Tragedy and Divorce in Richard Ford's "Great Falls"

The Tragic Tradition and American Divorce

One form of literature deeply rooted in Western culture is tragedy. It is an art form based on the concept of human suffering, traceable to the ancient Greek theaters of Athens in the 500s B.C. From those origins, tragedy evolved through the centuries and continues as a living art form today. Each country has developed its own idea of tragedy shaped by its traditions, social problems, and cultural tensions.

In the United States, one common source of tragedy — especially in the post-World War II period — was divorce and its effects on the family structure. Divorce was not widely accepted by American society until after the war; before then, it carried a powerful social stigma, and children of divorced parents were stigmatized throughout most of American history. But as a result of World War II and America's emergence as a world superpower, American society shifted from a closed, parochial outlook to a more cosmopolitan one. One consequence of that shift was a loosening of moral restrictions on divorce and a broader social acceptance of it. This in turn led more people to leave cruel or loveless marriages rather than endure them — but it also left emotional scars on the children of those broken homes.

One powerful example of the emotional shock divorce can inflict on a child is Richard Ford's short story "Great Falls," which details the tragedy of a 1960s American divorce. Told from the point of view of a boy in his early teens who was present the night his family was torn apart, "Great Falls" is a quintessential American tragedy. As stories go, this one was hardly unique in American society. The period in which the story takes place was one in which husbands and wives no longer felt compelled to maintain the pretense of a happy marriage. There was an awakening of personal liberty throughout American society, and sometimes that awakening led individuals to make difficult choices that could only end in pain and misery for everyone involved.

One such person was the narrator's mother, who had married his father believing their life together would be filled with adventure rather than domesticity. In earlier times, a woman like her would have suffered through long years of a life she did not want, playing the role of happy wife and mother while quietly miserable. Such circumstances drove many women to the false comforts of drugs and alcohol and the gradual ruin of their lives. The narrator's mother would not be trapped in that way — she made a series of choices intended to end her suffering, though in doing so she introduced tremendous suffering to those around her.

"Great Falls" is tragic because it depicts the destruction of an American family, something that should never be taken lightly. The American family is widely regarded as the foundation of American society, and the breakup of that foundation carries both collective and deeply personal consequences — even for the innocent. That is why the dissolution of the Russell family is so devastating. The decision made by Jackie's mother had lifelong effects on both Jackie and his father. Afterward, Jackie saw his mother only "from time to time — in one place or another, with one man or another…" (Kittredge 150). His father eventually moved to Ely, Nevada, where he was killed in an accident, leaving Jackie with no father and very little of a mother. If tragedy is the artistic expression of human suffering, then the breakup of the Russell family certainly qualifies — a tragedy that has been repeated millions of times throughout American society.

Works Cited

Kittredge, William, and Allen Morris Jones. The Best of Montana's Short Fiction. Guilford, CT: Lyons, 2004. Print.