'A Family In Richard Ford's Optimists'

In the short story “Optimists” by Richard Ford, Frank, the main character lives in Montana in the 1950s with his father, Roy Brinson and his mother, Dorothy Brinson. Frank’s world changes when his father kills a man. This event which seemed like it materialized out of nowhere affected Frank’s life permanently. The main character, Frank, seemed to have a traditional family before his father killed Boyd Mitchell however, this is not true if we look closer at his family life. Paying attention to minor details, the reader can see how all these things added to destroy his family life. Frank’s mother, Dorothy loved working, but as Frank got older his father made her relinquish working to stay home and supervise Frank. Working made her feel like she could be her own woman and be free of a standard marriage of the wife just running the home. Franks states, “My mother did not work then, though she had worked at waitressing and in the bars in town-and she liked working.” (Ford 33). This reveals that she liked the constant change of people that go in and out of bars and restaurants. She felt freedom in this. Frank’s father not allowing Frank’s mother to work

Dorothy went to the YWCA to swim and the YWCA building is also where Boyd worked. Roy didn’t kill Boyd just because of the conversation that night. Frank’s mother being around Boyd may have looked bad to Roy especially since it made her feel happy and free. It says in the short story “I still like to swim” (Ford 40). Swimming made her feel free because she didn’t want to be an ordinary housewife. When Boyd was confronting Roy about how he could have saved the man that was accidently killed earlier in the story, Boyd always being around his wife could have been in the back of Roy’s mind building up anger and hate because his wife enjoyed spending time with Boyd more than being a stay at home