Analytical Essay of 'indian Camp' by Ernest Hemingway

Indian Camp

The short story Indian Camp was written by Ernest Hemingway in 1924. Hemingway was an American writer who used the writing technic called the “iceberg technic”. Exactly this writing type is very clear in the short story Indian Camp.

Indian Camp is about a boy Nick, his father and his uncle George. Nicks father is helping a pregnant Indian woman in labor. With no anesthetic, no decent medical tools and a baby turned up side down the labor becomes very intense to watch for Nick. Nicks father needs to make a caesarean to get the baby out and while operating the woman’s husband commits suicide by cutting his throat from ear to ear.

Nick has now experienced life and death and the world, as it can be terrifying and unpredictable. Nick comes to the Indians camp as a little innocent boy and leaves as a grown experienced boy. “Nick lay back with his father’s arm around him”, here you can see that at the time they arrive to the camp, Nick is a young boy who gets comfort from his father. “They were seated in the boat, Nick in the stern, his father rowing”, At the time they leave the camp Nick don’t needs his father’s comfort anymore. He sits alone in the stern as a grown experienced boy who is slowly pulling away from his father. “Du many men kill themselves, Daddy?” Nick asks his father this in the end of the short story and this question make me believe that Nick is innocent because he is unaware of death. In the end Nick fells “quite sure – he would never die.” Nick has seen how the Indian man succumbed to fear and wows that he will never let fear in his way. Some would say that it is a sign of that Nick is a bit naïve, but I would say that it is a sign of that Nick has succeeded in his test of manhood.  

Nicks father is a professional doctor, who is trying to teach his son the lesson of life. “Her screams are not important. I don’t hear them because they are not important”. Nicks father speaks very professional about the lady in labor, just like a doctor would do. “You don’t know” The doctor says this to Nick after he said that he knew what was going on. Nicks father tries to teach him by saying this, that you don’t know anything in this world unless you have experienced it.

Uncle George hands out cigars to the Indian men when they arrived to the camp. “Uncle George gave both the Indians cigars”. It used to be a very popular tradition to hand out cigars when you were about to become a father. “She bit uncle George on the arm and Uncle George said, “Damn squaw bitch!”” The Indian lady in labor finds comfort in all the pain, by biting uncle George in the arm. Uncle George says “squaw bitch!” and squaw was a contemptuous term used to refer to a North American Indian woman, especially a wife.  “The Indian lay with his face toward the wall. His throat had been cut from ear to ear. The open razor lay, edge up, in the blankets.” The Indian woman’s husband kills himself meanwhile she is being operated by Nicks father. Uncle George is the father to the baby and the Indian man discovers this and out of his inability to deal with his shame he kills himself. He failed his test of manhood. Some have suggested that the suicide could indicate fear ore that the American Indian husband’s resignation to the thoughtless racism of the White men who have come to help her. ^[1] 

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