authorial intent - Montana 1948

In the novel Montana 1948, by Larry Watson, we witness this through the eyes of David a 12 year old narrator, the sickness and death of his beloved caretaker Marie Little Soldier by the doing of his Uncle Frank whom he has always looked up to. An important character central to the story is David’s father Wesley the sheriff of Bentrock who is brave, courageous, conflicted and, protective of his family. A message Wesley helps us understand a thought-provoking message that it is difficult to choose between family and doing the right thing.

On the day of September 11, 1857, an emigrant party camped at Mountain Meadows was brutally killed by the Mormon militia aided by Indians. This essay examines two viewpoints regarding the massacre found in Sally Denton’s “American Massacre” and in “Massacre at Mountain Meadows” by Ronald W. Walker, Richard E. Turley, and Glen M. Turley.

Both Reginal Rose and Larry Watson shows the importance of achieving justice in their stories. However, what they achieved is different; justice was attained in 12 angry men, while it doesn't in Montana 1948. The prohibiting factors that makes the justice harder to achieved are the prejudice, bias and misuse of power. They also shows the relationship between power and justice, just in contrasting way.

In a Bill Moyer’s interview “Sherman Alexie on Living Outside Borders”, Moyer’s interviews Native American author and poet Sherman Alexie. In the Moyer’s and Company interview, Alexie shares his story about the struggles that he endured during his time on a Native American reservation located at Wellpinit, Washington. During the interview, Alexie goes in-depth about his conflicts that plagued the reservation. In an award-winning book by Sherman Alexie called “The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian”, Alexie writes semi-autobiography that reveals his harsh life on the reservation through a fictional character named Arnold Spirit Junior. In Alexie’s semi-autobiography, Alexie shares his struggles of a poor and alcoholic family, the

The mission school teaches the young man that killing was wrong. He falsely interpreted killing as do not kill anything including animals. In Christianity, nothing is wrong with killing animals. If you do it to fit your needs as in food, clothing, and shelter, you will be following by the rules. The young man claims “At the mission school I learned it was wrong to kill. Nine winters I hunted for the soft heart of Christ, and prayed for the huntsmen who chased the buffalo on the plains (1847).” The boy completely strays away from the culture he is born with, into the new idealism that’s spreading across the country. Instead of hunting for his family, while showing his bravery, he stays home and searches for what the mission schools taught in the 1800’s, salvation from the “savage” Native Americans culture. Yes, the boy is Native American but, the mission school slowly conforms him into the American man. The boy testifies that “With the white man's Bible in my hand, and the white man's tender heart in my breast, I returned to my own people. Wearing a foreigner's dress, I walked, a stranger, into my father's village (1847).” The modifications the boy is going through because of the mission school makes him lose his culture, and try to convert other people from his tribe to change their way of life as he is doing. This certainly leads to his father’s death

Mr. Hale was not the only male character who demonstrated arrogance and insensitivity toward women. The Sheriff who was investigating Mr. Wright’s murder also demonstrated arrogance and insensitivity, hindering his ability to tie Mrs. Wright to

Racism is a driving force in David’s town specifically towards Native Americans. Uncle Frank is accused of raping young Indian girls who he is supposed treat medically, Wesley the town sheriff interviews Ollie Young

Education —an institution for success, opportunity, and progress — is itself steeped in racism. In Sherman Alexie’s short story “Indian Education” from his book The Longer Ranger and Tonto Fistfight in Heaven is set in two places, the Spokane Indian Reservation and a farm town nearby the reservation. The story is written in a list of formative events chronologize Victor’s youth by depicting the most potent moment from each year he is in school. Alexie addresses the issue of racism in education by examining examples of injustice and discrimination over twelve years in a boy’s life. Victor faces his initial injustice in first grade when he is bullied by bigger kids, but his understanding of injustice becomes much more complex in grades two through twelve as he experiences discrimination against his American Indian identity. Familial experiences of a Native woman, Alexie’s style and humor, and Victor’s awareness of discrimination from grade one to twelve all reveal the grim reality of growing up and being schooled on an American Indian reservation.

In the short story, Compatriots, one would read about Lucy and Hilda - two women who vastly differ from each other. Lucy has grown up on the reserve her whole life, where Hilda had just arrived from Germany and is seeking to observe “real Indian culture”. In comparison, David Goes to the Reserve also features two fairly diverse people of opposite cultures: the Aboriginal narrator of the story, and her Caucasian friend David.Within the story, David travels to a reserve to observe the culture of the First Nations people. Both stories contain wonder and excitement, but also presents a sense of culture that the First Nations have; it is this culture that the main characters struggle to grasp.

The use of current events as inspiration for historical events has been referenced by Barker who notes, “Watsons Go to Birmingham—1963… is structured to make the disclosure of racist laws and mindsets, the events of a church bombing, and the realities of nineteenth-century American slavery, which might otherwise feel quite distant to the novels’ contemporary potential readers, real and personal” (178). The structure of the novel is the 90s framework of events.

Idaho statute 33-1625 has had discussion around it for the past couple years it has been put into law. Man parents, and guardians of youth athletes believe that the law isn't strict or strict enough to protect their children. The parents of the youth athletes think that there needs to be more law and rules established into the law’s rules. Parents believe even though politicians say they are trying to regulate the problem with more and more rules and laws the parents don’t believed the steps they took to improve helped that much. The parents still think its need to be changed or added on too. They think that the law will not help improve the concussion problem at all.

In Montana 1948, Larry Watson mainly narrates a secret and catastrophic story happened in Hayden’s family which have high prestige in Bentrock Montana, 1948. In this novel, Watson stands on a twelve-year-old boy－David Hayden’s view to talk about family tragedy which results from his uncle Frank molesting many innocent Indian girls. Therefore, Hayden’s family is tormented by the moral dilemma; especially Wesley- the brother of Frank also the sheriff of Montana. By elaborating how this family scandal affects the characters’ emotional ups and downs and choices to push the story forward, Watson successfully shapes Wesley, one of main protagonists in Montana 1984,

Throughout literature many pieces of work can be compared and contrasted to each other. In “Superman and Me,” Sherman Alexie discusses the challenges he faced as a young Indian adult, who found his passion of reading at an early age, living on the Spokane Indian Reservation. He challenged the stereotype of the young Indian students who were thought to be uneducated while living on a reservation. Likewise, in the excerpt from The Hunger of Memory, Richard Rodriguez shares his similar experience of being a minority and trying to break stereotypes of appearing uneducated. He shares the details of his life growing up learning a different culture and the struggles he faced becoming assimilated into American culture. In these two specific pieces of literature discuss the importance of breaking stereotypes of social and educational American standards and have similar occupational goals; on the other hand the two authors share their different family relationships.

An important factor in shaping Jeannette was being born in Missoula, Montana. It is important to this report to understand the community where Jeannette grew up. It was a factor in the formation of her worldviews. John and Olive settled in a beautiful area of the Missoula valley called Grant Creek. Even to today, Grant Creek is a lush, tranquil setting that has a quiet sense of Jeannette 's world 130 years ago. Again, Lewis and Clark had visited the Missoula valley only 75 years before Jeannette was born. It was a vibrant, diverse community. John Rankin was amongst its first settlers and treated the local Native Americans as he would any other neighbor.

No one is born hating another person because of the color of his skin, or his background, or his religion. People must learn to hate, and if they can learn to hate, they can be taught to love, for love comes more naturally to the human heart than its opposite.” Unfortunately Native Americans have deep roots with racism and oppression during the last 500 years. “In The Lone Ranger and Tonto Fist Fight in Heaven,” Sherman Alexie tries to show racism in many ways in multiple of his short stories. These stories, engage our history from a Native American viewpoint. Many Native Americans were brutally forced out of their homes and onto Reservations that lacked resources. Later, Indian children were taken from their families and placed into school that were designed to, “Kill the Indian, save the man.” In the book there are multiple short story that are pieces that form a larger puzzle that shows the struggles and their effects on Native Americans. Sherman Alexie shows the many sides of racism, unfair justice and extermination policies and how imagination is key for Native American survival.