t Debbie hides next to reveals the source of Ethan's glaring hatred for the Indians: "Here lies Mary Jane Edwards, killed by Commanches, May 12, 1852." Since the setting of the story is Texas 1868, we learn that Ethan's own mother was massacred by Commanches just sixteen years earlier. The scene fades out as Scar blows on his horn, signaling the beginning of the massacre. The Commanches savagely speared prize cows not to ease their hunger, but rather as a decoy to call the men away from their homesteads. It was when the men left to check on the cows did the Commanche plan to raid their merciless, unprotected families. Ethan makes the terrible discovery of the burned-out farmstead from a distance. He calls out only to Martha and then sees some of her tattered clothing. Framed by the remains of a smoking, burning doorway, Ethan squats and surveys the dead, imagining the torture that three family members suffered. Crazed in his stance and expression, he decides to seek revenge. His obsessed search for the killer is now partially motivated by racial hatred, but mostly for revenge of the violation of his kin. Both of these events helped Ethan realize that the Commanche were savage, heartless, and merciless who are cold-blooded killers. He portrays the &quo
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