Cowboys: Fantasy vs. Reality

1. Ehrlich attempts to inform the readers that the real cowboys are much different than the widely accepted notion of cowboys. Influenced by popular culture, people have wrong concept or knowledge of cowboys. Ehrlich wants the reader to recognize the cowboys’s tender heart and their diligence.
2. She uses juxtaposition to underline the difference between the widely accepted notion and reality of cowboys. “If he’s ‘strong and silent’ it’s because there’s no one to talk to. If he ‘rides away into the sunset’ it’s because he’s been on horseback since four in the morning moving cattle and he’s trying, fifteen hours later, to get home to his family. If he’s a ‘rugged individualist’ he’s also part of a team: ranch work is teamwork and even the glorified open-range cowboys of the 1880s rode up and down the Chisolm Trail in the company of twenty or thirty other riders”.
3. I have no one around me who had a cowboy life before or someone who knows a cowboy. Therefore, I think I cannot judge someone else’s opinion because I really do not know about it. However, I suppose that her argument is right because she is from Wyoming where lots of cowboys had actually lived there. Furthermore, Ehrlich mentioned that the notion of cowboys is generally influenced by the posters that described cowboys. Usually, popular culture tends to be wrong; it’s purpose is mainly to entertain people, not delivering the facts(those are called documentaries). Therefore, I would agree with her essay.