Shane by Jack Schaefer Questions to help you write your essay: 1. At the very beginning in Shane, Jack Schaeffer has Shane pause at the crossroads between the cattle ranch and the farm. Why is this important to Shane himself and the novel′s theme? 2. Does the Starrett family ″con″ Shane into staying at their homestead? If so, why? 3. What seems to be Shane′s reason for going to this distant Wyoming Valley? 4. The novel chronicles the actual event of the Johnson County Cattle War. Notice the attached map that shows the exact location where the events of Schaffer′s novel takes place. Does Schaeffer′s′ novel replicate the actual location of the Johnson County Cattle Wars? 5. Shane is a gunfighter who enters the valley. Is he here for a particular reason? The novel evades that question, but maybe it is a key to understanding the events and Shane′s response to them. Assignment: What links The Great Gatsby to Shane is a complex narrative structure in which each central character is both mythic and shadowy, a man without a known past: Gatsby the gangster and Shane the gunman. Each one attempts to create a new and optimistic future but without acknowledging past events or accepting a connection between the past events and a possible future success. Both works are written in the first-person narrative, and both Nick and Bob are writing of events that happened in the past. The romantic Nick as narrator does not know the depth or reasons behind Gatsby’s motivations in his quest for Daisy and consequently presents Gatsby as an extension of his own romantic imagination. Nick sees the Gatsby-Daisy connection as purely romantic involvement. The young and naïve Bob Starrett experiences events that he clearly does not understand until much later, as a wiser and older man, who has witnessed the passing of the West and the final closing of the frontier. In this respect, each narrator presents a tragic and shadowy character who represents the narrator’s own consciousness and secret longings rather than the inner awareness of the protagonist. The older Bob Starrett tells the story of Shane, Shane’s confrontation with Stark Wilson and Luke Fletcher as well as describes the ongoing relationship between Shane and Bob’s family during that turbulent summer of 1889, but with certain omissions and distortions. His story, years later, becomes mythic and heroic but it is also deceptive. When we begin to examine what the unstated reasons for Joe and Marian Starrett to encourage Shane to stay with them, it is possible to uncover another story which seems more self serving and far from heroic. Young Starrett defends his father and mother during this story, but he also has troubling doubts about them. This area of doubt is the subtext of the novel. Don’t forget, too, that this story is set during the historic Johnson County Cattle War in Wyoming. Write a essay that examines the relationship between Marian and Joe Starrett and how they relate to Shane. As well, consider why Shane stays with them and is encouraged to defend them in the fight between the farmers and cattlemen.