Introduction
The book Shot in the Heart by Mikal Gilmore is a true account of the happenings in the Gilmore family. The author is a brother to Gary Gilmore who was sentenced to death after refusing all attempts to block his execution. He instead demanded that he be put to death for the crimes that he had committed earlier on. He was therefore executed by a firing squad in 1977. After Gary’s death, Mikal was faced by some irresistible emotion of loss and dissociation from his family past. However, after some time he found it necessary to explore the dark events that had destroyed two of his brothers. Mikal was disturbed and began a search so as to discover what events had twisted the lives of his family. He was seeking to dig the truth so that he could discover the events that led to his family members suffering the way they did. Mikal’s father was an alcoholic who had failed as a comedian and an actor. Mikal was however lucky and did not experience the same type of life that his family members experienced. Mikal’s father frequently beat up and abused his children and wife. Mikal’s mother had to endure years of suffering that eventually led to a dysfunctional household. This book is well expresses and emotionally charged that portrays the problems that a family can undergo if the head of the family do not give the rest of the family the right directions in life. The book shot in the heart is a very good account of the life history of the Gilmore family. The book also illustrates the dilemma of Gary Gilmore and shows the tribulation that the Gilmore family went through. It is an implausible psychological study and is wonderfully depressing and inspiring. This book is based on the story of Mikal coming to terms with the sins and the secrets of his disreputable brother and in the process, exploring the legacy of violence in his family.The Gilmore family is faced with violence, religion, superstition and death. This book takes an account of Gary Gilmore and how he was executed by a firing squad. Mikal Gilmore the author was the youngest of the four brothers in a family that was marked with violence. His brother campaigned for his own death. The author in this book tells us a story of his dysfunctional family. His mother was a blacksheep daughter of an unforgiving Mormon famer. The author’s father on the other hand was a drunkard, a thief and a conman. The family that the author is talking about was a family that was destroyed by a multigenerational history of child abuse, alcoholism, murder, transgressions and infidelity. The author was being haunted by the guilt of being his father’s favorite child and being a brother to the infamous murderer. This book gives a history of the American family that was tied up with violence and the way the violence in the family affected the children.
Frank Gilmore who was the author’s father championed domestic violence in his family. He was a low-level criminal given to startling cruelty. Frank beat up his children and abandoned his wife. There is an instance when he even left Gary Gilmore on a park bench. His actions can show that he was completely irresponsible and could not take care of his family in an appropriate way. The author’s mother was on the other hand haunted by visions. The person who experienced suffering the most was Gary. The whole family suffered a lot and there was not even a single day that they ever tasted peace and happiness.
Frank Junior who was the eldest son experienced a lot of horror for his family. Some of the problems that he experienced included the beatings that he received from his parents and the crimes that his brothers committed. Frank junior also served three years in the federal prison for being an assiduous protester during the Vietnam War. Gary also gave him credits on several occasions after he saved him from beatings by his father.
This book is a true account of the occurrences in the Gilmore family. It is also a very emotional reading that cannot leave any reader unturned. The careful analysis of the family and the use of the first person perspective from a first person witness make the book a very good source for studying domestic violence. The book has been recommended on several occasions for people who wish to get the effects of domestic violence and how it can tear apart a family. The book is also a good account on the way a parent’s irresponsibility can lead to the family being torn apart by crime and other wrong doings in the society. This book also gives a very good account of the effects of wrong doings and shows that the consequence of crime is always death.
The Gilmore family had several encounters of domestic violence. The problems in the family started from abandonment by their father and the dramatic tale of the public hanging which was witnessed by their young mother as a child. These occurrences had adverse effects to the lives of each individual in the family. Their mother kept on being haunted frequently by the visions and the memories of the dark past. The father however kept on drinking and later turned out to be a conman. He kept on moving to different places so as to escape the wrath of his victims. His children suffered in different ways as a result of this. He kept on beating them up together with his wife. The memories of such incidences constantly haunted the children and made them develop a very bad attitude towards life and how to relate with their fellows. Frank, Gary and Gaylen were the most affected. Mikal on the other hand did not face the wrath of his father’s wrong doings the same way his elder brothers faced. This is because by the time he was born the father had started changing and was now starting to settle after several years of wrong doings. The eldest son, Frank Junior served three years in prison after being a crusader opposing the Vietnam War. He did so since he had experienced a lot of war and violence in his life. He openly opposed the war and later found himself in the prison. This also made his life change and his perception towards life changed a lot he saw that life had nothing good to offer to anyone who was living on the earth. Later after his release from the prison he helped in saving the lives of his brothers especially when they were being beaten up by their father. Gary was greatly affected especially after his father had abandoned him on a park bench. He had a very negative perception towards life and saw everybody around him as an enemy. This perception led to him murdering the two Americans. Gary robbed and murdered Max Jensen and Bennie Bushnell even after they had complied with his demands. He did this since to him violence was not an issue due to the poor and unfriendly upbringing that they had received from their father. After being arrested and sentenced, Gary campaigned for his execution since he saw no need for living anymore. He was later executed by a firing squad in Utah. Mikal who was the youngest was born when his father was no settling down and did not experience a lot of the domestic injustices that his brothers had experienced.
The Gilmore’s family developed different unpleasant feelings of anger and pain. Frank Junior decided to abandon his family after the death of their mother. He did no want to see the remaining members of his family suffer as he watched. He therefore decided to flee. However, as the book ends we see hi reunite with Mikal and apologizing for having left the family. Gary on the other hand was involved in criminal offences as a result of the poor upbringing. After committing the offences and being caught, he did not want to experience any form of violence in his life as a result of his family’s dark history. In order to escape more wrath of the family’s history he campaigned for his execution. Despite the attempts to block his execution, he insisted that he wanted to face death as a consequence of his wrong doings. He was then later executed.
The theory of family violence that can best describe the situation in Gilmore’s family is that of domestic doom. The problem started with their father who constantly beat up his family. He exercised a lot of domestic violence and irresponsibility. His children therefore received a lot of misguidance in the way they were supposed to relate with others. His children and his wife suffered as a result of this and this led to the adapting wayward behaviors which later made the family values to deteriorate. The family was doomed and one of his sons died as a result of lack of morals.
Fate played a very big role in the story. The consequences of wrong doing are always unpleasant. Frank Gilmore was a conman and a thief. As a result he could not enjoy life as other people did. He became an alcoholic and the violence that he exercised to his family followed him to the grave. Any wrong doing cannot go unpunished. Gary who was the most notorious of the four boys indulged himself in crime. Even though he succeeded in a series of the crimes he committed, he could not continue for a long time without being caught. The day he killed the two Americans, there was no any eye witness present however fate could not allow him escape unnoticed. He accidentally shot his hand and the blood traces that dropped as he escaped away from the seen, helped the detectives to follow him and get him arrested. He also felt that he was supposed to be executed as a result of the crimes he had committed. He had to pay for his crime and as fate has it the wages of sin is death, he had to die as a result of the crimes he had committed.
Gary was the second born of the four sons of Frank Gilomre and Bessie Gilmore. Gary had a troubled relationship with his father who was a cruel and a non-reasonable man. Gilmore began emerging in petty crimes as an adolescent and was involved in a series of petty thefts. He however had a good IQ and performed very well in academic tests. He decided to run away to Texas with a friend of his where they also engaged in a series of petty criminal offences. Gary was arrested when he was only 14 years old after they started a small car theft ring with some of his friends. He was then later on taken to a correctional centre. When he came back from the prison, he started being involved in a series of high-tech criminal activities. He advanced further and became a cold-blood robber whereby he killed the two Americans. This marked the end of the road for him as he was executed by a firing squad after being found guilty and campaigning for his execution.
Mikal was born at a time when his father had started settling. During the time Mikal was growing up his father was no longer involved in a series of con activities. They stayed in one place for a long period of time as opposed to the time when his brothers were growing up. During the times his brothers were growing up there was a lot of domestic violence as their father kept on beating the family members. Mikal on his side did not experience a lot of the violence as his brothers did.
There were some weaknesses in the book as the author left some information not exposed. The author failed to mention much about the prices that their father paid as result of his con activities. He also did not talk much about his brother Gaylen and the effects of the domestic violence on his side. The first person narration that has been used in the book is not a methodologically rigorous research. The third person usually narrates better that the first person since the third person is capable of conducting a lot of research related to the topic. The author is not able to give us more information about the things that transpired in the early stages of the family since he was not there. He could not exhaustively cover what the family went through since he was not present in every aspect of the family member’s lives. First person narration is usually prone to biasness. The narrator may tend to hide some bit of information that he may think is not favoring his narration.
The book has a lot of contribution to the overall knowledge in domestic violence. The book shows how domestic violence can have adverse effects to the members of the family and even in other generations to come. The picture of domestic violence that is being portrayed in the book is very clear and we can get more about child abuse, maltreatment and crime. We also get a chance to get more information on the effects of crime and the prices that criminals pay for their criminal activities.
