First-Person Fiction

In his short story “Communist,” Richard Ford writes about Les, a 16-year-old boy who is hard to pin down as a character. He seems unsure and hesitant, but also doesn’t seem to question anything asked of him. This is intentional, of course, as Ford has written an excellent depiction of any 16-year-old, someone who is not […]

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“Optimists” follows along behind Frank and his interactions with life after experiencing traumatic events. His father had killed Boyd right in front of him from anger and spite after having watched another man die. It is truly interesting to watch this story unfold because it seems to inhabit the meaning of being an optimist. Frank […]

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The story “Optimists” is interesting because unlike many of the other narrators in this book, Frank seemed aware of the lasting effect the events of the story had on his life, citing it as “the year, in other words, when my life changed for all of us and forever.” (Ford 171). Frank acknowledges this before […]

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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 […]

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I noticed a great deal of similarities between the last two stories from Richard Ford that we were assigned, “Optimists” and “Communist.” Throughout Richard Ford’s collection of short stories, he writes extensively about the relationships between children and their parents, and explores many different variations of parenthood and childhood in this manner. He especially seems to […]

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In this story, what stands out the most to me is the lingering undertone of regret. The irony of the title being “Optimists” and yet that being one of the biggest themes in the story wasn’t lost on me, but it came up time and time again. It’s insinuated that the narrator’s (Frank’s) mother, Dorothy, regretted her […]

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In Richard Ford’s “Optimists” the narrator decided, after seeing and speaking to his mother for the first time in years, to tell the story of how life changed suddenly for him. The narrator, Frank, told his story when he was 43 years old, looking back to when he had been sixteen. I believe Frank told this […]

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“Winterkill” is an interesting story that follows two friends, Les and Troy, and a woman named Nola. Ford was able to create a diverse setting within the twenty-two pages that create the story. Once again the reader finds themselves somewhere within Montana with the reference to Deer Lodge, where the state prison is located. It […]

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This story stars an unreliable, unkempt, and quite honestly, stupid man left trapped and barren as his life crumbles. The narrator is first depicted as a rather aloof man with strict plans to “stiff” his landlord on rent and leave town. He begins by describing how some hunters from out of town have been recently […]

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The narrator starts by telling us that he is renting out a small home in the woods where a bunch of hunters kill deer all day long. He mentions to us a little about what he is going through at this moment. His wife has left him for another man and sold their car before […]

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    The author of this short story steps us into the shoes of the main character, Lester Snow, through the use of dialogue and by providing descriptive insights from secondary characters. Whereas in other writers’ works, the main character often describes themselves through their thoughts or actions, Richard Ford utilizes the situations and circumstances his […]

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Masculinity is a recurring theme in Richard Ford’s stories, unsurprising as they are all told by male narrators. His stories also involve the absence, passivity, or transience of a woman as well as affairs by either a female character, the male character, or both. This is clear in “Winterkill” as well as in this one, […]

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In “Going to the Dogs,” the narrator’s perspective on Phyllis and Bonnie is heavily influenced by the past experiences he had with his own wife.  As the narrator states, his own wife “is a slender, petite woman who bought all her clothes in the children’s section of the department store…. But she didn’t have much […]

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This story by Richard Ford featured a man and his partner, Arlene, as he took Arlene’s ex-husband to jail. The narrator, Russ, tried to tell a story about Bobby, Arlene’s ex-husband, and the events of the morning and trip of taking him to jail. It was a relatively slow-paced story being that it wasn’t a fight […]

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“Rock Springs” is narrated by a man named Earl, a dad to a little girl named Cheryl. Earl has a long criminal background while trying to stay afloat for himself and dragging his daughter with him. He finds a girlfriend named Edna and moves into her house. At this moment in the story, we think […]

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“Rock Springs” is a story that roughly follows a “family” on their journey to Florida. However, Ford manages to change almost every aspect of this simple summary. This story is full of lies and fabrications, parenting, decision making, and probably any other number of things. This story is really about Earl, a criminal father trying […]

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This story presents itself in a detached and/or disassociated play-like structure. The narrator, Jackie, spends a three-part narrative undergoing a maturity shift as he deals with the fact his mother has committed adultery. The figurative sections of his life make up the assumed parts of a play. The first stage of change represents Jackie’s initial […]

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We seem to read a lot of stories about liars in this class. Earl, our narrator, is taking his family on a road trip with no real destination in mind since all he’s trying to do is keep away from the law. We don’t know what he’s running from when the story starts, but we […]

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The story is about a “family” on the run from the law that stops in a town called Rock Springs, Wyoming. The “family” consists of a father named Earl who is the narrator of the story, his girlfriend Edna, Earl’s daughter Cheryl, and her pet dog named Little Duke. They had stolen a car from […]

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When I was reading “Great Falls” I kept thinking about one of JGB’s posted questions:  “Why is the narrator telling the story?”  I think that it’s clear that the narrator is trying to process a traumatic childhood event later in life. His mother’s infidelity, his father’s violence, and his mother’s subsequent absence is a lot […]

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