The Transformation of 1850s California The Sisters...

The California Gold Rush left a huge mark on America. In the novel, The Sisters Brothers, written by Patrick deWitt, the Gold Rush had a large effect on transforming Californian lifestyle and its population. This research paper will prove that America was transformed by the 1851 Gold Rush and that this has been portrayed realistically in the novel. The novel, The Sisters Brothers, written by Patrick deWitt is the story of two adventurous brothers named Eli and Charlie who travel from Oregon to San Francisco during the gold rush in the 1850s. The brothers are hired to find and kill a man named Hermann Warm. They run into a wide range of tough situations and sketchy characters such a rich businessman named Mayfield who runs his own town.†¦show more content†¦When he was 2 he moved to Southern California and grew up travelling back and forth between Vancouver to the United States. Now age 37, he lives in Portland, Oregon. Mark Medley describes how, years ago, the main idea of, The Sisters Brothers, came to deWitt with just a simple few words â€Å"sensitive cowboy† written on a notepad. They spawned a fictional conversation between two cowboys which grew to become the main characters, Eli and Charlie. One day while deWitt was riding his bike, he came across a yard sale and found an old leather-bound volume titled, The Forty-Niners, which contained pictures and text on the subject of the San Francisco Gold Rush. DeWitt focused on the pictures of old prospectors and abandoned steam ships in harbours â€Å"If I hadn’t happened across that book, I think it would have been a much more stationary story, looking at the old pictures and drawings and paintings was much more inspirational than the cold, hard facts.† said deWitt. He cut out pictures of this book and pasted them all over his walls for inspiration. His novel is not like many stereotypical cowboy characters which many Western movies depict. He did not want it to be a research heavy novel which contained too many hard facts. DeWitt would rather focus on his story and the development of his original cowboy characters. The large gold deposits in California were not