Women of the West
Women of the West
The "wild, wild West" - a lot has been written about the American West and the stories and myths about it are inexhaustible. Although this maybe implied in many of the older movies, films and novels, it is not doubted anymore that not only men were the heroes of those days but that women, too, played a very important role in the times of settling and populating regions unknown to the white man up to this time.It is impossible to say which of the women were the most outstanding for there are uncountable women who decided to follow the call for an uncertain destiny in the remote areas of the North American continent. Many of them came with their families in order to build a new home and explore the richness of the land, others came in search for a husband, yet others went to the rough land in order to distract and amuse the men who had come to the country by themselves (in Brown: 10ff.).
Two
women who both became very known although they led lives that could not
have been more contrasting are Narcissa Whitman
and Adah Isaacs Menken . Both of them had an aim,
both their lives ended in an unexpected and tragic way - yet tragic in
different ways. Narcissa Whitman, a missionary, was killed during a massacre,
Adah Isaacs Menken, an actress and poet, died of ill health at the age
of 33.
