Montana 1948 is about the loss of innocence and the painful gain of wisdom. Discuss.
Montana 1948 a series of tragic events were to have a major impact on David and his parents. David’s shocking revelations lead to his painful gaining of wisdom. When David’s story begins, his life is a stable and happy one, and his family are close and loving. It is this stability and respect though, in which the much loved and admired Frank is held by both the townspeople and David, that make the events which occur so shocking, particularly for David.
David must pretend, not just for the remainder of the novel, but for the next forty years, to be ignorant of Frank’s crimes, and much of what is happening because his parents do not realise that he has overheard their discussions.
A loss of David’s innocence appears during his killing of a magpie. This “it can be done in a flick of the finger”. The particular significance about this plays an important part in his as he considers that he also is capable of committing such unfortunate yet immoral things. “Looking in the dead bird’s eye, I realised that 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”.
In David journey has is forced to see life in a more truthful and more painful way. He learns many lessons, but none more disturbing than that which follows Frank’s suicide. “You see, I knew - I knew! - I knew! That Uncle Frank’s suicide had solved all of our problems … I felt something for my uncle in death that I hadn’t felt for him in life. It was gratitude, yes, but it was something more. It was very close to love”.
Maturity may come at any age, but it is an experience that is rem...
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... Uncle Frank. Then I got out and watched him go down the tracks. He was going toward town…”. He chooses to tell his parents what he knows, or at least part of what he knows, about Uncle Frank. This shows that he is developing in the area of honesty. Before, David would have kept all this to himself, rather than face his parents with knowledge he knows will displease them.
David is not the only one struggling with a loss of innocence, his father also has a need for stability and beliefs. He unsuccessfully tries to convince himself, ‘in this world people must pay for their crimes………it doesn’t matter who you are or who your relations are; if you do wrong, you must pay. I believe that. I have to’. The fact that he could not or would not do anything to bring justice to franks actions stayed with him long after the event and all evidence of it had long since disappeared.
First, David’s mother gave him enough courage to keep hope his father would be all right after the Nazis arrested him. Because their own house was no longer safe from Nazi invasion, David’s family was staying with friends. However, Nazis burst into the house they were staying in on...
Lying and keeping secrets can only hurt someone in the end. This is true for David in the book “The Memory Keeper's Daughter,” written by Kim Edwards. He intentionally deceived others, but his dishonesty was meant for good intentions based on his and his family’s best interest. Or so he thought.
Maturity changes the way people think act and behave towards other people, David the main character displays this clearly as his view on his Father and Uncle Frank develop and change. At the beginning when we are first introduce to all the characters , we see that David admires Uncle Franks as being a hero and just a all round qualities. But this is all changes when David later on discovers that Uncle Frank molesters and take advantage of Indian woman with his power as a doctor. “After what just happened with Marie I don’t want to be left alone with Uncle Frank”. Davis father is a sheriff, a very unique one as he does not wear a badge or carry any gun. David’s attitude towards his father also changes, David did not believe his father played the role of sheriff as he should have but this all changes when the incident with Uncle Frank and Maire is taken place. As Wesley doses t...
As a teenager David remained primarily a loner, which came as little surprise considering his parent's reclusive nature and lack of outside social contact. He was remembered as a nice looking boy, possessing a violent streak, a bully who often assaulted neighborhood children for no apparent reason (Bardsley 2001). These are common prototype traits of many killers at a young age. Even in cases like Cash and Jeremy Stromeyer, there are small indications that the child will have future problems in dealing with people and developing relationships (Aspland, 10/15/01).
is a fight just to survive for the next day . As a child David is taught a very harsh way of
At the beginning of the Chrysalids, we meet David as a ten-year old boy who has conformed to meet his parent’s strict standards. David then meets a girl named Sophie, who turns out to be a mutant, something he should be frightened of. It is then David first begins to question his father’s beliefs, as shown in the quotation, “A blasphemy was, as had been impressed upon me often enough, a frightful thing. Yet there was nothing frightening about Sophie. She was simply an ordinary little girl,” (Wyndham 14). This phrase is the spark that will ignite the fire of rebellion inside David, as he realizes that his father’s beliefs may not be morally correct and are often flawed. Naturally, David begins to feel a bit betrayed by his father for leading him astray and forcing wrong beliefs upon him, and th...
1. In the book, the father tries to help the son in the beginning but then throughout the book he stops trying to help and listens to the mother. If I had been in this same situation, I would have helped get the child away from his mother because nobody should have to live like that. The father was tired of having to watch his son get abused so eventually he just left and didn’t do anything. David thought that his father would help him but he did not.
The book "Montana 1948" by Larry Watson is a story happened in a small place, Montana, which mainly focuses on justice verses family loyalty, the need for power and the racism. With the exposing of Frank’s crime which is rape and murder, the serious conflict between Wesley’s family and his father’s has raised. Wesley decided to use the power to do good things which is sending Frank to the jail, no matter who the person and his or her relations are, people must pay for their crimes, (pg. #150). However, Julian tried to protect his son by abusing his power. This issue ended with the suicide of Frank. So, the power and control contests between Grandfather and his son, Wesley, is the most critical factor that lead to the tragedy in Montana.
David changes his mind about Uncle Frank through the traumatic experiences regarding the discovery of Frank's secret actions. Uncle Frank used to be David's idol and David adored him. But that all changed when David's housekeeper and baby sitter, Marie Little Soldier, becomes violently ill and is in need of a doctor. Wes Hayden, David's father, calls his brother Frank, who is the town doctor, to come and see her. Strangely enough, Marie Little Soldier refuses to be alone in the room with Frank. Later on, Marie tells David's mother horrible things that Frank has been doing to Native American women. David's mother, Gail, tells Wes as David overhears. She says, ' 'Wesley, your brother has been raping these women. These girls. These Indian girls…' [David states] I was beginning already to think of Uncle Frank as a criminal…Charming, affable Uncle Frank was gone for good'; (47, 49).
...he night before. While he thought things were not all good, we know from the noise that nothing wrong has happened. The morning that Frank dies, the light is ‘overcast, dim, so there was no sunlight flooding my room’ (p 154), all foreboding that Frank’s death will cover the truth. Wesley tells David that everybody pays for their crimes but ‘that doesn’t mean the sun’s going to shine’ (p156), indicating that justice is not always served. In ‘Montana 1948’, the author uses motifs to convey his ideas of truth and injustice and pushes the reader to consider the suffering of the Indians. The motifs intensify these themes and create an atmosphere to encourage the reader to accept the idea that Bentrock is unfair and unjust.
As Davis starts to tell about his life as a young boy in America, he lets us know about his mother dying far too young, and him being raised by his father and aunt. David's dad is stereotype of a man and their emotions. He and his son never have a close relationship. Even when David gets hurt in an accident, his father doesn't want him to cry. He wants him to be a man, a manly man and not a Sunday teacher.
In the very beginning of the book, David Henry makes a decision he will live with for the rest of his life. He gives his newborn daughter away. He justifies this action by saying, “This poor child will most likely have a serious heart defect. A fatal one. I’m trying to spare us all a terrible grief” (Edwards 19). Little did he know, that by telling his wife their daughter died, he would be destroying his relationship with his wife and son. Because of the strain on his relationship with his family, the rest of them go on lying as well. In the end, they all have secrets that tear them
David growing up as a child lived in a house where there was no love shown or caring relationships. He grew up not knowing what good relationships looked like or felt like. David did not think too highly of his dad or aunt and always had
David, the main character in the book, realizes that his girlfriend Hilary has cheated on him. To make things even worse she is cheating with one of his friends from the football team, Sam. David tries to talk to Hilary but she thinks he hasn’t been the same since his mother died about a year ago. Later, David beats up Sam at a party.
He tries to explain that in order to be happy, one must put himself in other people's shoes, to know that there is another world that you must enter that revolves around another individual. A person must learn that he must look at both sides of the road before crossing the road of judgment. Meaning that a person must think twice before judging someone due to the fact that you are incapable off reading other people's minds thus you cannot make a judgment about how tough their lives are and the daily hardships that they have to put up with. Before you start complaining about how long the line at the store is, realise that you are not the only person waiting in line and that there are other people waiting in line too just like you are. David uses plenty of metaphors and examples in order to further explain to the audience his statement. One example he uses in the beginning of the story is the fish example, where two young fish meet an older fish who asks them "how is the water", the two young fish then go on to reply by saying "what the hell is water?". After reading through the story, one realises that what the author means by 'water' is that in this scene, water is the representation of life. Thus you can think of it as the older fish asking the