Popular Culture Review Vol. 27, No. 1, Winter 2016 | Page 57

his  behavior  (his  reputation).  In  reference  to  the  process  of  “regeneration through violence”,  Slotkin  observes  that  “The  heroes  of  this  myth-historical quest must therefore be  ‘men  (or  women)  who  know  Indians’—characters whose experiences, sympathies, and  even  allegiances  fall  on  both  sides  of  the  Frontier”  (14).  When  it  serves  their   interests, Raylan and Boyd do fight alongside one another. When he personally needs assistance and when he has been asked by his fellow marshals to do so, Raylan approaches the people of Harlan County. Even though his behavior may bring varied repercussions for Raylan himself, it ensures a momentary stop to the criminal behavior in his community. Regardless of his personal losses, Raylan has sworn to protect his community and return it to its utopic state. In an early review of Justified, Nancy Franklin emphasizes  Raylan’s  focus  on the  past:  “Givens  is  known  everywhere  he  goes,  and  his   laconic,  direct  wit  seems  to  draw  on  the  constant  pain  of  understanding  that  he  can’t   escape  his  past  and  the  people  in  it.”  Raylan’s  character  exists  as  a  product  of  the   Western past as indicated by Leonard himself. In an interview with his longtime researcher, Gregg Sutter, Leonard attests to the fact that he utilizes the Western past as a basis for his body of work (xi). In his early days as a writer while he was teaching himself to write, Leonard immersed himself in the genre, thereby learning to write what he personall H