Montana 1948

David writes the narrative from his perspective forty years after the event. It is, however, essential that he was 12 years old at the time, transitioning from childhood into adolescence. David often thinks about how his parents and others still treated him as a child who needed protection from serious and frightful adult problems.

He gathers information on Uncle Frank’s crimes and his father’s investigation by eavesdropping. Knowing what is going on but being in a position where he is not supposed to know causes him a great deal of stress. 

Eventually, his parents include him to some extent. However, even at the end of the story, David still feels like a child. He specifically thinks that after Uncle Frank’s suicide his family life will return to normal. His forty-year-old self chalks this assumption up to childish innocence. 

Montana 1948 is a coming-of-age story. It begins with an innocent child who enjoys fishing with his friends and follows him as he learns about the secrets of the adult world. By the end of the novel, David still sees some things from a child’s point of view, but he is no longer innocent of grown-up problems. In a matter of a few days he has become a young adult. 

The setting of Montana 1948 is clearly the American West. . Mercer County, Montana, is still a place where men carry guns, and the sheriff is the law and the local economy is still based largely on cattle ranching.

David’s grandfather is a throwback to the “Wild West”, where problems were solved with power and violence. When David’s father, the sheriff, locks up his brother Frank, Julian Hayden sends four cowboys with an ax to break Frank out. He considers this an appropriate solution to the problem of his son’s arrest. If he has power and muscle on his side, he wins. Julian Hayden is not interested in the niceties of polite and more civilized behavior. 

Even David’s mother realizes that she is living in the Wild West and occasionally has to act according to its rules. When threatened, she loads her husband’s shotgun and fires a warning shot at the intruders. She knows that in the environment she lives in force only recognizes a stronger force.

David himself is also affected by his environment. He relieves his tension about his Uncle Frank by shooting a bird, saying: “I needed to kill something.”  David is another product of the Wild West attitudes and behaviors that pervade his family and his town.

David’s father is a lawyer, and his job as sheriff requires him to enforce the law. He has great difficulty reconciling his belief in the legal system and the reality of arresting and prosecuting his own bother.  He investigates as he should and determines that Frank is guilty. Yet, at first, he is willing to let his brother off as long as Frank promises to stop his criminal behavior. 

Eventually, David’s father comes to believe that the law is more important than family loyalty. He realizes that the law treats all people equally, including Native Americans.  The Hayden family and the citizens of Bentrock, Montana, are willing to ignore Frank’s crimes because of their racist attitudes towards Native American people. David’s father recognizes that the law needs to take its course no matter what his family or the community think is tolerable. Frank must receive just punishment for his crimes. 

It is significant that David’s father goes on to practice law after his brother dies. David, however, has seen how the system favors the rich and powerful—everyone agrees that Frank would have been likely to escape serious punishment from a friendly jury.   David cannot see himself as a lawyer within such a system, and he becomes a teacher instead.