Another similarity between the characters is their quest. Both of them are obsessed with rescuing a young girl, Iris in Taxi Driver and Debbie in The Searchers, restoring her virtue and returning her to society. After completing their mission, they appear to be somewhat satisfied and returned to the society that they longed escaped. However in The Searchers, the last shot shows a hesitant Ethan on the front porch torn between domestic life and the wilderness. The viewer deduces that he will eventually return to the desert. Similarly after Travis awakens from a comatose state he returns to driving his taxi through the streets of New York City. Other characters that are similar are Iris and Debbie. They are both the woman-child that the main characters are trying to rescue and they both represent sexuality. For example, when Ethan realizes that she probably had engaged in sexual acts, he becomes enrage because he feels threaten by her sexuality. Whereas Iris her sexuality his shown by the fact that she is a prostitute. Sport and Scar can also be likened. They are both the objects of Travis and Ethan rage and hatred and they are the people who control Iris and Debbie. Also Sport's long hair and beaded headband are suggestive of Scar's appearance. .
Second of all, Taxi Driver and The Searchers share common themes like many films in fact. One of the most obvious similar themes is loneliness. Like I said before, both characters share a sense of loneliness caused by the fact that they are alienated and misunderstood by society. "The Westerner at best exhibits a moral ambiguity which darkens his image" (Mast, 458). Travis in Taxi Driver repeats often that he always felt lonely, whereas Ethan you can see that he is an unrest loner who travels on his horse to escape society. Another theme is sexuality that is represented by Iris in Taxi Driver and Debbie in The Searchers. In both movie sexuality is represented as a corruption that needs to be annihilated.