Wrangle as an Outlaw

Often in love stories, we find that those in love are in their own little world (1). Sometimes, the rules of the average world no longer seem to apply to them, and they become fidgety in the realm of common things (2). This prompts more than little fantastic happenings and a few outlandish behaviors though, in the case of someone living outside the law, an outlaw. Originally a punishment which made a person legally inhuman, forcing them out of society and branding them as a target, like a wild animal, to be shot on sight, the term outlaw eventually came to commonly reference someone who chose to live by their own rules, someone who tempted the rest of society to live so freely as they, someone who very likely breaks the law often but doesn't see the harm, because they know no laws but their own (3).
While not everything Wrangle, or any outlaw, does is inherently against the law, it stands to reason that if they are not apprehended during the statute of limitations on their individual crimes, everything they do outside of a prison cell is against the law. Because I believe that thought is heavily influenced by surroundings (4), I reason that thoughts themselves, formulated whilst illegally in the free world, become outlaw as well. Our thoughts are our own, and so each thought becomes, inherently, outlaw and threatens the fabric of society; which is not to say that it shouldn't occasionally have its seams torn and re-stitched (5).
Bernard Mickey Wrangle is a strange kind of outlaw for a love story, he is neither of torn and humble beginnings or good looks, his motive is to do what is wrong that must be done in a time when right and wrong are becoming skewed, and he doesn't fight his outlaw ways in the slightest to become more of what the princess seeks in a man, primarily because this princess falls in love with an outlaw, not a project. Bernard is a new kind of outlaw because he is in, and from, a new kind of time. Before, I posited that the work as a whole was an indicator of the time and culture in which it was written, and I stand by that. I argue, now, that these were, and are, outlaw times (6). I allege that those were the times that brought being an outlaw into the mainstream (7), and they are why we have such a radically different world than Robbins and his contemporaries did (8). There were outlaws before, so far back as civilization and group agreements on what was and was not acceptable, and there are outlaws now, but our outlaws are of a much different fabric than Robin Hood (9).
We'll begin with Wrangle's appearance as an outlaw. He seems to fit the original type of outlaw, a man who at first glance might cause a shudder or sneer, he presents as someone who does not tend to himself as society has silently agreed one should, and instead chooses to keep himself up as he pleases. However, he does not fit the modern type-cast of an outlaw, for contrast, I'll suggest Hugh Jackman, in the title role of Van Helsing as having played into today's representation (10). This, strangely, makes him all the more an outlaw; Robbins took a role which has been fantasized by media into some glorious man of bulging pectorals and salon-brand hair and instead reverted back to the more honest outlaw. Where our media has spawned outlaws like Batman, James Bond, and Van Helsing, played by men considered sexually attractive by consensus, Robbins went rogue and spawned an outlaw with bad teeth and an unsettling pair of Donald Duck children's sunglasses which, without certain information, might prompt the reader to question Wrangle's affiliation with NAMBLA (11).
While these men, Wrangle and Batman, etc, share little common ground in the way of looks, they all do share the outlaw necessity of disguise. Where Batman hides Bruce Wayne behind the face of a flying rodent, Wrangle dyes his hair, both in black (12). So long as there have been outlaws, there have been those who had to hide their true colors so they might continue to do what is wrong, that must be done, without facing legal prosecution. From here on, I'll be discussing outlaws purely as Robbins does, one who does what must be done, wrong as it is labeled, “for freedom, for beauty, or for fun,” (Robbins, Still Life, 105).
From here, I'll move on to the motivation of our outlaw. Wrangle is a man captivated not by a criminal agenda, but by his own internal motivation to stir things up, to make people question, and, truthfully, to watch things explode. As he states in many ways, many times, he was never about hurting people or causing anyone pain, but about making them look at things in a new way, question stale issues, and, of course, watch the lovely explosion. Really, the biggest reason the authorities want Wrangle is because he is so terribly random and lacks definable motivation (13), his only crime perpetrated against an actual person was this dismemberment of a student who happened to be in a detonated building, where it was thought experiments aiding the US in warfare were being created, and that student was present unbeknown to Wrangle. Upon finding out that he had maimed the man, and lost him his career, his wife, and subsequently his well-being, Wrangle dedicated himself to the idea that he should face some retribution, that he should pay. However, being an outlaw dictated that he must find a way to punish himself, because no judge could pass a proper sentencing (14).
We see this kind if self-inflicted justice in many outlaws, but again, Wrangle is the odd one in the pack. In more “traditional” outlaws, we find those with heavy hearts who love and care but refuse themselves defined relationships after experiencing terrible loss, for the sake of not hurting anyone, they claim. These outlaws are often linked with women whom they care deeply for, those they would do very nearly anything to protect, but whom they still keep secrets from and try to save by leaving them. They fight for justice and peace, they work outside the scope of the law to do what they believe will free society from fear and random acts against human kind. Yet, they damn themselves to be alone because they must be unto themselves to fight the most violent war, of those who are not afraid to die because they keep nameless and alone, and so no one can name who it is they miss when the outlaw dies.
Wrangle, of course, seems to throw that entire argument out the window (15), but still maintains the life of an outlaw. He is, in this vein, the outlaw among outlaws, he manages to be almost wholly different, and yet not the opposite, and so is still called an outlaw because he is not of the normal fabric. Wrangle is the newest kind outlaw, and so he redefines, instead of opposing, the definition. We might call Wrangle an anti-outlaw the way we label Severus Snape an anti-hero; he is an outlaw in that he rejects the commonalities of outlaws, and ends up appropriately turning himself into a bit of a hero for the every-man (16). Wrangle as an anti-outlaw... it might come as a surprise even to him (17), but as luck would have it he managed to be the savior movement society would never back, and as such it became the only pivotal movement he would ever be willing to support. This movement, to stir the world and detonate for fun, is meant to save human kind in a way often only Wrangle understands, but it is still to save us all. Wrangle is very much the anti-outlaw in his rejection of seclusion and quiet solitude, his strange motivation to do good through destruction of inanimate objects instead of villains, and his proclamations of love and the desire to have it and make it stay (18).
Most oddly though, I contend, is his roundabout goal of a world not far from anarchy (19). One would think that, being a passionate outlaw, he would be content with a society that maintains enough order for his very lifestyle and label to exist. Again, though, we find Wrangle to be the anti-outlaw. While he fights to stir things up and create explosions, both literal and metaphysical, he is the only outlaw I have ever encountered who doesn't seek only to upset society, but to unravel its fabric. Without society as it is, as it was in the time of the text, what is wrong that must be done becomes increasingly more difficult to define because so much more is accepted. For the more disagreeable wrongs committed, a supporting crowd is even likely to form. These times are not to the advantage of Wrangle or his label's well-being, but still he tries to be the outlaw who will wreck havoc until everything wrong that must be done becomes commonplace. By committing his illegal acts, he aims to beget in others an urge to do the same, to create a world of outlaws, and thus destroy law. Because what is law if no one follows it? He seeks to create in every one person the seed to begin a movement that can be begun and supported individually, without so many responsibilities that the leader must find others to distribute labor upon. Of course, this is because if too many people get involved in these individual movements, they simply become organized forces, and eventually the dull and passionless will be hired to perform dull tasks, leading to the demise of the passionate movement. That simply will not do (20).
Wrangle, unlike outlaws before him, does not care to upset society for his own glory, for something to boast about, but in order that the rest of society might live most freely, as he does. His ideal world is one in which the outlaw does not exist because everyone acts in such a way that their desires are fulfilled, their lives are complete, and outlaws aren't necessary. Until then, our anti-outlaw will live as he does to promote the existence of such a world (21).

1 And we hate them for it. Even I hate them for it, and I'm in one swell relationship
2 Like Ariel, and her total inability to be happy with a merman, instead she's got to go loony over the guy with legs
3 James Dean, for example. Or boys in high school with aspirations of being James Dean. ... or burger flippers.
4 Things which may heavily influence your thoughts in your surroundings; your fridge, the bottle of wine in your fridge, the cheese next to the wine, the hussy in the laundry room inciting vengeful anger in you because she won't quit screeching to her friend about her tawdry sex life
5 Restitching, by the by, could be an occurrence like Rosa Parks' stand on the bus... or, evidently, the birth of the Twilight Saga.
6 Sounds like a super-villain newspaper, I know, but it was all I had
7 Tim Leary, anyone?
8 Hannah F*ING Montana should never have been granted a place in this world
9 Because our outlaws put LSD in candy, to "help people." This information courtesy of National Geographic
10 If I didn't pick someone attractive, many of my points would have been invalidated. Is that a poor indicator of the strength of my arguments?
11 Tom Robbins, I'm looking at you. This might be from the 70s, free love, and lots of flower children, but that particular image is very unsettling
12 At the time, I think that was meant to hold some deep, dark significance. Upon writing it, I promptly forgot what that was, but it still sounded pretty good.
13 Cute how this is in keeping with a serial killer, no? Not that I just did a project about them in Psych or anything, and thus may have used some outside knowledge to make a strange point...
14 Because the law is the man, man!
15 And yet, I'm leaving it in the paper. I think it a wise decision.
16 Yep, you caught me. I just compared the NAMBLA would-be to Saint Peter Gibbons
17 Like the kick in the pants I thought of giving him pretty much the entire time. Or maybe that wouldn't surprise him. I'd like to thin one of the Montana (Judy, Molly, or Polly) girls took that initiative at some point
18 Which is kind of strange considering he's wacky as all hell
19 This is the crux of my argument because it literally makes no sense to me that an "outlaw" would want a world where he's not the center of attention. I know I make a case for him as the "hero" type in some really convoluted way, but honestly he reminds me a lot more of The Joker, he's like The Joker, with a heart of gold... or rusted tin, your call
20 I apologize to all the hidden-awesomeness people out there who seem to be very dull at work, I'm sure your kinky sex life totally makes up for the fact that you won't smile at a co-worker on their birthday
21 Also, because he's insane, as evidenced by his "retarded jack o lantern" smile