GWSS Spring 2008 Section B

" The automobile- and of course the Harley Davidson- serves both as an extension of male potency and an intoxicant. In continually moving forward, and presenting a moving target, one escapes the boredom and the demands of that other life, at the same time as movement itself offers a sense of change as well as of nothingness."
-Eyerman & Lofgren, 65

Building off this quotation, Wyatt and Billy set out to defy culture, to find a better America, and to find themselves. They are looking for societal as well as individual rejuvination and redemption, a blast from the past so to speak, when times weren't as crazy as they were in the sixties. They begin by taking to the road, finding the purity and simplicity in American wilderness. Two particular scenes illustrate the various sides of America at the time and ways in which Wyatt and Billy search for this better America: the ranchers and family, as well as the hippie compound. The scene with the ranchers correlates and compares traditional static society, living off the land, with the subservient wife and children, compared to the counterculture that Wyatt and Billy represent. Although Billy remains aloof, Wyatt seems considerate of the ideals they hold. Secondly the hippie commune illustrates the opposite, left winged, free spirited rebellious society. Nevertheless they are not without their problems. Wyatt and Billy must keep moving, they haven't found the perfect balance, and only mobility holds promise. Yet after they pick up George the mood drastically changes and Wyatt begins to see that stability will eventually trump mobility.
This film is male dominated. The only reference of women include the subservient ranchers wife, the hippie women, and the prostitutes who serve only as objects of desire for men. White masculinity climaxes when the white rednecks, representing oppressive society, kill Wyatt and Billy, solidifying that oppression and conservative ways of society cannot be escaped from simply by taking to the road.