Montana 1948 Conflict Assignment

Montana 1948 Conflict  Assignment Words: 1008

Internal conflict is used to explore the idea of how humans prioritize their Justice in following their morals to their loyalty using contrast. An example of this is in Montana 1948 by Larry Watson. The novel shows a young boy David, who experiences a series of events and watches his father West’ internal conflict of arresting his brother Frank as well as Davit’s conflicts within himself of choosing to grow up and telling his parent’s about his uncle’s murder.

They both struggle to choose whether to follow in what they believe is right or stay devoted to their family. But in the end they decide to follow their morals, and this helps me better understand human nature of how they choose to follow in they beliefs. Frank, West’ brother has committed a crime of sexually assaulting his patients as a doctor and West has to choose whether to arrest his brother or turn a blind eye to the issue. Instead of turning Frank in, West locks him up in the basement to “save Frank some embarrassment” and is reluctant to make any further moves.

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However he finds it hard to fight against his own morals, “I can’t let him loose and live with myself”. Despite Franks crimes West still respects him as a rather and wants to give Frank another chance, but his morals in following the law has created an internal conflict within himself. West has to choose between his devotion to pleasing his family or his Justice in following the law. In the end, West chooses Justice and decides to arrest Frank. With this internal struggle, Watson shows the importance of one’s morals and how it can at times be considered more important than family relations.

West’ choice of choosing to arrest Frank over his loyalty to his father Julian helped me better understand that even though West knows owe significant family is, human nature tells them to follow in what they believe in. David Hayden, as a child discovers that his uncle Frank has been sexually assaulting Native American women. Later on he finds out that Frank has murdered Marie Little Soldier who David loved and adored. As a child, this is a very traumatic experience and now he has an internal conflict within him to choose whether to tell his parent’s about Marie or to keep his uncle’s secret who he used to look up to.

This internal conflict however, is not as great as West’ conflict as David is still a child and does not hind of family relations to be as important as Justice. “l may not have been entirely convinced of his guilt”, “Charming, affable Uncle Frank was gone for good. ” Watson contrasts West’ conflict and Davit’s conflict to show that since David is still a child, he does not think of family to be as important as an adult would, like West. Thus when he finds out Frank had murdered Marie, the conflict within him does not last long as “that little thumb-rub below my neck, was all it took and the words spilled out of me. From this, Watson is telling us that the human nature of age can affect the importance of one’s beliefs. West believes family loyalty to be Just as significant as his beliefs in following the law but David prioritize Justice over family loyalty as he does not feel as responsible to stay loyal to his family as West does. David chose to tell his parent’s about Franks crime as he personally loved Marie more than Frank no matter how they were related to him or what social status they had.

We can learn from this that as we mature, we start to over complicate our issues and David is a good example of how sometimes it is better to think simpler and prioritize on what we think is right. David also has a conflict with himself to choose whether to mature or ATA a child. Davit’s innocence as a child is shown at the start of the novel, “Since Frank and Gloria had no children, I always felt some pressure to please them. ” Even after finding out about Franks crime, Davit’s immature side still shows where he “cried myself to sleep because I believed that I would never see my horse, Nutty, again. After Franks death, he feels “satisfaction over what had happened” as he thought that “Uncle Franks suicide had solved all our problems. ” He is trying to get rid of seeing his parent’s struggle with his family and does not realize that it is not as simple as he thinks. However, as the events go by, David mature side is also starting to show. An example of this is shown when he realizes that his mother is not perfect and starts to feel the need to protect her, “to help her, to relieve her of the awful duty she had taken up. Watson effectively uses contrast to show us how David grows up and how he is capable of being independent. The more David finds out about the truth, the more he is forced to deal with the reality of the harsh world. Watson suggests of human nature that traumatic experiences can lead children to mature and let them experience adulthood. I have learnt from this contrast that not all hillier have the same amount of maturity and experiences in society can affect the rate of maturity.

Overall, Watson effectively uses contrast to show conflicts of West and David in Montana 1948. West’ conflict of choosing to follow in his morals of following the law over his loyalty to Julian helped me understand that the human nature of West prioritize his morals over family loyalty. Davit’s conflict of choosing to tell his parent’s about Franks murder helped me understand the concept of how age can affect one’s priorities, and Davit’s choice of growing up taught me that society can affect a child’s maturity.

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Montana 1948 Conflict Assignment. (2019, Oct 10). Retrieved March 29, 2024, from https://anyassignment.com/literature/montana-1948-conflict-assignment-43962/