The Searchers

The Searcher, starring John Wayne  and directed by John Ford, is a classic western film that features Ethan Edwards, Wayne's character, as the epitome of rugged masculinity. He is symbolic of both old world nostalgia and the frontier.

He returns home, to his brother's homestead, representative of the domestic space, the closest Ethan ever gets to this realm, only to have his entire family killed by an Indian raid, except for his niece, and nephew, who is questionably his son. 

The remainder of the movie features Ethan and his nephew searching for his niece among Indian reservations. 

An antagonist emerges as the Indian Chief, Scar, who has made Debbie, the niece, his squaw. 

After a final battle, with questions about what Ethan would do, whether kill Debbie out of prejudice against captured women. But he surprises us all by embracing her.

The closing scene pictures the rest of the characters returning to the Jorgenson's home, and Ethan being shut out, the door closing on him.

This scene effectively confirms Ethan's symbolism as wild masculinity, unable to enter the world of the domestic space.

Martin is his nephew, a "half breed" which means his mother was a native American, and father was a white man. He is the "other" character of the script as Ethan degrades him throughout the film because of his mixed background. Huge issue of Race. Standing in for cultural anxieties of the time with the civil rights movement as this movie was made in 1957. Ethan is attracted to the domestic space, but is continually banished from it. Ethan becomes the American Adam.