montana 1948

“Montana 1948 shows that racism can have tragic results. Discuss”

‘I have a dream… they will not be judged by the colour of their skin but by the content of their character…’ Martin Luther King jnr.

Larry Watson’s thought provoking novel, ‘Montana 1948,’ is the retrospective tale of a childhood event told by the protagonist David Hayden, forty years later. The story evolves around the alleged professionally unacceptable behavior of a physician, David’s uncle, Frank Hayden, who uses his power and privilege against a ‘largely passive and benign,’ as well as ultimately powerless minority group, the native American Sioux Indians. In the novel, the tragic events stem from racism, but not in the sense of ‘antagonism towards other races.’ The racism depicted in Montana 1948 is not literally the persecution of another race; essentially, it is the dismissal of another race. David comments that his father ‘did not like Indians.’ He then corrects this stateme...