Montana 1948

Larry Watson

By Natasha Watzdorf

Contents About the Author

Plot Description

Character Profiles

Key Relationships

Setting

Key Themes

What I learnt

Resources

About the Author Born in 1947 in Rugby, North

Dakota.

Grew up in Bismarck

Educated in Bismarck’s public schools

Married his High School sweetheart Susan Gibbons in 1967

Received his Master and Bachelor of Arts from the University of North Dakota, his Ph.D from the creative writing program at the University of Utah and an honorary Doctor of Letters degree from Ripon College.

Received grants and fellowships from the National Endowment for the Arts (1987, 2004)

PlotThe novel Montana 1948 is divided no into chapters, but into three sections, part 1, part 2 and part 3. Each section symbolises David’s developed from being a child, to his loss of innocence. The main characters in this novel is 12 year old David (narrator), his father Wesley, mother Gail, Wesley’s brother Frank, his two parents Julian and Enid, Marie Little Soldier (she stayed with David’s Parents, she was a Native

American) and Gloria, Frank’s wife.

Part 1

Part 2

Part 3

P1-12- David recalls three significant images from the summer of 1948 of his father, his mother and Marie Little Soldier.

P15-16- The terrain, weather and lifestyle, post World War Two, in Mercer County, Montana is described. Dry, wasteland, flat, small and

small populous. P16-19- David describes his father, sheriff

of Mercer County, affectionately recalls his disappointment in his practical, “meek” ways.

P 19-20- The role of the grandfather in the county and his dominance of Wes is explained. The mother is

introduced.

P21-24- David shows a liking for the wild as opposed to the orderly

strictures of small town life.

Part 1

Prologue

Part 1P24-26- Marie Little Soldier and her boyfriend, Ronnie Tall Bear, are described.

P27-35- Marie has a severe fever, but emphatically refuses a doctor, particularly Frank, Wes’ brother. Wes and Frank exchange jokes about medicine men and Wes’ racism is described.

p38-43- After Frank examines Marie, in the presence of Gail, at Marie’s insistence, he and Wes discuss the primitive attitudes of Indians to modern medicine.

p44-49- David’s image of Frank as hero is shattered when he overhears his mother tell his father that she has just learnt from the hysterical

Marie about Frank’s consistent molestation and rape of women on the Indian reservation.

P50-54- Gail and Wes consult Daisy and Len McCauley separately to seek confirmation of Marie’s

allegations. Wes knows that Frank is guilty, but is grappling with the moral dilemma of having to act, not only because he knows, but because he is sheriff.

Part 1

Part 2P57—66- When David runs into his father

talking to Ollie Young Bear in the diner, he recognises his father’s total absorption in the case.In the backyard, David nervously queries his mother to give him entrance into their adult world, as his father pursues his

investigations, interviewing Marie inside.

Part 2P66-72- During a visit to the grandfather’s

ranch for a family dinner, David overhears his grandfather boast about Frank’s partiality to “red

meat” when he was younger.

P73-78- David recalls his drunk father recounting an incident the night before Frank and Gloria’s wedding, when his grandfather threatened a man in a bar in Minneapolis to the amusement of his sons. On the way home from the same wedding in the train, the Grandfather lets fall a remark about Frank’s activities on the

reservation. David is also tortured by his love for Gloria and his

current sense of shame for her.

P82-84- David comes across an argument between his father and his uncle and speculates as to the

consequences of shooting Frank.

Part 2P86-100- August 13: Marie is found dead.

David refrains from unburdening himself of his knowledge to Len McCauley, but senses from his drunken rambling about how

policing is conducted in Montana, that he too knows that Frank murdered Marie. That night David tells his parents that he saw Frank leaving the house that afternoon and that Len McCauley saw him too. Wes realises he cannot avoid his duty.

Part 3P105-122-Wes arrests Frank and locks him in the basement. On his way out to inform Gloria, he tells David to get Len if there’s trouble. The grandparents arrive and demand that Frank be released. The grandfather accuses Wes of being motivated by malicious jealousy.

Part 3P123-130-David recognises the terrible toll

these events are exacting on his father. He wants his parents to provide an explanation for the

confrontation with the grandfather, but his father can only advise him not to let either of his parents into their house, should they return. David’s grief for his utterly changed life is focused on the

loss of his horse, Nutty, kept at his grandparents’ ranch. As he walks into town on a grocery

errand for his mother the next day, David is overcome with the ignominy of being a Hayden, a name that yesterday commanded respect, if not admiration. His shame is mixed with confusion as he reflects on his Uncle Frank’s professional dealings he may have had with two of the women David sees in the street that day: Miss Schott and Loretta Waterman.

Part 3p130-144-Gail shoots a warning shot at a

party of men sent by the grandfather to release Frank. Len arrives on the scene and using his gun as a threat persuades the men to leave. Discussion of Frank’s prosecution and the dangers of keeping him confined in the basement. Gail suggests he be

released to protect her home and family and Len supports her, on the grounds of the difficulty of

securing a conviction, given the power of Julian Hayden.p

155-162-Wes tells David the story of how grateful he was that Frank had saved him from a certain beating by the Highdog brothers, after

Frank and his friends had taken “their” golf balls. Wes discovers Frank has suicided. David registers a feeling of relief and even love for his uncle.

EpilogueP165-169-The manner of Frank’s death and his

crimes are suppressed and Frank takes his reputation to the grave and the family’s standing is thus

preserved. Its members remain unreconciled.

P169-171-David reflects on the effects of the events of his childhood on his adult life and attitudes and describes the subsequent fate of the major players.

P174-175-When Betsy, many years later, alludes to the events in Montana at a family Thanksgiving dinner, Wes’ reaction is angry enough for David to feel the reverberation later that nigh

Character Profiles•A 12 year old

boy

•Tan, dark hair

•Wants to be accepted as ‘adult status’

•At the beginning of the novel David finds innocent pleasure in a wilderness

•His urge to “kill something” reveals a half articulated vision of corruption

•The adult David is revealed as a man who believes in nothing

“But I also wanted to hear how this confrontation would play out, so I hurried to the

spare bedroom, the one right over the living room”

“I supposed I wanted adult status, to have my

parents discuss this case in front of me”

“I did what boys usually did and exulted in the

doing: I rode horseback....I swam; I

fished; I hunted....I explored; I scavenged...”

David Hayden

Wesley Hayden•Thin, tall man

•Paler than the rest of his family

•Limps slightly

•Has an ‘old soul”

•Always has an opinion, but mostly too afraid to voice it

•Nervous/stressed.

•Doesn’t dress like his brother and father, not a cowboy

•David is aware that his father’s impotence comes from living in the shadow of his powerful and eminent father

Frank would never touch another woman again, tell him. Father cleared his throat. “About him and Gloria not having

kids.”

“He looked exhausted, as though climbing the stairs had taken all his energy. His face was pale, and he simply

stood still for a moment”

He wore “brogans and a fedora”, instead of “boots and Stetsons”; instead of a “nickel-

plated Western Colt .45 or something, his father had a “small .32 automatic, Italian

made and no bigger than your

palm” ”

•consistently frowns upon even the mildest blasphemies

•presented as the stronger moral force in the Hayden marriage

•She’s described as a “Lutheran of boundless devotion”

•disapproves of the ostentation of the Hayden ranch and fears for David’s love of the wild

•David is forced to reassess her moral strength, when she urges Wes to release Frank

•Gail is the decisive, intelligent partner who initially is most prepared to withstand the masculine values of the “West”, but the ultimate showdown is reserved for her husband.

“Frank said maybe he’d do a little dance around the bed. And if that doesn’t work he’ll

try beating some drums.”

My mother didn’t laugh. “I’ll go back in

with Marie”

Gail Hayden

“let him do whatever he

wants to do to whomever he

wants”

Julian Hayden•embodies the guiding principle of the fading “Wild West”: power

•His contempt for Wes mirrors his indifference to the rule of law

•He has installed his son as sheriff simply to confirm his influence over the county and never acknowledges Frank’s activities as anything other than, as he puts it, in his typically coarse way, “a partial[ity] for red meat.” ]

•His view of the American natives is accompanied by an insensitivity towards the land demonstrated in the vulgarity of his ranch.

Julian “was a dominating man who drew sustenance and

strength from controlling others”

“first you master the beasts, then you regulate the

behaviour of men and women”

“You know Frank's always been partial to red

meat''

“Frank said maybe he’d do a little

dance around the bed. And if that

doesn’t work he’ll try beating some

drums.”

•he is everything that makes a desirable man.

•Frank is first introduced as “handsome”, “a star athlete” in college, “a genuine war hero”.

•In David’s eyes his own father is by any comparison “inescapably dull”.

•David is painfully aware that Frank is the chosen son, he also begins to understand that Frank has also inherited all the corrupting qualities of the grandfather, from a tendency for coarse language to a moral carelessness which sees nothing wrong in abusing his power by molesting Indian women.

“witty, charming, at smiling ease with

his life and

everything in it”

In sacrificing himself, Frank had erased the impending

public scandal and that David and his family “would

have [their] lives back

Frank Hayden

SettingTime: The time and place

Montana 1948 was set are very crucial to appraise full understanding and recognition of this novel.

Setting, time and place, map, talk about Bentrock.

1948

Men were still superior to women, in that women stayed at home and were

housewives, the novel was set when the ‘cowboy’ era was coming to an end.

Set in north-eastern Montana in the years following World War II, the novel was set when people were most vulnerable to lies, as they would do anything to keep peace, even if it meant letting some one get away with sexual assault.

“It is the cowboys who are murdering and corrupt and it is

the Indians who are on the receiving end of white abuse.”

SettingPlace: The place was in Montana

in the north-east corner in Mercer County, in the fictional town of Bentrock.

Mountains, accommodates

for severe weather

fluctuations

Flat, desert plains, to which the temperature also fluctuates

hugely

Where Mercer County

and Bentrock

are located

Montana is a state in the western United States. The state ranks fourth in size but has a low population and population density, with much of the state being rural. The economy is primarily ranching-based, with some agricultural crops (wheat, barley, sugar beets) and a significant lumber and mineral industry. Montana is a very unusual state, where in one part there is a glacier, and the other, dust ridden plains as far as the eye can see.

Themes“The book deals with family,

loyalty, and justice”(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Montana_1948)

Loyalty: Montana 1948 deals with the a fairly commonly used loyalty theme, betrayal. In this novel, Wesley is forced by his own conscience to arrest and imprison his brother Frank in his cellar. On one side, Frank betrayed his brother and all that he stood for as sheriff by breaking the law and sexually assaulting Sioux women, but then on the other hand, Wesley betrayed his brother by locking him in his basement, when his whole life, he had sworn by his father not to arrest a Hayden. But then Wesley also feels betrayed when his father arrives at his house and tries to force him to let Frank go, it is then that David realises how corrupt Bentrock is, and how powerful the name ‘Hayden’ is.

Family: Hayden, a powerful name in this novel, a powerful name that overpowered any decision or event. Although the name Hayden may be a respected name, the family its self is torn. We have the grandfather, Julian, who is the typical western cowboy, with outfit and all. He believes in covering everything up so that the white people are safe (Frank follows his ideals), and the Sioux’s are to pay for the white mans crimes. And this causes a collapse of family structure where Wesley, Gail and David bond together away from Julian and Frank, because they feel the unfairness and lack of morality. Julian pounds Wesley with his ideals, exclaiming that he doesn’t do the duties of a Sheriff the ‘Hayden’ way. But as the family name has such a reputation, Gail begins to warn Wesley off when he finds out about what Frank had done, trying to prevent Wesley from tarnishing the family name.

Family

Justice

Justice: Justice is a word unknown by the residents of Bentrock, Mercer County. The white people will almost never do wrong, and the only good Sioux is either a dead Sioux, or one that is so westernized, he or she have become like the white man. There is a complete lack of justice when Julian begins to threaten Wesley because Frank is locked in his cellar. Julian thinks that there is no way the family name can have a bad reputation. Wesley is deeply upset by the idea of letting such a guilty man free just because of his ‘connections’. But then by the end of the novel, justice is served at the price of death when Frank commits suicide. Conveniently, Julian is able to keep the Hayden family reputation, whilst Wesley receives justice that Frank will no longer be able to sexually assault Sioux women. So in this instance, justice is served on a plate, with a side dish of death.

What I Learnt

For myself, I grew up, like most children, thinking that cowboys were the ‘good guys’ and Indians (Native Americans) were the ‘bad guys’. Montana 1948 was my first encounter with ‘bad’ cowboys. I had never known how corrupt and harsh the 1940’ & 1950’s were, especially in Montana. To be honest I did not even know Montana was home to the original ‘wild west’, to which I always thought was based around middle America or Texas. This novel also opened my eyes to the lack of justice and the astonishing amount of racism. I always knew that family’s had a certain reputation held up by their last names, i.e. the family Hilton. And in the novel, the idea was to prevent a family member destroying the reputation of the family name, like Paris Hilton did. I was also disgusted by the amount of racism displayed in this novel, I got so frustrated at some points I had to stop reading, although today the amount of racism has declined, it will still be decades before all cultures and people respect and accept each other.

Resources

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Montana_1948

http://www.sthelena.vic.edu.au/libraryonline/montana_1948.htm

http://mb.sparknotes.com/mb.epl?b=71&m=382989&h=montana,1948

www.cowboyhatinfo.org

http://www.thecatholiccowboy.com/images/catholic-cowboy.jpg

http://mt.gov/

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Montana

www.visitmt.com/