The title of the story “Communist” refers to the boyfriend of the main character’s mother, Glen Baxter. Glen identifies as a Communist and had been to Vietnam. In the story when he and the main character, Les, go hiking to the lake where they are going to hunt geese, he mentions that there are people who want to kill him for being a Communist. “There are people who want to kill me right now,” he says, “and I would kill a man myself if I thought I had to.” (Ford 222) He keeps a pistol on him at all times because he is paranoid that someone is going to try and kill him when he least suspects it. Towards the end of the story, we see some of his fear show through when he gives Les the pistol and says “Don’t you want this? Don’t you want to shoot me? Nobody thinks they’ll die. But I’m ready for it right now.” ( Ford 232) As much as the main character wants to hurt him, he cannot after seeing how scared Glen is.
As for Les, he is a conflicting character. He has lost his dad, and his mom is mostly absent, going out drinking and hanging out with other men. He admits he likes Glen at the beginning of the story, going so far as to say that he wishes Glen was around more often than his mom at nighttime (Ford 217). Even when his mother tells Glenn that Les isn’t interested in going hunting, Les agrees to go. In a way, Les sees Glen as another father figure that he can look up to in his life. However, at the end of the hunt when Glen is afraid of what he has done after shooting the goose in the lake multiple times and refusing to go get it, Les’s perspective changes. We discover towards the end of the story that Les only liked Glen because he was what he wanted, a father figure who was tough and strong like his father once was. This is reaffirmed on pages 234 and 235 when his mother asks if she is still very feminine. Les replies that he thinks she still is. However, he cannot remember what his mom had said because the event happened such a long time ago.
Les wanted to tell this story even though his memories were foggy because it was the time he realized how fragile the world was and how a man like Glen Baxter could easily be broken by the world, internally or externally.
I think that your point of Les wanting a father figure is eye-opening. I hadn’t thought that until now, and I think can see that point. I am also wondering though if he merely misses having a man in his life to spend time with more so than a father figure–maybe I think that he knows his father and feels no need to have someone to act like him.