Futility and Masculinity
"Along with its more affirmative cultural commentary on the sate of the nation Easy Rider also partakes of apocalyptic, disaster-filled predictions on the future of the country" (Klinger 193).
I think this is an important distinction to make when considering the film. Although there is a positive aspect in parts of the plot, there is definitely also a foreboding end-of-the-world/end of culture type of subtext to the movie. Maybe it is not even a subtext, but an obvious textual reading. I think the quest for a new masculinity is shown in this light as both something needed, but something also very dangerous. We see in scenes like the farm sequence and when Billy and Wyatt have to patch their tire a sense of an old masculinity via western cowboys. Coupled with this, there is definitely a new masculine approach as well, in the vein of Rebel Without a Cause and On the Waterfront. We see this in the scene where they are tripping and allows for Wyatt's emotions to come through. Although this is a drug induced weakening of the masculine, it still shows the inner representations of these characters. I think the fact that there is such tension between the two masculine entities and what ends up happening to our easy riders, shows that there is something very futile and terminal in these actions.