Answer:
David is the story’s contemplative and highly perceptive narrator. He tells the story as a grown man of 52 looking back on his childhood. The events of the summer of 1948 mark for David a rude transition into the unpleasant and more complicated realities of adulthood. David is a thoughtful and somewhat quiet and solitary boy, who loves living in the countryside and going on long hikes, horseback riding, hunting, and fishing. At 12, he believes he is in love with his caretaker, Marie Little Soldier, but when he is older he recognizes that this love was chaste and innocent, though still very real. David’s childhood was pleasant and uneventful prior to the summer of 1948, but when unsettling rumors about his Uncle Frank come to light, David must contend with some very adult and unpleasant realities: his uncle is a sexual predator and a murderer, many of his heroes are bigots, and his life will never be carefree again. When David grows up he teaches history—he is in part interested in history because of all of the untold stories and tragedies he believes are contained in many historical accounts; for the story of Frank and Marie Little Soldier was not recorded anywhere, but in many ways describes life in Montana better than any official history could.