I think Nick's father and Uncle George were aware of their racist attitude, but they tried to hide it even from themselves. They tried to act as if they looked at the Indians as equal, for example when Uncle George gave both Indians (who were rowing the boats) cigars. This gesture is particularly important, because of the special meaning of "smoking" in the Native American culture. I also think that the lack of Nick's father's self esteem can partly be caused by his bad conscience. This is why he needs Uncle George to reassure him: "Oh, you're a great man, all right."

On the contrary to the above, they sometimes fall out of this "role". For example when Nick asks his father to give anaesthetic to the Ind

"I don't know, Nick. He couldn't stand things, I guess."

Uncle George also shows absolute lack of sympathy when the woman- who is in great pain- bites his arm. He says the following: "Damn squaw bitch!"- which indicates the he does not really consider the fact that the woman probably has great pain.

I think that with this second sentence the father might have meant that the Indian man could not stand this "world order", the situation of the Native American people, and this was the reason of his act.

In my opinion with this novel Hemingway wanted to raise the attention of the American people to the sad situation of the Indians, and make them realize that racism is still a central issue in connection with this nation. If we take a brief look at the American literature and the role of Indians in it, we will see that racism was always present in them. For example in the classic, western Indian stories like Cooper's 'Last of the Mohicans', and in many others, the Indians are divided into two groups: the good Indians,who help the whites and the bad Indians, who hate the whites and want to kill them. In these stories every Indian- even the good ones- are subordinated to the whites, and the good Indians are 'good' only because they want to help the whites. This problem is still present in the American literature of the 60s, for example in Ken Kesey's first book, 'One flew over the cuckoo's nest'. Ken Kesey was half-Indian, therefore he had personal experiences of the situation of the India

Some common words found in the essay are:
Native American, Uncle George, , Indians United, Mohicans' Indians, Nick Indian, George Indians, uncle george, Ken Kesey's, Ken Kesey, white people, nick's father, situation indians, native american, indian nation, wife giving birth, indian woman, giving birth, american literature, indian killed,
Approximate Word count = 1008
Approximate Pages = 4 (250 words per page double spaced)