Richard Ford's Rock Springs

Richard Ford transforms Earl’s tone from compliant to dissenting by exposing his loneliness, which leads him to leave Edna, to highlight the cause of their evidently dysfunctional relationship through the characterization of Earl in his short story, “Rock Springs.”
Edna and Earl have both faced struggles, which could be how they found each other and are still together. Earl’s past involved jail time for some past offenses and most recently some bad checks and it was his goal to leave Montana and head for Florida. It’s obvious in the text that Earl and Edna don’t seem to mind spontaneously packing up and leaving for Florida, it’s like a safe-haven for them. “And when I cam in the house that afternoon, I just asked her if she wanted to go

to Florida with me, leaving the where they say, and she said, ‘Why not? My datebook’s not that full,’” (Ford 289). This spontaneity that Edna and Earl exhibit may seem to work for them at the moment but down the road their minds may not be on the same page and their impulsivities may take them elsewhere.
Even more, when the car breaks down and Earl must walk to a trailer nearby to ask for a phone his feelings of loneliness are suggested.

“The trailer had that feeling that no one else was inside, which was a feeling I knew something about,” (Ford 296). Previously, Earl seemed to need Cheryl, Edna, and their journey to complete him, to feel whole, but when he sees the trailer he realizes something, he’s lonely, these things don’t complete him and something is missing. This is point in the story that his feelings begin to change and Ford begins his characterization by highlighting how Earl really feels. Earl’s passive tone in the beginning of story shifts after this seemingly simple conversation with the Negro woman in the trailer. Ford uses this event to pivot and alter Earl’s tone and further develop the problems that Edna and Earl have with each

other.
Consequently, Earl and Edna have a falling out, and Earl’s voice changes from a submissive to an assertive tone.

In the beginning, Earl would respond to Edna’s argumentative speech using, “ ‘Of course I do… I thought that was an awful thing,” (Ford 293). His voice is accepting and he’s purposefully not clashing with Edna’s arguments to keep her from getting irritable. After Ford exposes his loneliness and Earl sees how different and appealing life in the trailers seem to be he has an epiphany, and his feelings towards Edna take an obvious turn. When Edna would say things like, “You’ve got a right to be mad at me, Earl… but I don’t think you can really blame me,” Earl would respond with an assertive, truthful statement, “ ‘I guess I do blame you,’ I said, and I was angry,” (Ford 303). Earl’s passive tone is repudiated here and Ford replaces it with a self-assured realization of Earl’s feelings for Edna. This transformation focuses on the development and characterization of Earl throughout the story and reveals that his epiphany is the reason behind it. Ford empowers Earl to be confident and assert his feelings to Edna without caring about her response or

reaction.
Ford’s focus on the lonely realization that Earl comes to results in his breakup with Edna, which is caused by the transformation of Earl’s characterization and voice from passive to firm. Earl’s initial character suggests that him and Edna are together because they’ve both come face to face with trouble and their impulsivity seems to coincide but it’s obvious that eventually it will cause conflicts. As the story continues and Earl is further developed by Ford, he becomes more in touch with his lonely feelings and the story takes on a depressed ambience, exploring the idea that something isn’t right between Edna and Earl. Eventually, Earl and Edna disagree with the next part of the plan to get to Florida and Edna’s argumentative speech leads Earl to be productive and tell Edna how he truly feels. Earl’s mind even wanders back to the trailer park and he thinks about everything it had to offer, how it’s somewhere he realized how lonesome he really was with Edna and how it altered his voice, made it more forceful. Ford uses the simple trailer park scene to mark the transition from Earl’s lifeless voice to a potent one that further develops his character.