THE RIFLE by Gary Paulsen is more the story of an actual rifle and the events that surround its life rather than about
the life of a single individual. In the book, many individuals enter the lives of the rifle until the rifle changes
one life forever by its very nature.
This novel provides an interesting approach to historical fiction because the setting spans hundreds of years and main
character is an object, not a person. A detailed account of the rifle's construction is given in the beginning of the
book, along with the rifle maker's feelings towards the rifle with the "sweet" and perfect shot. The rifle is a thing
of beauty and power, yet paradoxically, it only has the power that individuals assign to it.
After the gunsmith Cornish McManus sold the rifle to John Byam and then Byam dies of dysentery, the rifle passes through
the hands of various owners, from a widower to a bachelor to an editor. Eventually the rifle is discovered in the attic
of an old house and sold at a gunshow. It then passes through more hands before it became Harvey Kline's. Kline
admired the gun for its beauty and kept it over his mantle, where the gun waited, as time continued to pass. In all
the history of the gun and the history of its owners, no one ever bothered to see if the gun was loaded. It is this
mistake, made by all the owners, that causes the rifle to claim the life of an innocent young man.
In the end the rifle did what it was made to do. The book mixes history with modern ethical dilemmas of guns and
gun ownership. It traces the public's views and impressions of the gun, from a time of war to modern times.
After Richard dies due to the shot of the rifle, the rifle is tossed over a bridge into a body of water. But a
man named Tilson saw the rifle fall and he pulled it out of the water. Paulsen writes, "But he [Tilson] thought and
believed, as Tim Harrow believed, as millions believe, that guns didn't kill people, people killed people." This statement
seems to define this book. But the question remains, is it true? No person killed Richard Allen Mesington.
A rifle killed him. Paulsen challenges the contemporary notion that guns are okay if they are kept in control.
A guns true nature, Paulsen shows, cannot always be controlled.
This book has an excellent balance between a historical account of a gun and how that gun came to affect the life of
a modern day individual.
