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 The Starretts are examples of the pioneering sprit. This is shown to us in the story Shane, in many different ways. When the Starretts establish themselves somewhere new and start a family, by taking in and helping out someone they didn't know, and Joe Starrett not giving up on the stump. In the year of 1889 the move that was happening across Northern America had relatively come to a holt and the Starretts were one of the last to settle down and start a family on the new plains. They stopped at a small place in Wyoming and set up their family. To do this would be a strong effort as the pain and pressure that people went though in the cross of Northern America was quite large. There is a poem about the great movement across Northern America that applies to what the Starretts would have gone through. " The cowards never started and the week died on the road and all across the continent the endless camp fires glowed." This captures the essence of the movement across Northern America and the feelings that the Starretts would have had. In the story the Starrett family take on a new member to their family, a man titled Shane. When the Starretts did this it showed that they had compassion for others that had traveled the same journey as them and that they were willing to help someone that they didn't know. When the Starretts were moving across Northern America, they would have been tired and happy to see a warm and friendly face, so they gave water and food to Shane to show that they would help him. When Joe and Shane started working on the stump in the property of the Starretts, the pioneering sprit was shown again by both Shane and Joe. They were both very determined to remove the stump out of the ground and get it out of their lives. Joe and Shane never gave up on the stump, they kept at it till it gave way and did what the Starretts wanted it to. Thanks Adam Tierney
-J.J. Hendrix |
This book is about a guy named Shane who rides into Wyoming who is very mysterious. He trys to help a freind out and only makes it worse,but makes evrything better in the end. The reason I liked this book is because it tells you how the west was. It makes you feel like your actually there. I didn't like that he didn't get a girl or a big amount of land for it,but what can you say for a freind who rides alone with one dark side you don't wnat to be on.
Did you like the movie "The Man From Snowy River?" If so, you owe it to yourself to buy and read SHANE, Jack Schaefer's first novel. As is so often the case, Hollywood's version of this beautifully written classic does not begin to capture the integrity of the characters in this book, nor the relationships which develop, nor the love and respect an "ex-gunman-on-the-run" engenders in a Wyoming sodbuster's family, and in any reader with a soul. This book is short, because it contains not one extra or unnecessary word. Every description -- from Shane's posture and dusty clothes as he rides up to a log farmhouse, in the shadow of the Grand Tetons, to the looks of unstated understanding which pass between a boy's father and a stranger who stays for supper, and then stays even longer to help a valley of farmers in trouble -- is poignantly clear and crisp, yet almost understated. Few Westerns have ever gained the degree of admiration that's been s! ! howered on SHANE, and justifiably so. After reading the paperback edition you may even be moved to buy, as I did more than 10 years ago, the "collector's edition," also available through Amazon.com. And once you've read it, you may also find it makes a great gift ... for children of all ages!
I had to read this book for a 7th grade report, and belive me, it was terrible. The whole school hated it, all the teachers too-except the ones who taught literature. Is this some universally bad book for kids, and great book for adults into literature? I strongly object one of the other reveiws,the one who says kids who don't like this book haven't read "great literature." I love to read, and even though Western novels aren't my favorite, I do know the difference between a good book and a bad one- this was clearly one bad book. Many reviewers say this book was too descriptive. It definatly was, but that is not a major reson to dislike this book. The major thing was that it was too boring, I couldn't read more than ten pages before starting to skip words, sentences, even paragraphs.
