Women, Men, Widows and Children in the Back Country

I have seen many films of this type, but wonder in real life how many widows were taken to the Back Country and experienced "accidents" so that that the new "father" could then live with the young son without the inconvenience of the mother. I'm not saying the man abused the son or any of that crap, just that at this time period (it appears to be just after WWII) there were a lot of fathers who lost thier sons, but were not interested in a wife. As I understand it from the SocPysc classes I took the men truly believed that there was only "one woman for them" on the planet, and when they lost their wives; thier True Love, then they were completely lost so sought the children as the next best thing to regain the lost family love. Of all the books I read, none of the men hurt or abused the children, but the children were confused and could not understand the "man's values" that were being taught to them. For instance in this film Robbie's fainting when being shown "how to be a man" by killing and dressing an animal. In this case Mary inteferred with this "manhood ceremony" and so goes the plot of the film. This is an excellent example of the tug-of-war a man's heart endures - A woman's love, or a son's love? Evidently a woman's love was as common as River Rock, so as the story plays out, the boy is the prize, but for reasons not understood by today's skewed and deviant morals.