The Last American Man

According to Gilbert, Eustace Conway is the last American man. This goes back to when America was still expanding into the west and there were frontiersmen who lived out in the dangerous areas and had to live off the land and maybe not live exactly like Eustace did, but similarly. We have all of these tales today that Gilbert mentions in the book like Pecos Bill, Davy Crockett, Paul Bunyon etc. that were all frontiersman and lived like Eustace. When other people from around the world visited America and saw frontiersmen or people like them they were impressed and considered them to not only be part of American democracy and way of thinking but as what the definition of an American man is. A lot of us heard these stories when we were little and of course we admire them and grow up thinking that is what a "real man" or even a real American man is like. In Europe they do not tell their children stories like this, at least not that I am aware of. Eustace is going back to the original true American men by living like he does. He is actually living out what as Gilbert says in the book a lot of men wish that they could do or want to do but do not actually ever do it. There is a part in the book in which Gilbert talks about how when Eustace left Turtle Island and talked about his life men would say "I wish I could do what you are doing" and Eustace would say "You Can." But of course very few men would actually be as determined and committed as Eustace and go out and actually do what he did.