She Likes Her Nice Things: “Squaw Men”, Trophy Wives, and The Deconstruction of Scorsese’s Marital Contracts
At one point in Killers of the Flower Moon, Ernest Burkhart (Leonardo Dicaprio) pretends to moan about his wife Mollie’s (Lily Gladstone) affinity for spending. “You know Mollie,” Ernest says with a paternalistic roll of his eyes, “she likes her nice things.” Ernest is attempting to position himself as the breadwinner, the financier, the decider of the money matters in their household. In short, he’s playing the traditional role of husband.
But this line of reasoning does not pass muster for his brother-in-law, Bill (Jason Isbell). Bill knows that Ernest—much like himself—is tied to Mollie and her family because of their lucrative oil headrights as members of the Osage Nation. Bill also knows that Ernest is a greedy man. He would never be able to settle for a life of comfort at the hands of Mollie’s wealth, and so is instead viciously determined to have the money in his own hands at any cost.
When Bill points out that Mollie doesn’t love money nearly as much as Ernest does, Ernest rankles. “It almost sounded to me like you were calling me a squaw man, Bill.”
“Squaw man” is a derogatory term used to describe a man who marries a Native American woman, and, as such, joins their nation or tribe. By the way that Ernest utilizes the phrase here, one senses a flavor of subjugation, submission, and even emasculation. The usage of the term, in Ernest’s mind, stirs up every petulant insecurity of his surrounding having a wife in control of the family’s money. Bill’s dig, in Ernest’s eyes, can only be perceived as being marked as equivalent to that of a “trophy wife”.
“THE KEY TO EVERYTHING THAT’S YOURS”: SCORSESE’S MEN AND THE HYPER-CAPITALISTIC AMERICAN DREAM:
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