...Indian Camp The Horror of Life from Birth to Death During the Modernist Movement, existentialist writers wrote about the meaninglessness of life. Existentialists believe that life is a struggle against the nothingness of the world. 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...
Words: 7296 - Pages: 30
...Indian Camp - by Ernest Hemingway The title doesn’t say much about the story. The title is very short, simple, and already now, we’re seeing examples of the iceberg technique. The iceberg technique is, when the author only writes about 10% of the essentials in the story. The reader has to read the last 90% between the lines. I think another reason why the title is so simple, might be that the whole story is based on Nick’s story. He chose a title that would fit into Nick’s world. Nick is just a little kid in this story, which is seen by how he sits in his father’s arms for comfort. As a little kid, a title with much meaning and a lot of complicated words doesn’t make much sense. A reason why Ernest Hemingway chose to let the title be as if it was Nick’s choice, might be that Ernest Hemingway identifies himself with Nick. Hemingway’s father was also a doctor, so he had a lot of experiences, maybe familiar to the one we hear about in the story. It is seen that Nick appears a lot in Ernest Hemingway’s stories. In every story Nick grows older and the title’s complexity also grows. We see Nick in different situations from different perspectives in every story. When I compare the introduction to the ending, I’m thinking about the change that Nick goes through. For instance, on the way to the camp in the boat, Nick is sitting in his father's arms. On the way back, Nick sits on the opposite end of the boat. The fact that Nick sits across from his father in the boat on...
Words: 466 - Pages: 2
...American Indian woman who 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...
Words: 1110 - Pages: 5
...It seems like, that in “Indian Camp” by Hemingway, Nick and his father are doing a father and son trip. Nick’s father who is a doctor, seems plays a big role in this story. But actually Nick is kind of the main character. Uncle Gorge have asked the doctor to come to the Indian camp, where an Indian woman is very sick, she’s going to have a baby. On their way to the Indian Camp, nick is lying in the arms of his father, at the end of the boat. He is very near to his father, and seems to search love of this dad like a little boy. In that case I have to say that Nick is probably about 8-10 years old in this story. At the Indian camp, Nick’s father is trying to explain him what is going on in the little shanty. Nick act’s like he does understand that the woman is going to have a baby, and that it’s normal that she screams. But he clearly wants his father to make the woman stop screaming because he feels sorry for her. While the whole operation nick is standing in the Shanty watching most of the time his father doing his work. I think Nick is kind of scared what is going to happened. The fact that he looked away shows that he doesn’t liked what was going on, he felt bad by seeing another person suffer, but at the same time I think he maybe was a little proud too that his father can save this woman out of pain. After the operation things changed, we now know that uncle Gorge is most likely the father of the baby, and that the husband of the woman killed himself. Before the Doctor could...
Words: 533 - Pages: 3
...Indian Camp Written assignment: Nick is son of a Doctor, who one night gets a call from an Indian camp from the other side of the river. Nick accompanies his father and Uncle George by boat over the river. When they arrive to the camp, they enter a shanty where they find an Indian woman, who has been in labour for two days. She needs a caesarean really quick and Nick’s father starts to do the incision with a jack knife and without anaesthetics and sews the stiches with fish line. Nick´s father is exalted and talkative after his great operation, but unfortunately this does not last for very long. The father of the newly born son was lying in bed sleeping, but Nick´s father finds out, that the Indian man has cut his throat with a razor. After this traumatic incidence Nick and his father walks back to the beach. Nick´s father apologizes to Nick for putting him through this experience and they talked about what had happened and about death. Shortly after they were seated in the boat and they row back in the early morning. Answer a: What seems to be Nick's father's reason for bringing him? Nick´s father wants to show how it is to be a doctor, the job he is doing and he wants to show his son. Answer b: Why isn't Nick looking at what his father is doing? Nick does not look what his father is doing because he is didn’t like it. He didn’t want to see his father operate the woman. Answer c: How does his father feel after the operation? Explain why. Nick´s father feels exalted...
Words: 837 - Pages: 4
...Indian Camp is written by Ernest Hemingway. The story is about Nick, Nick’s father and Nick’s uncle; George. They are rowed across the lake by two Indians. Nick’s father is going to perform a caesarian operation on a woman who has been in labor for two days. When they arrive at the shore, they are walking through a logging road to enter the shanties. Inside the shanties nick can here the woman scream. Her husband is also there, lying in the upper bunk. Nicks father performs the caesarian operation on the woman with a jackknife. After the operation the husband of the woman has committed suicide. He has cut his own throat. Nick sees him lying in his own blood. Nick and his father sails home in the daylight, but the uncle stays at the camp. Nick asks his father some questions, and lets his hand trail through the water, and in that moment he feels quite sure he will never die. Nick is the main character of this short story. Nick is a young boy accompanying his father, a doctor, on a mission (Nick lay back with his father’s arm around him. p. 12, s.11-10). In this text Nick gets to experience a very traumatic thing; suicide. Nick seems quite interested in the process of the work, because he handles the situation without crying or really having a reaction in that major. In the ending of the story Nick says he felt quite sure he will never die. He asked his father why the husband committed suicide, and his father answered that he thinks it is because that he just couldn’t stand things...
Words: 634 - Pages: 3
...Indian Camp With every single experience we go through we grow. We develop opinions based on what we witness through life, and we learn to see the world from different perspectives. What we learn in our upbringing is vital to how we act and think for the rest of our lives. In the short story “Indian Camp” from 1921, writer Ernest Hemmingway shows us, how one single experience can change a little boy’s perception of the world and make him grow. In the beginning of the story we are introduced to Nick, his father and uncle George who arrive to an Indian camp on an Island in Michigan. The Indians in the camp are not very privileged and they live in shanties. Nick, his father and uncle George are lead to a shanty were a young Indian woman is having trouble giving birth. Nicks father performs an improvised caesarean with Nick as his assistant and the Indian woman’s husband kills himself. The three main characters in the story are Nick, his father and uncle George. Nicks father is a doctor and he is visiting the Indian camp, so he can perform a caesarean on an Indian woman in labour. He has brought Nick with him to learn about medicine and to experience the birth of a child. The father is very protective of his son, which shows when he does not want Nick to see the man who has committed suicide (p. 15 l. 36). He shows no empathy towards the Indian woman in labour and he doesn’t hear her screams, which makes him appear strong and professional (p. 14 l. 11-13). Nick is a young...
Words: 641 - Pages: 3
...Indian Camp Going through childhood, and taking a step into the adult world, is something that we all go through. Growing up is a very important part of life. Someday we’ll all become adults, and if you don’t develop yourself personally, you will remain having a childish personality and not have the skills life requires of you to live a life as a normal human being. Personal development is a theme that is very prominent in the short story “Indian Camp” written by Ernest Hemingway in 1921, where we meet the young boy Nick who’s on a mission with his father at an Indian camp. He gets introduced to the realities of birth and death in only one day, and when the day is over, he has got numerous of experiences and has obviously grown mentally. He has taken a little step further into becoming an adult. Nick is a young boy accompanying his father and his uncle George to an Indian camp on the other side of a lake. Nicks father is a doctor, and the reason why they are visiting this Indian camp, is because the father is summoned by the Indians to help a young woman who’s been in labor for 2 days, still unable to deliver her baby. When the father arrives, she is lying in a bottom bunk; her husband, who cut his foot badly with an axe three days before, is lying in the bunk bed above her. The doctor performs a cesarean on the woman with his jackknife, delivers the baby, and sews up the woman’s incision. After the improvised surgery, Nick’s father looks into the top bunk and discovers...
Words: 431 - Pages: 2
...Indian camp written by Ernest Hemmingway Indian Camp is a novel about a white doctor helping an Indian woman giving birth to a child, he brought his son and brother to the camp, the son to help him grow up, the sons name is Nick. The Indians are described as a “ wild man “ in the text, the reason for that lies in their odd way of looking at pride, the Indian Woman who is in labor is having a really hard time letting the uncle hold her down while she is in pain. She tries to bite him and get away from him, which indicates a certain form of hatred towards him. Her husband is lying in the bed with his foot greatly injured, it was cut with an axe. When Indians feel bad inside they inflict the pain they feel to their body, that’s a symbol to let everyone know how bad they feel. The Uncle arrived at the other side of the lake before Nick and his father, which means he had probably been there before, there is a connection between all this. The Uncle probably visited the Indian camp several times before, raping the woman and unfortunately got her pregnant. The husbands pride is therefore completely gone and he has no other way to get rid of his frustration than cutting his own foot with an axe, after hearing his wife screaming while delivering her baby he cut his throat to end his life, he simply couldn’t live with the shame brought upon him by the uncle. Nick was brought to the camp to see what it was like to be a doctor, as a teenager he was soon to become an adult and had...
Words: 390 - Pages: 2
...English Essay - Indian Camp Indian Camp is a 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...
Words: 813 - Pages: 4
...Hemingway’s short stories Indian Camp Ernest Hemingway is an important author in American literature. His short stories are generally regarded as some of the best ones ever written. The symbolism in his texts is often well hidden but certainly present. It’s regularly internally connected with the characters of his stories together with their behavior, and interpreted best with an autobiographical view. To understand and analyze the short story “Indian Camp” it’s important to understand some background knowledge of Hemingway’s. Ernest Hemingway was a groundbreaking author who had his great period in the Roaring Twenties. The roaring twenties was a period prior to the Wall Street-crash in 1929, where the economy boomed, and many thought that wealth would go on forever. This was mostly because of Herbert Hoover's success in convincing major industrial leaders to voluntarily increase wages and production in order to pull the entire economy out of its slump, from recovering from World War 1. By 1922, the economy was growing robustly, a pattern it would follow more or less continuously until the Great Crash of 1929. People became emancipated, and talk about previous taboo-subjects became acceptable. But writers and other intellectuals from small towns began criticizing the small town provincialism and the nostalgic feeling of wanting to stick to familiar norms that ruled in these areas. Many of these dissatisfied artists and others emigrated from the states to Europe, including...
Words: 1239 - Pages: 5
...story is happening, with a quick subtle introduction of the characters. This is done by immediately starting the story with the characters doing an action. By the narrator saying, that Nick and his Father got in the stern of the boat. Besides the narrator telling us that Nick, Uncle George and Nick´s father are in the boat, we also know of their heading in the very first conversation. This is heard when Nick asks his father where they are headed. The reply from Nick´s father also reveals why they are heading to the Indian camp. At the Indian camp, we also get a clue of when and what time of the day the story is taking place. The clue can be found when the narrator mentions that a young Indian women is carrying a lantern. This probably means that it´s quite dark, perhaps even night-time. Although this is only an assumption and cannot be proven. The first complication in the story begins with Nick´s father mentioning that they´re heading to a very sick Indian women. This lets us know what their objective is; letting us know that there will be one or several different conflicts when they arrive. The first complication starts in the beginning of the story, which is also a part of the exposition. A couple of different crises dramatically escalate the situation, until the climax is reached. Most of the crises happens when Nick´s father performs the operation with Nick standing nearby. It is important to say that the crises in this story are mainly focused on Nick and his reactions...
Words: 1089 - Pages: 5
...Indian Camp, 1924, Ernest Hemingway Growing up. Growing up is something that every human must go through. We all go through it differently and we all end up in a different way. For some it is easy and for some. Not so much. I guess the most of us has forgotten what it was like. What it was like to be a child. When we were 4-5 years old, our vision of the world was not that big. The world was big and scary. But at the same time we could not wait to experience the world. All the colors, I mean the world is a giant place. We wanted to see the whole world. And I think that it is sad that many of us forget that feeling. When we get older, we get more responsibilities. We do not have time for playing and messing around anymore. The world expects more from you the older you get. And meanwhile we forget all the things we wanted to do. We forget that the world is an amazing place. We forget that we want to see and experience it all. To make us an adult we have to go through a memorable experience. A rite of passage or so to say; an initiation. An initiation is a cultural/religious ritual. And that means that the ritual takes one person from one stage to another. Like a transformation from child to adult. In Indian Camp the main character Nick is brought to a child birth by his father. The father wants to show Nick life-experiences. Show him the “real” life and how life can change by your different choices. Dr. Adams, Nick’s father, is called out to help an Indian woman who has...
Words: 1055 - Pages: 5
...Indian Camp The short story Indian Camp is about Nick Adams and his father (Dr. Adams), who rows out to an Indian Camp, because there is an Indian lady, who has been in labor for two days. Nick is with his father on work, because he is about to be a grown up and therefore his father thinks, that it is in time, that Nick sees how life is created – but not the consequences of life. Through this day Nick goes through some rite of passages, because he learns how to make his own decisions without getting influenced by his father. Indian Camp happens in the 1920’s, where it was written, because of the primitive conditions. The short story takes place in an Indian camp, which look we picture in our heads, because the camp and its surroundings are described detailed in the text (page 13 line 16-19). There are three characters included in the action; Nick Adams, his father (Dr. Adams) and the American Indian woman. Nick is the protagonist in the short story, who goes through a rite of passage, which makes him develop. In the beginning he sits in his father’s arms on their way to the Indian camp, where the father says that the reason to, why they are going over to Indian camp is because, there is an Indian lady very sick (page 12 line 14). It is a very pedagogic way to say, that there is a woman, who has been in labor for two days. On their way home, Nick sits in the stern, while his father is rowing (page 16 line 21-22). Through this day Nick grows so much mentally, because he experiences...
Words: 932 - Pages: 4
...Written assignment: Indian Camp and Just Like That The name of the story is "Indian Camp" and is written by Ernest Hemingway, and it was published in 1924. The story is about a boy called Nick, Nick's father and Nick's uncle, George. They have to sail to an Indian camp, where there's a very sick lady, that they have to help. When they finally arrive to the Indian camp, they get to a shanty, where the women is. They walk in to the shanty, where there is a young woman who's in labor. Her husband's there too, in the upper bunk, but he doesn't say or do much. The woman is in excruciating pain and has been in labor for two days. They don't have a lot to help them, no anesthetic and only a jack-knife to help them. Nick's father have to perform a Caesarean operation on the woman to get the baby and the placenta got out. They have to use tapered gut leaders to close the woman back up. When they finish, they see that the husband isn't alive, he chose to commit suicide. Characterization of Nick Adams Nick is a young boy. We don't hear about his actual age, but I would guess he's around 12-13, since he still seems kind of innocent during the story. Nick has a father and an Uncle, called George. It seems like he's white person, which is kind of implied by the way the Indians treat the family. He's father and uncle is doctors, and it seems like they also want Nick to become a doctor and face the reality of life, that life doesn't always goes the way you want it to. Nick is...
Words: 599 - Pages: 3
