Junyu Huang
Professor Li
WR097 O1
24 November 2012
Timing Bomb
-An Analysis of “Montana 1948: A Novel” by Larry Watson
The novel Montana 1948, written by Larry Watson, depicts complicated conflicts between family relationship and society responsibility which happened in the family Hayden family in Montana, with a 15-year-old boy David, his father Wesley, uncle Frank and grandfather Julian. The story of conflicts is aroused by the exposure of Frank’s crimes of sexual assaulting Indian girls and finally comes to his death. The author impressively conveys how a single character, Frank, messes up a huge family, just like a bomb blows up and ruins the Haydens’ peace, honor and happiness.
Frank is originally presented as a hidden timing bomb – no one yet knows its existence and when it will explode. The author paves the way of conflicts in the very beginning of the novel, where David describes Frank – “handsome”, “a star athlete in high school and college” and “a genuine war hero” (24). Just as what David comments on Frank, Frank is “completely with decorations and commendations”(24) that he seems to be such a super perfect person way better than Wesley, which hints Julian’s Partiality to Frank. Also such Frank is shown as an implicit trigger of the future family conflicts, since it is the perfect image of Frank that its molder will lead to a serious consequence and at the moment barely anyone knows Frank’s true look under his masquerade.
And soon the bomb is displayed to Wesley family and the wheel gear of the series of tragedy starts to rotate because of the exposure of the crime of Frank. Since the “greatest” person in the family and his lovely brother is found guilty. The perfect image of Frank is completely torn up and Wesley realizes such reality will cause unwilling outcomes. Wesley has to make a decision between being a brother or a sheriff. Wesley family starts to be under great pressures that they have to struggle between family relationship and justice.
The timer of the bomb starts when Frank murders Marie. Though Frank has told that he will stop the sexual assaults (75), which temporarily liberates Wesley from making the difficult decision, the more serious and cruel reality comes with no rest and pushes Wesley back into the dilemma. Frank does something much worse. Wesley is extremely not willing to believe the possibility of Frank as a murderer, but evidences force Wesley to accept the fact. Still hesitating, Wesley can’t make an absolute choice of whether to conceal the crime or to send him to jail and chooses to stand in the middle – he puts Frank in to the basement of his house (101).
Then the noise of the bomb’s timer becomes louder and louder, which makes people around hard to bear. After Julian knows what Frank has done and that Wesley locks Frank in the basement, the relationship between Wesley and Julian breaks completely, since Julian insists to protect Frank while Wesley has to take the responsibility as a sheriff. In the part when Julian was told that Frank had killed Marie, the partial reaction of Julian broke Wesley’s heart ruthlessly. “Evidence? What kind of evidence? Go-to-court evidence or a wild hair-up-your-ass evidence?” (114) The toughness of Julian made Wesley felt more stressful with Frank’s case. In order to get Frank out of the basement, Julian even sends his guys to Wesley house, trying to break in the house, which threatens David and his mother, threatens their family safety (123-133). Both Frank’s crime of murder and Julian’s partiality of Frank are torturing Wesley and separating Wesley from Julian. By this time, the Hayden family has already broken into two.
And the bomb finally blows up – Frank suicides. The tragedy is “ended” and reached a climax at the same time due to the death of Frank. Frank ended the farce of the family fight of how to deal with him, but started an endless tragedy. Wesley might think that he is the one who causes Frank’s suicide and might eternally blame himself that ‘Why didn’t I go down to see him that night?’ or ‘Why didn’t I put he into jail earlier?’ ... In another hand, Julian might never forgive Wesley for stopping him from getting Frank out and eventually results in Frank’s death. Frank owes everyone an apology; he owes everyone an explanation, but he leaves the world. Frank suddenly blew up the family into fragments and left no choice to the Hayden family. The Haydens have to bear the heaviness of Frank’s death ever and ever.
Throughout the novel, though author barely writes anything about Frank directly – most of the information of Frank is told through others’ words, Frank has brought huge impacts on the Hayden family. In the most intense part of the novel, the third chapter, Frank does nothing and simply stays in the basement but causes the huge “fight” between Wesley family and Julian. And finally and suddenly, it comes to Frank’s death. So cruel, so ruthless, so impressive. Everything is gone with the explosion, but the indelible scars are engraved deep in the heart of the Haydens, and the sound of the explosion echoes in their ears.

Reference
Larry, Watson. Montana 1948: a novel. Canada: Milkweed, 2007. Print.