Shane

Shane

Research Flethcher’s act’s of intimidation on the homesteaders

A) Reason
B) Incidents
C) Results

Luke Fletcher was the antagonist of the book. He is a pure villian and problem to the homesteaders from the start. Fletcher starts out as a man to wrapped up in himself to care about anyone else (homesteaders) but they soon realize that this leads to their downfall as becomes more and more threatining as the book progresses.


A) The reason that Fletcher was so intimidating to the homesteaders was because he wanted them to move off of his land. Fletcher wanted all of his land for himself and so that he could expand his cattle ranch on it because he had received an Indian contract. Fletcher realized that he could not simply ask the homesteaders to leave because they had already situated their homes and families there. Another reason that Fletcher realized that he would have to use crafty means of intimidation was because the homesteaders did not like him already and therefore woud not want to do anything to please him and his rude cowboys. Fletcher did not use force but means of intimidation because he knew that he could easily get into the minds of the already outnumbered homesteaders and it would be easier than getting into violent acts. Fletcher knew that he could not use bare criminal acts because he had an image and reputation to uphold and if he was found out to be responsible for murders he would no doubt get into more trouble than anyone else. We can tell that he does not want to get in trouble because he takes care to stay on the right side of the law (eg. When he made sure to make Stark Wilson lure Ernie into the shoot out and set him up so that Stark was in “self-defense”.)

B) The incidents that are characterized as Fletcher’s acts of intimidation are :


· When Fletcher and his men trampled Joe Starrett’s land.
· When Fletcher sent Chris to insult the homesteaders
· When Fletcher sent Chris / Morgan and his men to try and hurt Shane (this would have worried the homesteaders as he was their hope for winning the battle).
· When Fletcher brought in Stark Wilson.
· When Fletcher had Stark Wilson kill Ernie Wright.

C) The results of Fletcher’s acts of intimidation were a mixed reaction. IN some parts of the book Fletcher had his desired outcome such as when one of the homesteaders moved out. In other parts of the book Luke Fletcher just made things worse for himself. Contrary to the final outcome of the book, for the most part, Fletcher’s acts of intimidation worked. Fletcher had acoomplished everything that he had wanted. The rancher made some homesteaders move off of his land, and he scared all the other homesteaders. In fact, if is wasn’t for Shane, if Fletcher had gone on with his plan all of the residents of his land would have eventually left. The overall outcome of Fletcher’s actions led to his failure and the death of many others. This just goes to show that you cannot triumph evil over good.