Problematic: Communist
In the short story Communist written by Richard Ford in 1986, readers discover several problems for the comprehension of the story. Born in Jackson Missisippi in 1944, Richard Ford is still alive to this day.
His best-known works are the novel The Sportswriter and its sequels, Independence Day, The Lay of the Land and Let Me Be Frank With You, and the short story collection Rock Springs, which contains several widely anthologized stories. Ford received the Pulitzer Prize for Fiction in 1996 for Independence Day. Ford's novel Wildlife was adapted into a 2018 film of the same name. (Wikipedia contributors).
Analysis: Communist written by Richard Ford
Select readers often skip first person point of view because they connect better to stories written in second and third perspective when they don’t want to feel like they are in the tale itself. Short stories lose a variety of readers devouring novel after novel. The entire design of the plot itself in Communist is a giant flashback of the narrator in his youth, therefore losing part of the audience at times. Misidentifying parts of the story’s structure can also be attributed to misunderstanding the timeline of the story. Therefore, the Communist has a problematic structure to the reader.
Novel readers for the most part can easily identify exposition, rising action, climax, falling action and denouement or conclusion. Sometimes the unique parts of the structure for a short story can often feel too precise or unclear. However, upon analyses of the Communist written by Richard Ford is harder to clearly grasp the structure. The first two sentences introducing the narrator’s mother and her boyfriend are skimmed through by the reader especially if the reader is required to read the story.
When a reader picks up a story because of piquing interest, the exposition is easily understood and remembered while finishing the story to the conclusion. Foreshadowing needs to be hinted at a minimum of three times for the reader to remember the details. It is vital to the reader to remember the details so they can understand the exposition. Without the exposition, it’s hard to understand the who and what in order to comprehend the rising action. After the rising action climbed in Communist a bit, I became so involved in the story I forgot that the narrator was telling us his memory. While I became trapped in the first-person perspective in the middle of the story, I had to return to reading the first paragraph a few times in order to memorize that the plot was a memory. Being placed into the story itself is actually the adventure readers enjoy, making it appealing as a story.
Analysis: Communist written by Richard Ford
The story involves three main characters, Glen Baxter, Lenny, and Lenny’s mother, Aileen. Lenny and his mother were not close when Glen started dating her. She would hang out with Glen while Lenny was left to his own devices. He was a teen at the time so it wasn’t like she was abond. The rising action was a little slow when Glen took them both on a last-minute hunting trip, which opened communication for them to become a family. There is an edge at first to the two walking through the grounds doing something completely illegal which could lose Glen his Hunter’s permit and carry license. Even Lenny could lose his hunter’s permit before he even applied for it because of the stunts that Glenn pulled. The two could have gotten a fine by a Game Warden for being on a property not allowed and not keeping the bag limit.
Glen’s character came out like an immoral man because of his lack of appreciation for the wildlife hunting laws, giving the readers the assumption that his harsh tone with Lenny and Aileen could make him a murderer besides a veteran. I found his distaste for the wildlife overseas made his character a bit sketchy for how he would treat Lenny and Aileen. The missing details interrupt the structure keeping it from a clear a to z ending. Glen disappeared for a long time before he showed up to emotionally connect with the two of them. Some of the readers including me wondered if the story was going to a nasty turn with someone dying. Glen is open about fighting his demons from war with Lenny. At first, I didn’t understand why he was sharing the information with Lenny at that age. After I saw the two connecting on a level is when I knew that the personal connection was needed. However, since Glen is lacking certain morals required by legal hunters, it was easy to question if he would turn into a monster and hurt or kill Lenny and Aileen. The rising action became dull because it was psychological instead of physical action like most readers today expect. I understand the need the need to play with the audience as a writer, but the way Richard Ford executed the structure detracted from the story. I enjoyed taking time to consider an Analysis: Communist written by Richard Ford
I greatly prefer long novels but have just recently been introduced to reading short stories. Communist was one I paid very close attention to because I found a lot of mistakes making hunters and veterans look bad. This short story would have been better as a novel in order to stretch out the psychological elements missing from the story. Perhaps this author could have enhanced the plot by showing more romance between Glen and Aileen, I would not have been so worried that Glen was going to go all murderous on Aileen or Lenny. The story stayed true to the characters, but I believe the brevity made it unclear to the audience where this story was heading for the climax. This structure is missing a firm foundation. I understand why Richard created the character Glen where he is having a hard time expressing his feelings to anyone. Again, just a few paragraphs with some dialogue between Aileen and Lenny about Glen before Glen took Lenny by himself would have helped the audience connect with some of the romance between the two. Or maybe write about Lenny watching Aileen and Glen interacting outside the window with laughing or flirtation.
Leaving the reader’s imagination open to wondering if Glen was going to lose his emotional control and murder Lenny or his mom could have been more carefully approached if that is something the author wanted to emphasize to the reader. The brevity of wrapping up the memory also caused a lapse in structure for the audience. Why were we revisiting this memory? The memory could have been shorter to allow for a better setup and conclusion on older Lenny so we as the readers could more emotionally connect with Lenny. What led to Lenny explaining the flashback to us? These questions the author Richard did not expand on, left me dissatisfied as a reader.
The problematic structure by Richard ford detracts from the story, Communist. There are clearly some missing details, paragraphs or foreshadowing which could have left the audience with a more clearer understanding. We, as readers, can suggest things to fix it, but in reality the story is by the author himself. There are certain things that authors will listen to when it comes to writing a story and listening to beta writers, but for the most part authors retain all creative rights to make us question his writing so that his work reaches a bigger audience. It is true that controversy sells and a great writer knows how to become an author with a flick of a pen.
CITATION
Wikipedia contributors. “Richard Ford.” Wikipedia, 11 Nov. 2021, en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Richard_Ford.
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