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   ms-mcgregor Teacher
   High School - 12th Grade

   eNotes Editor

   In "Indian Camp", Nick is still a young boy. Therefore he sees the actions of his father and uncle through their eyes and not his own. The fact that he would feel "as if he would never die" at the end of the story is an indication that he has not yet reached the maturity that comes with age and the knowledge that death is real. Nick also did not understand the clash of cultures between Nick's father and the Indian culture. He did not see that just because the woman's pain did not bother him, it did bother the woman's husband so much he took his own life. However, as readers, we can see beyond Nick's immaturity and learn much more from Nick's experience than Nick probably learned at the time. As Nick matured, he probably also saw the incident with a different perspective. What Hemingway has done in the story is very similar to what Mark Twain did in the "Adventures of Huckleberry Finn". He gives us the child's perspective in such an honest way that, as mature readers, we can also see the adult's point-of-view.

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   Posted by ms-mcgregor on Saturday December 27, 2008 at 12:28 PM