"The Love Will Tear us Apart"
... was wrong, “She’s not divorced yet.” Ruth said. “It’s the same thing, Massachusetts has crazy laws, that’s, all. Her age is no problem. What’s it matter when she was born? And other business, even if it’s true, which it probably isn’t, it’s got nothing to do with Frank, and it’s in the past....” Matt said (p.1334). This exchange of words is obviously a sad attempt by Matt to justify his son’s mistake, and show’s Ruth’s level-headed approach to the situation. The next character that one would feel some type of sympathy would have to be the woman who caused all of this drama and death, Mary-Ann Strout. This former trophy wife of Richard Strout probably had never felt love in her entire life and decided she was fed up with Richard’s abusive nature and filed for divorce. While still in the process of getting the divorce Mary-Ann met Frank and a relationship ensued. Throughout this entire ordeal Mary-Ann played the fool but knew exactly what she was doing. I believe that Mary-Ann was using Frank to get back at Richard for cheating on her and his promiscuous ways during their separation. I was still compelled to feel some remorse for the way things turned out for this woman, first her lover is shot and killed by her ex-husband and then her ex-husband is killed by her lover’s father, nonetheless she knows what she did was wrong and she had to pay the consequences. Even a killer receives some type of sympathy in “Killings,” Richard Strout, the quintessential high school Homecoming King: a football hero turned bum, is a bad guy personified. He had everything going for him: a football scholarship to the University of Massachusetts, a beautiful wife, and a job with his father’s construction business, and instead of seizing the opportunities in front of him he threw everything away. Instead of receiving a free education from a prestigious institution of higher learning Richard decided to drop out after two semesters. He screwed things up so bad with his wife that she filed for divorce and started seeing a younger man. Finally instead of taking a cushy job with his father and brothers in construction he quit and became the local bartender. It is very hard to feel bad for such a terrible and almost pointless individual like Richard Strout, but somehow Dubus finds a way to pull at the heartstrings once again. Yes, Strout murdered Frank but maybe he was truly trying to reconcile his differences with Mary-Ann; we will never truly know what his real intentions were. As far as we know Strout had only the best intentions when he came to see Mary-Ann, maybe seeing Frank there sent him over the edge that he was so loosely straddling. Then, one night while he w...