun. In the midst of describing his first, only and very brief glimpse of Shane the Gunfighter in his fullest glory as he draws on Wilson, Bob characterizes Shane’s weapon by with the first-hand witness account of watching “the barrel line up like a finger pointing.” In the moment, he is describing the perfect melding of man and machine as if Shane had become a part of the gun and the gun had become a part the man.