The story’s structure functions primarily as an allegory for the usurpation of the authentic and vital West by the domesticated and decadent East. It depends on characters and symbols to represent oppositional modes of life. For example, the train symbolizes the rapidly approaching forces of an interdependent, urban environment governed by laws and social structures that rely on cooperation and compliance. Potter’s house represents the culmination of that process. Scratchy is stunned to find him unarmed. Furthermore, Potter has a wife now, further evidence of his thorough domestication. These details stand in contrast to the spirit of the Wild West, represented by Scratchy. He is Jack Potter’s foil—the villain to his hero—and represents a bygone era characterized by a dangerously untamed masculinity. In fact, the death of this particular brand of masculinity is one of the primary casualties of the loss of the frontier lifestyle.

Essential to appreciating this ethos is an understanding of the western genre, which captured the popular imagination for more than 100 years and continues to inspire additional iterations in television, books, and movies. Crane presents—but subverts—several of the conventions of the genre, including its stock characters and predictable plots.