Exploitation in "The Buffalo Skinners"

The theme of exploitation in cowboy society in "The Buffalo Skinners" shows how hard things are for workers and how promises are broken. The poem challenges the idealized concept of freedom and adventure by portraying the cowboy as a person who is taken advantage of by employers. The speaker describes, "Our meat, it was of buffalo hump, like iron was our bread" (Anonymous 13). The simile of their bread to iron, in this instance, highlights the low quality of even the most essential goods, emphasizing the mistreatment the workers received. This lack of adequate nutrition highlights the burden…