Wyatt Jarp Research Paper

As DeArment elaborates, during the 1870s and the beginning of the 1880s some of the most popular gunfighters came into Dodge City, one of them being Wyatt Earp (33). When Rebein declares that Wyatt was the best at what he did, he explained that he gained this title at his previous positions in other towns acting as a peace officer, in his book (79). The Wyatt Earp heard of today has been manipulated with different views of our history. According to Carter, “Exaggerated and belittled, twisted by fiction and sometimes lost in legend, Wyatt Earp’s character and career have been variously represented. While he may not always have acted with the noblest of motives, he was nonetheless the prototype of the Western lawman” (67). Wyatt’s talent caused

Carter states that, “Earp was a man who instinctively responded to a crisis” (66). An example was given by Schillingberg, agreeing to this by stating that there was a time when Wyatt heard gunshots in town, approaching the scene he could see that the criminals were getting away so he took a shot at them to hit and wounded one who died later that day after a complication with the amputation of his arm (220). While Earp served three terms as marshall there was no record of him intentionally killing someone in his time there (Carter 69-70). Earp was often found in many tough situations involved or not it made a bad name for him that he didn 't necessarily want (66). Roberts explains that Wyatt always felt the need to have a good reputation, when he was around gunfights and reckless people that reputation was in jeopardy (30). While Doc Holliday and Wyatt were friends Doc was the reckless one, Wyatt would get offended by his actions, including getting drunk and acting without reason, he was to the point he couldn 't take it any longer and broke off the friendship he had with Doc, for sake of his reputation (31). Wyatt Earp was seen by many as the hero they wanted him to be, was this the real Wyatt or was there something they did