The beginning of the story may leave the reader a bit weary of the exact genre of the story, there were no definitive clear cut references that indicate a Western drama, it was not until Doc asked Duke to join his “gang of outlaws” that you are really introduced to some form of genre and time period.
The author Abbot again shakes it up when he speaks about the modes of transportation. Doc’s motorcar is important in shaping the story through creating a time frame for which things are happening. The usual and most efficient way of getting from place to place during the19th century was by horseback, the use of the motorcar outs the time frame for this story in the late 19th century into the 20th century and the start to the scientific revolution.
Bank robberies and stickups were common during the western era. The taking what you want mentality and uncanny bravado, believing you are untouchable, was common for desperadoes of the “Wild West.” The vigilante justice taken on by the jilted rebels and fed up civilians was the most effective form of justice during an era where braggadocios marauders lived outside the law.
One feature of the story that did not seem to coincide with the assumed genre of a western is kid. Transgender almost feminine men were almost non-existent in the West where the rough and rugged reigned supreme.
Purpose fits into what Chandler is saying because it shows that there is no definitive genre, there is nothing that sets a certain genre in stone. Genre can and will be whatever and however the reader perceives. The genre van change if a reader feels that an element does not belong with the assumed genre of the piece.