ABSTRACT
Woody Guthrie's semi-fictional autobiography, Bound for Glory is representational, a performance that serves as a metaphor for the "folk" or the "hard hit". The train itself is such a prominent symbol in his personal mythology and in the uprooted milieu of the Depression-era outcast's or outlaw's world, and it is ubiquitous in the subject matter and musical rhythms of folk music. This chapter discusses different types of outlaws have become mythic cultural and social symbols. Billy the Kid, Jesse James, Stagolee, John Henry, and tramps with all their complex and contradictory roles as mythical symbols do not simply perform a symbolic role, even if they can and have often been interpreted in this way. By implication of the outlaw's performative role in culture and society, we will see why the notion of home and settling is so integral to understanding the outlaw. The importance of home or lack thereof, is obviously significant in the case of social outlaws like tramps.
