Zach Mandigo’s Reviews > Montana 1948 > Status Update

On page 102 Gail searches frantically through her purse after Wes tells her that Uncle Frank is locked in the basement. Watson shows her digging for a solution that isn’t there. I think it's a useless action that reveals how lost she feels, she’s reaching for anything that might make this situation make sense.

Wes has been collecting evidence for some time now but seems to not want to convict Frank. Wes has to face the difficult decisions of favoring his brother or doing his lawful duty for his job. I think Larry Watson does this to show how difficult Wes’s job really is and how he may not be able to handle this. In the second memory in the prologue it shows Wes in distress. Larry Watson is eluding this may be coming up.

I think it’s concerning when Davey kills a magpie on page 72. He talks about feeling the power and being almost engulfed by it. I think Larry Watson put this in too foreshadow about David's future. He’s falling into that classic theme that the book brings up all the time about power structure as he feels this power. He may crave this power to the extreme like Uncle Frank when he grows up.

On page 58 when Davey, Gail, and Wes pull into Davey's grandparents house for dinner Larry Watson described Uncle Frank's truck being in the driveway looking older and more battered than usual. I think that this is referring to Frank himself at this time as he is looking older with the stress of having a chance of being caught and ruining his perfect reputation that he's tried to show his whole life.

On pages 51 and 52 we learn about the now silent Philco radio in the Hayden’s house. David talks about how it's usually playing music almost everyday. I think Larry Watson is using this radio as a symbol of lost normalcy and the heavy silence of truth. When the radio was on it represented order and normalcy in the house. Now that it’s off it's showing us the tension that has filled the air instead of music.

I think Larry Watson set Montana 1948 in that year to reveal the racism and power after the war in America. In their small town of Bentrock, white men like the Haydens control the law and justice as well as ignore and look away from the discrimination against the Native Americans. By choosing 1948 Watson shows us how inequality shaped American life despite our country's values of freedom and equality.

David's personality is different. He seems to revolve around the feeling of being free and escaping from Bentrock. I think this will tie into the racism that may go on in his town and Montana during this time period against the Native Americans. David will understand the natives’ feelings of trying to be free of suppression and will end up supporting them in some way for their struggle for complete liberty.