Summary
In an era where the American frontier was still a malleable myth in the collective psyche, 'Go West, Young Woman' presents a sophisticated subversion of the Western genre through the lens of feminine subconsciousness. The narrative follows a refined Easterner traversing the continental expanse to visit her uncle, a beleaguered mayor in the heart of Texas. As the locomotive rhythm lulls her into a somnambulistic state, her anxieties regarding the 'Wild West' manifest as a vivid, chaotic phantasmagoria. In this dreamscape, she arrives to find a town surrendered to anarchy—a place where the canine population literally outnumbers the civic order and a flamboyant bandit plunders with impunity. Seizing the reins of authority, she replaces the incompetent male sheriff, instating a militant female police force that implements a 'moral whirlwind' of reform. This proto-feminist utopia culminates in a high-stakes ballistic confrontation with the criminal element and her uncle's duplicitous predecessor. However, the cacophony of gunfire dissolves into the mundane clatter of train tracks, revealing a Texas that is not a lawless wasteland, but a bastion of New England-style sobriety, leaving the protagonist to reconcile her imagined heroism with a surprisingly tranquil reality.
Synopsis
The mayor of a town out in Texas receives word that his niece from the East is about to pay him a visit. The young woman is shown on the train, then landing in the town. Here she finds that the place is literally going to the dogs. The sheriff cannot keep order, and a bandit is in the habit of riding into town and robbing it whenever he takes the notion. Her uncle is about to lose his office, and matters are in a bad way for him. Determined to help him out of his troubles, the girl has the mayor appoint her sheriff. With the help of a female police force, she starts a reform administration which amounts to a moral whirlwind. The bandit is captured after a terrific fight, and the girl herself, finding that the ex-sheriff is in league with the robber, goes gunning for him. She wakes up in the middle of a lively shooting match, to find herself still on the train. Apprehension of what the town may be like has caused her bad dream. Met at the station by her uncle, she discovers that the place is as quiet and well-behaved as a New England village.
