...brief Analysis The fateful misunderstanding Obviously there is an invisible wall between father and his son. They talk about two different things, the father about the disease and the son about his death but they do not know that they misunderstand each other. This fateful misunderstanding appears in different scenes where the father and son talk about "it", meaning two different things. One example is when the father asks his son why he does not go to sleep. "You don´t have to stay in here with me, Papa, if it bothers you." The son is talking about his death but does not mention his fear. He must be shocked when the father answers "It doesn't bother me". Because the father does not know of the fear of his son there is no reason for him to explain that he won´t die. Instead he goes out to hunt. The boy must think that his father does not even care that he will die, but prefers going out to hunt. This fateful misunderstanding happens another time, again Hemingway uses the word "it" to describe two different things. Father: "It´s nothing to worry about." He means the fever. "Just take it easy." Since the son always thinks of death he assumes his father tells him to take dying easy so he answers: "I am taking it easy". The hunting scene In the story "A Day´s Wait" there is a story in a story. In this part of the story the father goes out to hunt for a while while his son is in bed thinking about death. In the passage there is a description of nature which is covered...
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...They believe there is no higher meaning to the existence of man, and they deny the existence of God. Ernest Hemingway portrays three different ways of coping with the meaninglessness of life in his short story “Indian Camp.” The three characters that portray the three different outlooks are Nick’s father, Uncle George, and the Indian father. Ernest Hemingway uses the environment in his short story “Indian Camp” to develop the thematic vision that there are different ways people can cope with the horror of life from the moment of birth and until death. In the short story, Hemmingway portrays a microcosm of life by including a baby’s birth and a man’s suicide in the short period of the story. The pregnant Indian woman struggles in labor for two days without any medical attention until Nick’s father’s arrival. Nick’s father describes to Uncle George after the procedure, “Doing a Caesarian with a jack-knife and sewing it up with nine-foot, tapered gut leaders” (18). The description of Ernest Hemingway INDIAN CAMP I guess the beginning of the story is quite usual and perhaps even banal. The son wants to watch his father brings new life into the world. He is a young boy who helps his father. But on the other hand, despite the fact that there is only pain and violence in life, from the author point of view, I guess we are clearly shown, that the father takes care of his son and that he wants to preserve him from death. We see that the husband of the woman, who gave birth to the...
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...An American icon, noble price winner, heavy drinker, serious hunter, lovely father, and much more, Ernest Hemingway has really captured people’s imaginations with his writing and actions. There are only quite a few people who are all rounded like Ernest Hemingway. Ernest Hemingway had made his name very popular with his writing skill and adventures. Born on July 21, 1899 in suburban Oak Park, IL to Dr. Clarence and Grace Hemingway, Ernest was the second of six children to be raised in a quiet suburban town by his physician father and devout musician mother. Indeed, Hemingway's childhood pursuits fostered the interests, which would blossom into literary material. Although Grace hoped her son would be influenced by her musical interests, young Hemingway preferred accompanying his father on hunting and fishing trips; this love of outdoor adventure would later be reflected in many of Hemingway's stories, particularly those featuring protagonist Nick Adams. Hemingway's aptitude for physical challenge remained with him through high school, where he both played football and boxed. Due to the permanent eye damage he contracted from numerous boxing matches, Hemingway was repeatedly rejected from service in World War I. Boxing provided more material for Hemingway's stories, as well as a habit of likening his literary feats to boxing victories. In addition, Hemingway did not enjoy journalism as much as writing novels, therefore he wrote to Gertrude Stein, now a very good friend in Paris...
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...A DAY’S WAIT LITERARY ANALYSIS Author: Ernest Hemingway, an American writer. His writing celebrates heroes and explores the nature of courage in this story. In much of his writing he dramatizes the importance of bravery in the face of death and of life’s everyday problems. This story deals with the quiet courage needed to face fear. Looking at Hemingway´s biography we can find parallels between the story "A Day´s Wait" and the author´s real life. When Hemingway took part in World War I he was wounded twice. When he was in hospital he heard the doctor talk about his health and since he did not know any better he thought he would have to die. His own fear, the behaviour and the feelings in this situation Hemingway expresses through the character of the son. The boy only knows that you will die with a fever of 44 degrees but does not know that he lives in a country with different thermometers. Title: The title ‘A DAY’S WAIT’ suggests that an important thing is expected to happen till the end of the day. It suggests that somebody waited for something all day long. (It means that the protagonist had to spend a day waiting for his death (which ultimately did not occur).The title signifies the boy's tiring wait. Also, the story is set in the time span of one day.) Setting: The story is set in the country in winter. Point of view: First person point of view/ 1st person narrative, because a character tells the story and refers to himself as ‘I’, and participates in...
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...Wife” By Ernest Hemingway Seemingly, masculinity is a big part of men’s identity. Masculinity is usually associated with courage, independence, and assertiveness, and if a man’s pride is discriminated or somehow threatened, he will often do whatever is necessary to regain his pride. Thus, this might result in unethical behaviour. This is dealt with in Ernest Hemingway’s short story “The Doctor and the Doctor’s wife” from 1925 where masculinity is an overall theme and where he uses contrast and his iceberg technique to get his message across. Good intro (but remember to put two writing devices in) As stated, Hemingway illustrates the importance of masculinity for men’s identity in this short story. Firstly, Hemingway employs the importance of pride in male-to-male relationships by focusing on the interaction between the Doctor and the American Indian Dick Boulton. Secondly, Hemingway shows that a man’s pride comes above all, since the Doctor is dishonest to his wife regarding why he had a conflict with Boulton. Lastly, the use of contrast, e.g. the Doctor’s dishonesty as mentioned earlier, between the sexes empathize how masculinity is important to men, and this is what the following essay will be examining through the character of Nick’s father, the Doctor. In the beginning of the short story, the Doctor has hired three American Indians to cut some logs that broke free from a steamer and drifted on the beach. The three American Indians Dick Boulton, his son Eddy, and another...
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...Literary Biography December 13, 2013 Ernest Hemingway led a life one can only imagine in stories, but started from a rather boring town called Oak Park in Illinois. This life began on July 21, 1899. Perhaps his own stories are a place you can get an idea of this author’s life. Many critics say that he mirrored a lot of stories from his own life, and knowing a little about his real life, you can draw the parallels from fact to fiction. Hemingway spent his summers in Michigan, in a small cabin in the woods next to the Ojibway Indians, whom he was very good friends with. His father, Clarence, taught him the way of nature, including how to identify plants, hunt and fish, among other things. Ernest liked his father, who committed suicide in his mid-fifties. Two of his siblings also committed suicide (he was one of six). His mother was “cold and domineering,” and some say she emasculated his father. In his adult life, he was married four times, but “When I saw my wife again standing at the tracks as the train came in by the piled logs at the station, I wished I had died before I ever loved anyone but her.” This quote, which I think gives a testament to how beautifully he could write, is speaking of his first wife, Hadley, whom he met and married within a year. They had a son together, but after Hadley was at fault in getting his collection of stories stolen, their relationship wouldn’t recover. When in high school, Hemingway’s love for writing started to show. He wrote for...
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...Analysis of ”Indian Camp” by Ernest Hemingway, Oktober 24, 2011 Analysis of “Indian Camp” by Ernest Hemingway ”Indian camp” is a short story by Ernest Hemingway written in 1921. It’s about the young boy Nick who accompanies his father, who is a doctor, to an Indian camp where an Indian woman has been in labour for a few days. His uncle George is also going with them to the camp but in another boat. They arrive at the camp where Nick’s father is going help the woman have her baby. The woman is lying on a bunk inside one of the shanties. Her husband, who has hurt his foot, is lying in the upper bunk. Nick’s father has to do a caesarean and Nick watches while his father is preforming the operation. When the baby is born Nick’s father turns to the Indian woman’s husband to see how he’s doing but it turns out that the husband has committed suicide by cutting his throat whit a razor. Then Nick and his father sails back, while Nick is asking a lot of questions. Setting The story takes place in an Indian camp - and on a lake, a meadow and in a wood on the way to and from the camp in northern Michigan (I assume it’s in Michigan, because a nurse will come from St. Ignace (page 15, line 17), witch is a city in northern Michigan). It probably takes place around 1910 based on the fact that Hemingway himself was a child at that time and his own father also was a doctor, who also paid doctor’s calls among Indians in Michigan. Also what is going on in the short story corresponds...
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...short story by Ernest Hemingway whom was an American journalist and writer in the 1960’s, he is claimed to be one of the most influential writers of the 20th century and his works are considered classics in American literature. The language in the story is very minimalistic; which is typical for Hemingway’s stories. This means the reader will have to read between the lines in order to get the whole meaning, therefore every piece of information is essential. This is known as the iceberg technique which places most of the story below the surface. Hemingway developed this style of writing through his career as a journalist, once he started creating short stories he retained the minimalistic style which is used by journalists. The language means a lot as this minimalistic view is usually how a boy would see the world and it is how Nick views the world, he is only able to see what happens in front of him (the facts). His experience at the Indian camp is new for him and he does not know what to think of it, therefore his view of the surroundings is very poor. The father’s plan with bringing Nick alongside him was for Nick to experience the birth of a child. Instead however Nick experience both birth and death. At this point, the father did not want Nick to experience death; he sees this as a mistake. Because this is Nick’s first experience with birth, therefore he will now see death as a result of life which is much to handle at his age. The tone of the father is very cold, during...
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...has been in painful labor for two days. The doctor takes his young son, Nick, and his brother, George, to the American Indian camp on the other side of a northern Michigan lake. There, the doctor performs impromptu, improvised cesarean with a fishing knife, catgut, and no anesthetic to deliver the baby. Afterward, he discovers that the woman's husband, who was in the bunk above hers, silently cut his throat during the painful ordeal. Analysis This story is a good example of the "initiation story," a short story that centers around a main character who comes into contact with an idea, experience, ritual, or knowledge that he did not previously know. Hemingway wrote a number of initiation stories, or as they are sometimes referred to, "rite of passage" stories, and the main character in most of these stories is Nick Adams, a young man much like Hemingway himself. In this story, Nick Adams is a very young boy in the Michigan north woods, accompanying his father, Dr. Adams, and his uncle George to an American Indian camp on the other side of a lake. Hemingway's own father was a doctor, who spent much time with his son in the northern woods of Michigan (most critics read this story as somewhat autobiographical). Here, a very young Nick is initiated into concepts that remained of highest importance to Hemingway throughout his writing career: life and death; suffering, pain, and endurance; and suicide. Nick's father goes to the American Indian camp to help a young American Indian woman...
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...,July 21st 2009 ENC 1102 M,W, 7:45am Term Paper “The Theme of Human Struggle in the Works of Ernest Hemingway” In my research paper I will show how elements of life and death, folklore/fables, myths, and rites of passage support the theme of human struggle against nature in the stories "The Old Man and the Sea," "Indian Camp," "The Short Happy Life of Francis Macomber" and "The Snows of Kilimanjaro” by Ernest Hemingway. Through comparative analysis of these stories' underlying themes I will address the initiation experiences of his heroes. Human dignity, morality, and the formation of human individuality through mental strife and the struggle against nature are often themes of Hemingway. Humans cope with the complexity of the world by developing simple mental models based on opposite parts. Life and death are together, two extremes of one energy. Life is the active force and death is the inactive force, but they cannot be separated. Thus, they are two aspects of one reality. When people are reading about living beings and mythological beings or those who are dead, they view the word of the dead as a living world. The dead eat, sleep and move. In the book “The Hero in Hemingway's short stories”, J. DeFalco points out that: " in the Myth there are usually three dominant movements which are cyclic in pattern. They are the departure of the hero, the initiation, and the return from heroic adventure." (17). The movements of the hero to the world where...
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...A Literary Analysis A careful examination of the short story Indian Camp by Ernest Hemingway reveals the usage of such literary devices as plot and theme to deliver both the unfolding story and the meaning behind it. The theme of the story is a powerful message about the realities of life and the plot is the canvas upon which the theme is painted. Clearly, both the plot and the theme are of equal importance in Indian Camp and are the most significant literary tools used throughout the story. Hemingway intended for the plot to be simple and not to be over analyzed. It is how the theme emerges and how the plot helps to reveal the story's true meaning [theme] that must be analyzed. A doctor brings his son Nick and 'Uncle George' to a house call upon an Indian reservation. They must travel by river in small boats, then through a thick forest for some time. Once they arrive at the house, Nicks father must operate on a pregnant Indian whose been in labor for two days and is clearly experiencing birth complications. The pregnant Indian is in a great deal of pain and her husband offers no words of comfort as he feels a sense of self pity knowing that he can't help his wife. Eventually Nick's father delivers the baby and stitches up the exhausted mother, then he turns to the husband of the Indian women only to find that he had committed suicide while lying in bed. Assumably he could not bear...
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...-------------------------------------------------------------------------------- The story takes place in an Indian Camp, it begins with a boat ride where father and son, Nick, is in one boat, and Uncle George is in another boat. When they reach the shore, they walk a little while to get to the camp. The purpose of this trip is to get to an Indian woman in labor who has been trying to have her baby for two days, because Nick’s father is a doctor. The woman is lying in a bunk bed, in the lower bunk, and in the upper bunk her husband is lying. We get the impression that this birth doesn’t really interest him “In the upper bunk was her husband. He had cut his foot very badly with an ax three days before. He was smoking a pipe.” (p. 16 l. 14). Nick’s father does a C-section on the Indian woman, and tries to get Nick involved, but Nick obviously thinks it’s kind of gross “”See, it’s a boy, Nick,” he said. “How do you like being an interne?” Nick said, “All right.” He was looking away so as not to see what his father was doing. “There, that gets it,” said his father and put something into the basin. Nick didn’t look at it. “Now,” his father said, “there’s some stitches to put in. You can watch this or not, Nick, just as you like. I’m going to sew up the incision I made.” Nick did not watch. His curiosity had been gone for a long time.” (p. 17 l. 23). When they are about to leave, Nick’s father believes that he should just check on the Indian woman’s husband, but when he reaches out to pull the blanket away, he discovers...
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...Indian Camp Response In this story, Nick Adams is a very young boy in the Michigan woods, accompanying his father, Dr. Adams, and his uncle George to an American Indian camp on the other side of a lake to help a pregnant women give birth.. Hemingway's own father was a doctor, who spent much time with his son in the northern woods of Michigan.This is most likely the reason for Hemingway to write this story. Nick's father starts the story by going to the Indian camp to help a young American Indian woman who has been screaming because of intense labor pains for a couple of days. When he finally arrives she is lying in a bottom bunk, her husband who was also in bad pain from cutting his foot badly with an axe three days prior was lying in the bunk bed above her. Doctor Adams asks Nick to help him with holding a basin of hot water while four Indians help hold the woman down.Using his fishing knife as a makeshift scalpel, Dr. Adams performs a c section on the woman, delivers the baby boy, then sews up the woman's incision with some fishing line from his tackle box.Dr adams is very pleased with the outcome of his makeshift and last minute procedure. He looks into the top bunk and discovers that the young American Indian husband, who listened to his wife screaming during her labor pains while the c section was being performed, had cut his throat.This shows the excruciating pain that both the man and the women had to go through in this story, and sadly the man in this story could...
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...Ernest Hemingway has been the most influential writer of the last century. His writings have proved to be jewels in English literature. From 1925 to 1929, Ernest Hemingway produced some of the most important works of 20th century fiction; including the landmark short story collection In Our Time (1925) which contained "The Big Two-Hearted River." In 1926 he came out with his first true novel, The Sun also Rises (after publishing Torrents of Spring, a comic novel parodying Sherwood Anderson in 1925). He followed that book with Men without Women in 1927; it was another book of stories which collected "The Killers" and "In Another Country." In 1929 he published A Farewell to arms , arguably the finest novel to emerge from World War I. Let us consider the following essays for today’s discussion on the topic of Hemingway’s artistry skills. • Sudden Unexpected Interjection by David Gagne 1 • An Essay on In Our Time by Nathan Kotas 2 • Preludes to a Mood in The New York Times October 18, 1925 3 • Love and War in the pages of Ernest Hemingway by Percy Hutchinson 4 Ernest Hemingway had the most unique and colourful style of writing . He used symbolism. His style of writing involved getting right to the core of the scene without spending much time on building of characters. He used simple and declarative language. But this unique style of writing, made many feel that Hemingway was an artist in his essence. Lets find what these four people have to say on this particular aspect of Ernest...
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...joni hill Mrs. Hastings Engl. 1020-105 13 March 2012 “Soldier’s Home” In a “Soldier’s Home” Ernest Hemingway helps many people to get a better understanding of what soldiers go through when they get home. Throughout the story, the reader can see how a soldier named Krebs tries to fit back into society after World War I. Krebs comes home with post-traumatic stress disorder and has troubles fitting back into society. Nobody understands what he is going through, not even his parents. He even has to lie about some of his stories from World War I to make them exciting, so people will want to listen to him. These and other issues are part of the plot of “Soldier’s Home.” Hemingway uses the literary elements of plot, characterization, tone, and irony to further develop the theme of a story involving the hardship he faces of finding a place. Many do not think Hemingway is a great American author, but one has to disagree because the plot of a “Soldier’s Home” shows what soldiers must endure when they get back home to America from World War I. The basic outline in the story is simple enough. It shows how a man named Krebs has come home from World War I to face an even greater challenge against not only himself but also against society. While fighting in the war, Krebs probably sees many of his friends die right beside him. This makes it extremely difficult for him to get close to anyone because he is in fear of him or her either leaving him or dying. Also, he is still a little...
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