Montana 1948 a book authored by Larry Watson is narrated by an adult David Hayden, which through his recollection, talks about his life and the struggles within his family in a town called Benrock when he was young. This novel talks about abuse of power and racism.
The novel starts off with David recalling these significant past events. Marie, David’s family’s Native American housekeeper becomes ill, however when David’s father Wes Hayden, the local sheriff, decides that they should call his brother Frank, one of the town’s local doctors, to come over and check on her, Marie declines. Frank still comes with the request by Marie that Gail Hayden, David’s mother, stays in the room with her during the check-up. The decline leads to Gail Hayden …show more content…
Firstly, Uncle Frank, who is one of the town’s doctors uses his occupation to engage in immoral acts, in this case molesting and sexually assaulting his patients, Native American girls, using body check-up as an excuse. He uses his high status and power in the town to cover up his crimes, and it shows how easy it is to misuse power. He had authority over others, especially over the Native American, people. This relates to real life because some people use their occupation to take advantage of others, especially those who are in a lower status or considered …show more content…
Frank’s victims were all Native American women and this tells us that the Native American were considered inferior to the white people in the town. Even Wes believed “Indians, with only few exceptions were ignorant, lazy, superstitious and irresponsible.” This is also shown when Marie becomes sick and they make fun of her culture and Indian healing practices. It is also shown when Julian believes that raping Indian girls was not a crime. “Screwing an Indian, you don’t lock a man up for that.” It is disgusting to think of someone as less than human just because they had a different skin colour and have a different culture and
The novel starts off with David recalling these significant past events. Marie, David’s family’s Native American housekeeper becomes ill, however when David’s father Wes Hayden, the local sheriff, decides that they should call his brother Frank, one of the town’s local doctors, to come over and check on her, Marie declines. Frank still comes with the request by Marie that Gail Hayden, David’s mother, stays in the room with her during the check-up. The decline leads to Gail Hayden …show more content…
Firstly, Uncle Frank, who is one of the town’s doctors uses his occupation to engage in immoral acts, in this case molesting and sexually assaulting his patients, Native American girls, using body check-up as an excuse. He uses his high status and power in the town to cover up his crimes, and it shows how easy it is to misuse power. He had authority over others, especially over the Native American, people. This relates to real life because some people use their occupation to take advantage of others, especially those who are in a lower status or considered …show more content…
Frank’s victims were all Native American women and this tells us that the Native American were considered inferior to the white people in the town. Even Wes believed “Indians, with only few exceptions were ignorant, lazy, superstitious and irresponsible.” This is also shown when Marie becomes sick and they make fun of her culture and Indian healing practices. It is also shown when Julian believes that raping Indian girls was not a crime. “Screwing an Indian, you don’t lock a man up for that.” It is disgusting to think of someone as less than human just because they had a different skin colour and have a different culture and