Montana 1948 Conflict Essay

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 Wes’ internal conflict of arresting his brother Frank as well as David’s conflicts within himself of choosing to grow up and telling his parents 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, Wes’ brother has committed a crime of sexually assaulting his patients as a doctor and Wes has to choose whether to arrest his brother or turn a blind eye to the issue. Instead of turning Frank in, Wes locks him up in the basement to “save Frank some embarrassment” and is reluctant to make any further moves. However he finds it hard to fight against his own morals, “I can’t let him loose and live with myself”. Despite Frank’s crimes Wes still respects him as a brother and wants to give Frank another chance, but his morals in following the law has created an internal conflict within himself. Wes has to choose between his devotion to pleasing his family or his justice in following the law. In the end, Wes 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. Wes’ choice of choosing to arrest Frank over his loyalty to his father Julian helped me better understand that even though Wes knows how 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