The Searchers' Themes of Vengeances

Pursuing damage against your perpetrator in retaliation for the evil you believe they have done is
seeking vengeance. It is a fierce desire for retribution. It is to pursue retribution to punish people
you consider accountable for the damage done to you or a close third party. Vengeance is a
primal, destructive, and violent reaction to rage, harm, or humiliation. It is an ineffective effort to
turn shame into pride.
The need for vengeance is fierce and occasionally almost overwhelming. But our irrational
instinct for vengeance is frequently twisted, contradictory, narrow, and perilous. On when
vengeance may or may not be sought, many nations, traditions, religions, and civilizations set
guidelines. Unfortunately, for many, these are just "rules" that are meant to be broken.
Many of the characters in the movie (The Searchers) are portrayed as vengeful individuals
who will do anything to exact justice for those who have wronged them. According to the way
Scar is portrayed, he enjoys murdering white people as payback for the horrors the Confederates
inflicted on Natives. He abducts white kids in retaliation. Although Scar is a completely
unappealing villain, his acts aren't entirely without cause; he claims that white men killed his
children before he began scalping and kidnapping, according to his justification, they triggered
him, so this justifies all his actions.
Ethan is introduced to us as a vengeful character at the funeral. As the funeral takes place and
the mourners sing hymns as protocol, Ethan is fidgeting. He becomes so miserable and his
revenge pot boils up, that he can't take it anymore. He orders Rev. Clayton to cut the prayer
short so that they can go searching for his nieces.

Ethan spends years on a lonely quest to hunt down the Comanches that hold her niece
Debbie. Many would assume that the former Confederate soldier pursues the Comanche to
free the girl and then kills her kidnappers, but there is a twist. Determined to kill her because
he believes she was polluted by being an adopted Native American, Ethan pursues her
cherished niece mercilessly and is prepared to die in her path! He has plans to exact revenge
on her. His niece.

This could be interpreted in part as fury that Debbie would sleep with the man who
slaughtered her own family. However, he asserts that "Livin' with Comanches ain't being
alive," and Ethan unmistakably transcends simple questions of loyalty and treachery. One of
Ethan's complex, murky motivations appears to be a strong antipathy toward mingling with
your enemies. This automatically portrays him as a very unforgiving character.

But what if Debbie was plotting her own revenge?

No, why else would you marry the enemy? an enemy who deserves nothing, not even your
hand in marriage.
Let's paint it in black and white: is it the same enemy who killed your family? raped your
mother burnt your ranch house, defiled your sister?This is the vilest thing you can ever do.
Unless you have a plan to destroy this person, Undoubtedly, this could be seen as a clear
manifestation of Sun Tzu's "Keep your friends close, and your enemies closer."

We might want to question where Ethan's bitterness and thirst for revenge are coming from or
if he is just a prick. Well, his mother was killed by the Comanches, he lost the woman he
loved to his brother, he fought in a war where he probably would have seen many people
killed, including his friends, and then he returns home to his family who are massacred,
including the woman he loves who was also raped. His family ranch house is burnt to ashes.
He also finds his niece's raped corpse, which he is forced to bury. This propels his anger and
explains why he acts like the universe owes him justice. This is a man who has seen the
spiteful side of the universe and is out for blood, blood that will serve him justice.

The proprietor of a trade hub is also portrayed as an avengeful character; despite hosting him,
he has secret plans to exact revenge on Martin and Ethan, whom he claims mistreated him,
and wants to profit from their deaths. He goes ahead and sends people to kill and steal from
Martin and Ethan while they are sleeping, and although Ethan outsmarts them, it still doesn't
rule out how vengeful he is.

Ethan's hatred of Indians is overt and unsettling. However, it appears that most of his
animosity is saved for the Comanche people, some of whom murdered his wife and have
since attacked him and his family again.

Ethan is totally cruel toward the Comanche, depriving them of even the respect accorded
adversaries in war. In combat, he shoots opponents who are running away or attempting to
aid the injured. He slaughters buffalo pointlessly just to deny his enemies access to them. In
one of the most frightening scenes, the theme of vengeance is evidently seen when Wayne,
out of anger and spite, shoots out the eyes of the corpse of a Commanche warrier, "so he
enters the spirit world blind and will remain destined to wander forever between the winds."
According to the Comanche's religion, doing so means the brave's spirit won't be able to
return home or find his way in heaven. Here we see that Ethan's quest for vengeance has
pushed him to travel deeper to study some of his enemies' beliefs just to use them on them.
This just shows how much bitterness he carries with him and the extent he would go to fulfill
his satisfaction of justice served.

Brad, Lucy's boyfriend, is also portrayed as a vengeful character. On their watch party near
the Comanches encampment, he believes he has seen Lucy's blue dress and is so excited that
she is alive and that they are going to save her. Ethan tells him that he found Lucy's defiled
corpse in a canyon. Burning with rage, Brad rides wildly into the Comanche camp, and
shortly after, gunshots are heard. Out of seeking revenge for Lucy, Brad put his life on the
line he might have got one or two of them but he was gunned down as well.

Laurie is portayed as a vengeful character, to exact revenge on Martin for having married
another girl, she goes ahead to agree to wed someone she has never loved just to get
even.Were it not for the abrupt arrival that interrupted the wedding,she would have ended up in a
marriage signed up for out of spite.Debbie’s foster brother Martin is with Ethan and they are all
trying to save his sister.But as time passes,Martin starts to worry that Ethan would rather see the
girl deceased than living as a Comanche.
 Everyone waits to see what Ethan would do if he were to successfully meet his niece,Martin
even tries to save her because He is worried that Ethan's drive force has sworn to kill Debbie as
he now viewed Debbie as an enemy,In this case, it's a mystery of a man who spends yearsof his
life searching for someone, meets his objective,brings her back and then just turns and wanders
away. There is a satisfaction that comes with justice,we can therefore say that he was outrightly
seeking for revenge and bringing her home was a fulfillment of his revenge quest.Ethan's sense
of purpose has been fulfilled.
The issue posed in the title tune is left open-ended by picking on the tittle "The
Searchers".We can hypothetically say vengeance was an inspiration to the movie title,I mean
Ethan lost a mother,a brother,his secret lover,his family ranch,his title of an uncle;
After losing love ,wealth and family ,what else would you be searching for if not vengeance?
-"The searcher's"
Works Cited
John Ford. The Searchers (1956).
AMC Movie Site. The Searchers (1956). February 22nd, 2019.