Assess the contribution of Buffalo Bill to the making of the mythic Essay

Assess the contribution of Buffalo Bill to the making of the mythic West - Essay Example The myths are now history, thus transforming the nature of a time and place through the use of celebrity and propaganda. Modern culture is now built on the myths that are created through textual histories that are exaggerated and changed to support the needs of the immediate culture in creating heroes, villains, and a story to fill the spaces within the history of mankind. Early Life William Frederick Cody was born on February 26 1846 to Mary Ann and Isaac Cody in the county of Scott in Iowa. Mary Ann and Isaac Cody had traveled to Iowa as pioneers, part of the group of people who were expanding the territories in North America towards the West. In his autobiography, Cody (1978, p. 17) writes that he was the fourth child of eight children in the Cody family. When he was born, he and his family lived on a farm that they had given a Native American name, Napsinekee Place, but when he was around the age of seven he was moved to the small town of LeClair, Iowa where he had an idyllic chi ldhood. Cody (1978, p. 28) describes his childhood as an adventure, one where he stole apples from the neighbors orchard with the vigilance of the guard dog always his nemesis. He swam in the Mississippi River and took boats out on the water, although the boats were also not always his to take. He reports the story of getting stuck out in the middle of the river, he and a childhood friend having lost the oars, only to be discovered from having stolen the boat from the dock. His descriptions of the events of the his early life describe him as a child who sought adventure and wanted to experience everything, all of the thrills that would come from challenging his boundaries and the elements of his natural world. After his family made a brief and failed attempt to move to California, they moved to Walnut Grove Farm where Cody learned to trap and hunt. He became good with horses, but one event stuck out in his childhood that brought him great sorrow and involved a horse accident. His ol der brother, Samuel, rode out with Cody into town and decided to take a mare that he had been warned not to ride. Samuel, with Cody in his company on another horse, took the mare to the school where he decided to show off, but the horse reared up and then fell upon him, giving Samuel fatal injuries that took his life the next day (Cody 1978, p. 20). Some elements of this event may have contributed to the nature within Cody that led him to his celebrity. Cody’s father was involved in politics, giving him a public persona (Cody 1978, p. 19). So Cody was not unfamiliar with the concept of being known. Samuel had been a popular young boy, his gregarious personality leading the community to give him a great deal of adoration. When he died, the community felt the pain of his passing, thus even in his grief, it is possible that William saw that the effects of celebrity was the appreciation and emotional connection of a large number of people. That Cody sought fame may be traced to t his event as he recorded it in his autobiography as being transformative in his life. The second event in Cody’s life where fame and death were connected came with the stabbing and eventual death of his father. Cody’s family was moved from the farm in Iowa to Kansas, a state that was heavily involved in a debate whether to allow slavery within its borders. His father, involved in polit