Frank had fallen in love with Mary Ann who was in the process of divorcing her husband Richard Strout. Ruth did not like knowing that Frank was seeing Mary Ann because she had two boys, and she had not been divorced yet. Another problem that bothered her was the fact that Mary Ann was four years older than Frank. Ruth had also heard that the marriage had gone bad early on in their relationship. The story then goes on to tell you that Mary Ann and Richard had been messing around with other people. The way Ruth felt about Frank and Mary Ann’s relationship shows her view on what she feels is right. You can relate to the way Ruth feels because seeing people while they are still married is morally incorrect. Frank should not have started a relationship with a woman that was not yet legally single. It was as if he

Matt went home and walked into his bedroom and saw an orange light sitting there in the dark. Ruth, with her cigarette in hand, asked Matt what happened. Matt told her everything, and when he finished the story he let out a sob that he had kept silent in his heart.

Matt confided in his friend Willis to ease the pain Richard had caused him. Matt was lucky to have a friend like Willis to listen and also understand why he wanted revenge on Richard. Willis saw how much pain Matt was in, so he helped him in planning his revenge. One night, as the bar closed, Matt and Willis waited for Richard to come around the building before kidnapping him. As Matt and Willis saw Richard step around the building they aimed their guns at him. “Mr. Fowler,” Strout said. He looked at each of them, and at the guns. “Mr. Trottier.”(89). Matt quickly stood behind Richard and told him not to talk and to get into his car. Matt told Richard to drive himself home. The first words out of Richard’s mouth was, “He was making it with my wife.”(90). Being held at gun point one would think that you would plead for your life instead of trying to justify your past actions. When they arrived at Richard’s house, Matt told him that they were going to go inside and he was going to pack his bag because he was going to jump bail. When he walked through Richards house he looked around and placed assumptions about the different rooms and who would be in them and what they would be doing. One thing that caught Matt’s attention, “… hung a colorful photograph of Mary Ann and the two boys sitting on a lawn- there was no house in the picture-Mary Ann smiling at the camera or Strout or whoever held the camera, smiling as she had on Matt’s lawn this summer while he waited for the charcoal and they all talked and he looked at her brown legs and Frank touching her arm, her shoulder, her hair, he moved down the hall with her smile in his mind, wondering: was that when they were both playing around and she was smiling like that at him and they were happy, even sometimes, making it worth it?” (92). One can see that for Matt, to walk through Richard’s house, was difficult because it only brought

Some topics in this essay:
Mary Ann, Trottier”89 Matt, Matt Willis, Willis Matt, Matt Ruth, Mary Ann’s, Ruth Matt, Frank Ruth, Matt Richard, Dubus Richard, mary ann, matt told, matt willis, ruth matt, mary ann boys, guns “mr, boys sitting, richard killed, told richard, throughout story, brought memories, matt told richard, mary ann frank,