Discussion Topic
Analysis of Conflict, Themes, Symbols, and Characters in "Indian Camp" by Ernest Hemingway
Summary:
Ernest Hemingway's "Indian Camp" explores themes of life and death, cultural conflict, and the loss of innocence. The story highlights the clash between Western medical practices and Native American traditions, as seen when Nick's father performs a caesarean section without regard for cultural customs. This event, along with the suicide of the woman's husband, exposes Nick to harsh realities, symbolizing his transition from innocence to maturity. Uncle George's racial bias underscores societal prejudice, contrasting with Nick's developing understanding of human equality.
What themes, symbols, and Uncle George's significance exist in "Indian Camp" by Ernest Hemingway?
“Indian Camp ” is a coming-of-age story in typical Hemingway miniature – straightforward and minimalist, with any themes and symbols laid bare and unadorned within the severity of the narration. This starkness makes it a bit more difficult to pick out these elements, but they become obvious if you look hard enough. In this story Nick accompanies his father on a trip to deliver a baby to a Native American woman experiencing complications with the birth. The story both begins and ends with a trip in a canoe at dawn – at first, Nick is nestled in the crook of his father’s arm as they cross the river; at the end of the story, he is alone in the stern of the boat. This difference symbolizes the change effected in him by what he witnesses during his father’s work – he enters the camp as a sheltered youth, and...
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leaves as a boy who has witnessed the rude reality of life and death.
The action of the story takes place in a Native American camp perhaps to emphasize the equality of all human beings in birth and in death – the two events that we all experience the same, despite our race or our social status or our wealth. The story takes place at a time in American history when the Natives were regarded as “savages,” and were often the object of racial slurs, as evidenced by Uncle George’s exclamation when the laboring woman bites him out of her own pain. And yet despite the injustices they suffer, their lives are worth the same as any man’s, and cause the same complications. Uncle George’s aforementioned reaction is in stark contrast to Nick’s questions at the end of the story, when he asks if “ladies always have such a hard time having babies,” and if “many men kill themselves.” From this we can assume that Nick, and Nick’s father, respect the Native Americans and consider them equal to the white man, such that they make no distinction between Indian ladies and white ladies, or Indian men and white men – they are all just men and ladies. This is an important representation of a shift in social thinking, and further emphasizes the equality of all humanity in these things – in birth and in death.
We see in the story as well the difficulty of birth, of being born, of living, compared with the ease of dying. Life is a struggle, and often requires the help of others; it depends on cooperation and skill. Dying, on the other hand, can be done alone, and is so simple and independent a concept that one’s death can be undergone in secret – for one to live in secret, that is a difficult feat in contrast. This concept renders important the fact that the infant’s father’s death is a suicide – it throws the loneliness of death, the singularity of death, in sharp relief against the partnerships of life.
Uncle George is a symbolizes the prejudice of American society against
Indian culture. When the pregnant Indian woman bites him, George calls her a
“damn squaw.” Her “assault” on him is an instinctive and primitive
reaction to pain; his response is a culturally-conditioned display of racial
bias. "Indian Camp" was the first of the "Nick Adams" stories Ernest Hemingway
published. It is basically the beginning of a coming-of-age story for Nick who
sees life, from birth to death, in one day. The story also includes a contrast
between so-called "civilized" society and an Indian culture that includes an
empathy for others that Nick cannot understand.
What is the main theme of "Indian Camp"?
One of the most important ideas in the story is the respective understanding of life and death in Western and more traditional societies. Advances in medical science have saved countless lives, as indeed they help save the lives of the Indian woman and her baby. But what they don't give us is a deeper understanding of the endless cycle of birth and death and how we fit into it.
The prevailing Western understanding of life and death as epitomized by Nick's father is largely factual. Among other things, this means that some of the deeper spiritual significance of life and death has been lost, and with it our sense of connection with our fellow human beings. That would account for the doctor's clinically detached view towards childbirth. He sees it as a medical procedure and nothing more. He also seems indifferent to the significance of the man's suicide. But his coldly scientific attitude to his work generates more questions than answers, and it seems that his son Nick is keen to find out the answers to those questions. In his inquisitiveness, he holds out the prospect of gaining a much richer understanding of life and death than his father.
Hemingway's "Indian Camp" revolves around the idea of American values imposed on Native American culture.
In the story, Nick Adams, his doctor father, and uncle are called to an Indian encampment on the opposite side of the lake. A woman there is having a terrible time giving birth. Nick's father delivers the baby via a brutal caesarian section, completely disrespecting the ways of the tribe in regard to privacy and rituals. After the horrific event, the birthing party discovers that the woman's husband has committed suicide.
Hemingway is examining the tension between the necessity of medical action and the cultural demands for respect and integrity. Though the doctor may have saved the woman and her baby, her *way* of life has been forever damaged.
What are the main conflict and theme in "Indian Camp" by Ernest Hemingway?
There are two conflicts in Hemingway's "Indian Camp": Civilized Behavior vs. Savage Behavior and Innocence vs. Maturity.
- Civilized Behavior vs. Savage Behavior
Nick Adams accompanies his physician father to an Indian Camp where a woman struggles in labor because her baby is breach. Dr. Adams performs a Cesarean section on her, but because there is no anaesthetic, she screams and even bites Nick's Uncle George on the arm as he holds her down. Angered by her action, George lashes out at her, calling her a pejorative term. However, he should have understood the tremendous pain that she is in and been patient with her savage reaction. When he curses the woman, George acts in a brutal and chauvinistic manner that is as uncivilized as her biting. Furthermore, it is more savage in a sense because George calls her a word fit only for animals.
After the operation, Dr. Adams checks the husband who has lain in a top bunk during all the activity. He has suffered from a severe cut to his foot. When the physician pulls back the blanket from the man's head, he finds that the man has cut his throat from ear to ear. This savage behavior is beyond the comprehension of Nick who asks why he has done such a thing.
"I don't know, Nick. He couldn't stand things, I guess."
Nick wonders if many men and women commit suicide, trying to balance what is to be expected in life. The next morning, Dr. Adams takes Nick fishing to soothe him, and Nick trails his hand in the warm water, reassured in the presence of his parent that "he would never die."
- Innocence vs. Maturity
"Indian Camp" is a rite of passage story as an innocent boy accompanies his father and views both birth and death. Both are rather brutal, too, as the baby boy is taken by Cesarean section, and the Indian father, overcome with anxiety and fear, slits his own throat. Having seen these existential events, Nick is taken back by the tenuous hold that a person has on life. Maturity is clearly forced upon him, but still the child, he rejects the tragedy of life, convinced that death will not come to him.