Beginning of Essay
In Montana, the summer of 1948 held a series of tragic events which were to have a permanent and decisive impact on David and his parents. This chain of events were to turn David’s young life and that of his family upside down forever and which was to so angrily ....

Middle of Essay
.... must pretend, not just for the remainder of the novel, but for the next forty years, to be ignorant of Frank’s crimes, and therefore of much of what is happening although his parents do not realise that he has overheard their discussions. David’s previous image of Frank along with happy memories therefore were gone, never to return, and within six months of the funeral both him and his family left Bentrock, confirming his earlier, somewhat bitter judgement that “were the ones getting the shitty end of the stick”. A loss of David’s innocence also appears during his killing of a live magpie. This brings about a an evil in himself also reinfor ....