An American Outsider: The Cowboy Mythology as a Critique on Masculinity in The Power of the Dog (1967)

Casting the American cowboy as a mythical figure of cultural importance in US culture, the following paper proposes an analysis on the themes and characters of Thomas Savage’s fifth novel, The Power of the Dog (1967). Losing popularity amidst American 20th century popular culture, the Western genre and the cowboy survived extinction by transforming themselves into a mythology, finding refuge through different cultural media formats. Thus, the cowboy became a founding myth to the Western and an idyllic symbol to heterosexual masculinity. In Savage’s novel, however, we see a critique on this mythological status as well as a critique on the toxic and violent masculinity, represented in the novel with Phil Burbank and Bronco Henry, Phil’s mentor and lover, relationship. This paper will be divided into three distinct parts: firstly, a brief exposure to the cowboy’s cultural presence, the second and third part will be focused on Savage’s critique on the cowboy mythology as well as its critique on toxic masculinity. By the paper’s conclusion it will be briefly pondered if the American cowboy became free of this toxic mythology or if its mythological status made him become a figure that haunts others in American contemporary society.