Analysis of About Men by Ehrlich - Essay Example

“About Men” by Gretel Ehrlich The essay “About Men” by Gretel Ehrlich describes the image of cowboy as a specific kind of man, different from that stereotype people usually have about cowboys. The author reveals not only the essence of his job and personality but also shows what a great inner contradiction in his nature makes a cowboy such an attractive kind of character, because the contradiction makes cowboy to embody the theme of conformity and rebellion in Gretel Ehrlichs “About Men”. The Gretel Ehrlichs essay “About Men” is not only a simple depiction of a cowboy’s image but also it is a great metaphor that reveals the image of the kind of mysterious and even perfect man who is considered to be attractive because of his specific features. The author claims that the point of such man is that he has the deep characteristic contradiction that, on the first gaze, it is not obvious but in fact it turns out that the man embodies an ideal combination of conformity and rebellion in his essence. Gretel Ehrlich begins her essay with description of the cowboy that people are used to perceiving in their stereotypes about these men. They usually are considered to be tough masculine men who constantly struggle with dangers and fight them with an exceptional bravery. However, the author notes that no one usually thinks about the point of cowboy’s job and what exactly they are supposed to do on it. Except for masculine brave actions cowboys’ responsibilities also include looking after animals and taking care of their safety and health, which more looks like feminine kind of job. That is, the author points on the image of a cowboy which is not only an extreme masculine character with its tough characteristics, but also she shows that a cowboy is a totally compassionate kind of man. One of the most demonstrative moments in the essay is when the author talks about circumstances, that cowboys often are get involved in, and their attitude to them. Thus she quotes one of her friends-cowboys who said that no matter what difficulties a cowboy faced, whether it was snow or wind, or rain, his job was “just to take it” (Ehrlich 83). Such submission of any incoming circumstances reveals a cowboy’s inner conformity and willingness to do whatever his job requires; although when a cowboy faces the hardships of all kinds he applies multiple approaches to resolve them, which embodies his resistance to difficulties. For instance, when a calf is born sick a cowboy would take care of it like if he were its mother (Ehrlich 83). The dual approach makes cowboy a perfect combination of man’s tough features and woman’s softness and empathy. In fact such duality in cowboy’s character makes him attractive and mysterious and the author emphasizes on it by describing the way cowboys treat women. She claims that it looks like cowboys are tough masculine men who have no feelings, but actually they are extremely vulnerable and simply don’t know how to express their feelings and release their deep emotional energy. This moment of the essay reveals another aspect of the theme of conformity and rebellion because it shows the opposite essences of a cowboy’s personality, which are the intrinsic inner emotional energy and the bravery of a silent observer that a cowboy extrinsically demonstrates. The essay “About Men” is a part of Gretel Ehrlich’s book “The Solace of Open Spaces” where the writer describes her perception of Wyoming and understanding of its land and people (Hoy n.pag.). That’s why the perception of a cowboy’s image is described in such a non-fictional way like a kind of metaphor or a sign that transfers a reader to some deeper interpretation of a cowboy not as a profession, or some man from Marlboro’s advertisement. Ehrlich’s cowboy is a deeply perceptional character that possesses some crucially exceptional character traits that in some way characterize the kind of man that is considered to be an ideal. Thus the author describes the theme of conformity and rebellion in such way in order to emphasize the duality of men’s nature and to reveal the universal truth of what men hide and what they actually demonstrate, which often are completely different things. What surprises us about the text’s depiction of the theme is probably this universality of what the author describes, because there are different professions that could have been described instead of cowboy in this essay. Thus the text becomes the food for deep reflection on the matter and makes a reader to consider different aspects of human personality; it turns out that many things we are sure about other people could be wrong just because we don’t really analyze them in different ways. The author suggests us to look at a cowboy the way we aren’t used to looking at him; she reveals such almost maternal aspects of his job that we’ve never thought about considering cowboy’s image that we have in our minds. The way how Ehrlich describes it is very sensitive and imaginary so it almost reaches our intuitive perception of cowboy’s character and simultaneously transfers the perception on the men’s general image. Thus the fact that the text is non-fiction benefits the sensual perception of the message that author is trying to send to her reader. The point is that non-fiction texts are more apt to touch souls and influence those deep perceptional stimuli that activate people’s imagination. That’s why reading about cowboy and realizing the intrinsic nature of his character makes us understand the image as an embodiment of male’s nature and how males combine such treats of character like courage and compassion, observation and resoluteness. The essay “About Men” by Gretel Ehrlich is a great non-fiction essay that reveals nature of such people as cowboys. The author describes a cowboy as an embodiment of the theme of conformity in combination with rebellion, which makes his character a kind of contradictory one, but in the meantime the essay describes a kind of mysterious man whose personality makes a reader think about the nature of men in general. Works Cited  Hoy II, Pat C. ” Review: The Language of Natural Life”. The Sewanee Review. 95(1987): n.pag. Ehrlich, Gretel. The Solace of Open Spaces. London: Penguin Books, 1986. Read More