Montana 1948 - Characters

2250 Words9 Pages
A major theme in Montana 1948 is the gulf between reality and its interpretation, explored as David’s vision of Frank crumbles. His gradual disillusion so challenges his assumptions that virtually all his beliefs are reversed, including his view of himself and other people. As a way of examining this journey from innocence to experience, it would be useful to track David’s changing ideas about himself and the major characters as the events unfold. David Hayden At the beginning of the novel David finds innocent pleasure in a wilderness idyll: “I did what boys usually did and exulted in the doing: I rode horseback....I swam; I fished; I hunted....I explored; I scavenged...” . It is here that he finds a secure “self, firm and calm and unmalleable”, free of the constraints and sense of unease which he feels within “the human community”. Though it is 1948, it is Montana, and David is still able to tap into the spirit of the Wild West, the frontier, to have an intimation of the untouched wilderness before its perceived corruption by white conquest. David begins to understand his wilderness pursuits are not entirely innocent when he shoots the magpie, appropriately on his grandfather’s ranch, with his grandfather’s gun, driven unconsciously by the collapse of his idol, Frank. His urge to “kill something” reveals a half articulated vision of corruption: “these strange, unthought-of connections-sex and death, lust and violence, desire and degradation-are there, there, deep in even a good heart’s chambers.” As the full extent of Frank’s evil unfolds, the sureness David is able to feel in the wild falters. The frontier is no longer inhabited by Indians as seen in the movies; instead David dreams of the Indians he knows, mourning Marie on Circle Hill. From wanting “to be included....”, David now resents his father’s direct, inclusive gaze: “Didn’t he know - I was a
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