First-Person Fiction

There were several parallels and similarities between Richard Ford’s two stories “Optimists” and “Communist”, though in varying forms.  One such similarity was the connection between “lost” father figures in each of the narrators’ lives.  In “Optimists”, the narrator loses his father as he goes to prison for killing a man, while in “Communist” the father had already seemingly passed away before Glen Baxter comes into Les (the narrator) and his mother’s lives, filling the shoes of a father figure for Les despite his almost misguided attempts.

In both stories, the narrators were bystanders in illegal events – the murder of Boyd Mitchell in “Optimists” and the poaching of snow geese in “Communist”.  Frank watched in silence as his father recounted what had happened at the rail yard and then what followed with the death of Boyd.  Les, although he did participate in the poach, watched as Glen did the majority of the talking, planning, and shooting of those geese.  There’s also a fair bit of reflecting: Frank reflecting back to the night his father killed a man and then his attempts to pull away from those events after the memories were brought up after seeing his mother for the first time in years, and Les for reflecting on Glen and their “hunting” expedition, as well as reflecting on his mother’s relationship with Glen and how he’s a Communist.  In Les’s case, however, there was the added layer of him almost wanting to prove himself to Glen and his eagerness to grow up and do adult things.