Yuqian He

The Saddest Character Wesley in Montana 1948 In Montana 1948, Larry Watson mainly narrates a secret and catastrophic story happened in Hayden’s family which have high prestige in Bentrock Montana, 1948. In this novel, Watson stands on a twelve-year-old boy－David Hayden’s view to talk about family tragedy which results from his uncle Frank molesting many innocent Indian girls. Therefore, Hayden’s family is tormented by the moral dilemma; especially Wesley- the brother of Frank also the sheriff of Montana. By elaborating how this family scandal affects the characters’ emotional ups and downs and choices to push the story forward, Watson successfully shapes Wesley, one of main protagonists in Montana 1984,
From Wesley’s point of view, he is not willing to believe the fact, however, meanwhile，he, at least, has a little bit belief to believe what Gail said is true because he can never deny rightly when Gail has a fight with Wesley about Frank after they all calm down a little, said “Wes, you never said you didn’t believe it. Why is that?”(p43) Facing the question from Gail, poor Wesley even does not know how to answer but just “simply picked up his fork and continued to eat” (p.43) It is obvious that how struggling his heart is when he fights with himself in his deep heart between trusting Frank and not trusting Frank. No one can help him to get out of this dilemma, only he can, but what he needs to choose is hard and heart-wrenching, because at this moment, his struggling is not only from his father’s dictatorship, but also from invisible pressure from the society and his inner responsibility to the society as well. Also when Wesley calms down a little, he shouts at Gail said, “why are you telling me this? Are you telling me this because I’m Frank’s brother? Because I’m your husband? Because I’m Marie’s employer? Or because I’m the sheriff?”(35) All these he said strength to show his pain about this big issue. He do not know what he could to do, because one side he needs to face is his beloved brother, and the other side he needs to confront is his social justice or maybe reasonability of his job. From this word, it could make readers feel that at that