Epic Rush2 :The Object I chose was a Tin Coffee Pot that the eldest of the Brother's Daughters serves coffee from to Old Mose and the Reverend in the first scene. this is the point that the Reverend recruits John Wayne's character and the Boy. There is a Similar pot used much later in the film, when John and the Boy are camping, just before Wayne shoots the Shopkeeper.
To me there is already a link between these two instances: A company of men (whether 2 or 6) coming to terms with there differences and accomplishing a task. In both instances there is also a Statis Game played. The Reverend uses the power invested in him by the state to forcibly enlist Wayne's Character and Wayne tucks the Boy into his bed, then hides to shoot the Shopkeeper, using the Boy as a Diversion.
Nice job--the coffee pot's a good choice of object (tangible yet peripheral), and the parallels (or lack thereof, as the case may be) between the domestic scene and the campground counterpart are worth exploring (because for one thing the parallel between these two scenes/elements will tell us things about the film's depiction(s) of "home" as a concept/mood. The next step in using the technique we're concerned with here is to mine the various connotations bound up with this chain of signifiers ("coffee pot"): The pot's pour spout for instance: Interestingly enough, the twin depictions of authority (legal and avuncular) are each exercised through specific types of verbal outbursts (spouting off....). It could be illuminating to apply this coincidence to an analysis of domestic authority in The Searchers.
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CS