I think that's definitely in there. Kirk's kind of a cowboy and he totally embodies that cowboy image of the American leader. He doesn't play by the rules, he goes by instinct. He's very much an individual trusting himself above everything else at times.

And Nu!Kirk really did play that up. It was an affectionate thing I think, but he basically was walking around begging for somebody (a father figure) to smack him down. It's like he couldn't put himself in order so he had to walk around getting cockier and cockier until the guy who represented what he wanted to be showed up and spoke to him in his language. It is a really American character, definitely.

I was editing this government pamphlet once that was an overview of American lit, and since it's such a young country you can see the actual creation of "American literature" and the primary story was the guy who didn't fit in with society, the hero as individual, who left society behind to be himself, that sort of thing.