Montana 1948 Character Analysis Essay

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Bainbridge Colby, who was an American lawyer and politician, once said that “loyalty will not permit envy, hate, and uncharitableness to creep into our public thinking.” In the story Montana 1948 by Larry Watson, it is shown by the actions of Wes Hayden, that hate and the other reasons listed in the quote above, do not have an effect on the decisions Wes makes in the duration of the story. The events that happened throughout the story caused the decisions that were made by Wes, and shape his character. This provides insight into the complex person and character that Wes Hayden is. The complexity of Wes’ character is shown by the events in the story that drive the theme of family/loyalty and how that affects one's relationships with whom they are close with.
Wes Hayden had to deal with a lot of internal conflicts and moral dilemmas in the story. The events that occurred with Wes’ brother and father acted as deterrents towards making the right decisions, and are reasons as to why Wes is a complex character. Wes held Frank in his basement after he became aware about his sexual assaults, and this caused conflict between him and his Father who was aware of Frank's actions and wanted Wes to stay loyal to the family and let Frank off the hook. This conflict that occurred tested the character of Wes with his decision on what to do. This has been pointed out by David, who said “To continue to stand up to grandfather, my father needed all the strength he possessed. And perhaps that would still not be enough”(Watson.124). Even though Wes faced a tremendous amount of pressure to let Frank go, he held out and never gave in to the pressure even though there we was faced with the dilemma that it might be the right thing to stay loyal to the family, but he made the decision to do what he felt was right and Wes didn’t let Frank go. In addition to the moral dilemma that Wes had all the pressure from his father to stay loyal, his history and past relationship with his family made it much harder to make the right choice on what to do with Frank. Due to the strength of his relationship with Frank and his father, prior to the summer of 1948, it was really hard for Wes to carry out his belief in always doing the right thing. Wes knew that not letting Frank go was the right thing to do and he needed to set a good example for his son David. The need to set a good example and do the right thing is shown by his advice to David when he said “David, I believe that in this world people must pay for their crimes. It doesn’t matter who you are or who your relations are; if you do wrong, you pay”(Watson.156). This quote explains the philosophy Wes has, that nobody is above the law and no matter who you are and who you know you always need to pay if you do wrong. This is why Wes decided to go against his family and
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Even though Wes knew it was the right action to not let Frank go, but he still had some second thoughts about what he should do which shows a side of his personality where he still loves his brother and has a small amount of empathy for him. “I mean, I felt it was a kind of miracle my brother being in the one place in the world I needed him most”(Watson.158). This quote shows how Wes has conflicting feelings about the situation with Frank as he remembers the positives about Frank, and how he used to be a role model for him. For Wes, this caused conflicting feelings as Wes remembered the time when Frank was there for him when Wes was in a time of need and when Frank was in a time of need, but it went against everything Wes believes in to help his brother, so he didn’t. This side to Wes’ personality that was shown by this quote helps to develop the theme of family loyalty because it showed a part of Wes that did want to help frank even though it wasn’t the right thing to

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