The Mostly True Story of Tanner & Louise

The gun is a symbol of power throughout the narrative. The gun is first referenced by Louise’s neighbor, who tells Tanner about Louise’s threat to her boyfriend, Declan. Tanner is worried about the gun and spends the time that Louise is at bridge searching the house to no avail, finding only a few locked closets, boxes, and drawers that she can’t open. When she calls Jules about the gun, she promises her that it’s locked in the bedside table and kept unloaded. The gun appears again in the glovebox when Louise and Tanner are heading toward St. Louis. It scares Tanner, who demands that Louise unload the gun and store the ammo separately from the pistol itself. Tanner is afraid of what power could mean in her hands or do to her. Louise also uses the idea of the gun in Tanner’s purse to escape going up the St. Louis Arch, using her soft power of manipulation over Tanner. 

After Tanner’s angry outburst at Louise for calling her “girlie,” Louise takes her to the woods behind their St. Louis motel to learn to shoot the gun. Though Tanner resists and expresses fear at first, after she gets the hang of it, she tells Louise that it was “absolutely amazing” (179). Even though she misses the targets, Tanner learning to shoot the gun symbolizes her learning to harness her own power. At dinner afterward, Tanner opens up about her fear of being perceived as impolite or told that she was overreacting if she had shoved the drunk frat boy out of the way. She feared expressing her power and now turns her anger on both herself and those around her, like her mother. Louise tells Tanner that she understands her anger and the feeling of powerlessness. 

Louise leaves the gun in Tanner’s bag when she spends the night with August in Redding. When Tanner questions it, Louise tells her that she wanted to leave her with a measure of protection, because regardless of how nice August seems, a woman should always have a “leg of lamb” (278). Louise wanted to remind Tanner that in her intimate situation with August, she has the power to say no or walk away. 

The symbolism of the gun reaches a climax when Tanner uses it to shoot at Salvatore D’Amato. When she bursts down the door and points the gun at him, Salvatore taunts her about not knowing how to use the gun, and in that moment, Tanner sees the boy on the balcony instead of Salvatore. In a moment of claiming her “space on the balcony” (298), she shoots at him. Though she misses him, it’s still a moment in which Tanner claims her power and right to exist in the world.