Hatfields And Mccoy Analysis

Kaleigh Rapuano
CWV-101
June 17, 2012
Greg Malloy
Hatfields and McCoys
My observation is based on the television mini-series ‘Hatfields and Mccoys’. This is a true story of two families in the late 1800s that had animosity between each other and how their animosity led to many deaths, a battle, and eventually a spot in history. Both sides take pride in their family and both families stand up for what they believe to be right. In the beginning I thought they were all very close knit and I liked that about their families. Their feud began when the patriarch of both families were off at war and Devil Anse Hatfield left the war in the middle of the night after trying to convince Randall McCoy to come with him. McCoy, doing the honorable
thing refused and stayed to fight in the war, he was held a POW for an undisclosed amount of time. When he returned home he had a hatred for Devil Anse Hatfield for leaving the war. This set the two families apart from each other. The good thing that I can find in this is that both families are so tight knit that no matter what they instantly supported each other’s decisions.
My family is also like that, if there is anyone in the world that should have your back it is your family and mine does. My family believes in putting God first and everything else will fall in line. The Hatfields and the McCoys however, did not. They both believed in God and prayed but to me it wasn’t Christianity, it was more like a mix of Christianity and secular humanism. I say this because eventually the families took the matter in their own hands and started ‘revenge killing’ each other. There were so many Hatfields and McCoys that they basically took turns killing each other; a Hatfield would kill a McCoy and another McCoy would kill him to avenge his relative only to be killed by another Hatfield who was avenging the prior, a vicious cycle. This demonstrates secular humanism to me because they are living by the rule of ‘if it feels right to you then do it’. The feeling of a loss in the family is a really sad horrible feeling but to these families killing the person that killed your deceased relative is not only okay but almost expected and somehow even makes them feel better. But on the other hand when the mothers would know that one of their kids were about to die or be sent out in a battle
they would pray to God to take their souls to heaven because they mean no harm. That to me is at least believing in God and heaven and hell. So maybe the men just have big egos and make bad decisions on killing others just because they live in a time were the law wasn’t as serious and the women are the good kind hearted people that pray for the men in their family and keep God ‘in the loop’ so to speak. So I feel that they are good families just not to each other. They are loyal to one another, for the most part, but how they function as a family and the choices they make does not change my view of a family. My family is wonderful and how someone else’s family acts can’t change that. I think that they choice to kill each other’s family members does put a negative influence on how a family should act and live, but thankfully we have the police in the century. The late descendants of the Hatfields and the McCoys actually signed a peace treaty between the two families in the 21st century, showing that people can forgive each other and not have to resort to violence.