INDIAN CAMP In Our Time is a collection of short stories by Ernest Hemingway.

It was published in 1925, and marked Ernest Hemingway's American debut. It contains several well-known Hemingway works, including the Nick Adams stories "Indian Camp", "The Doctor and the Doctor's Wife", "The Three Day Blow", and "The Battler", and introduces readers to the hallmarks of the Hemingway style. SUMMARY This story is a good example of the initiation story, a short story that centres on 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. Hemingways 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. Nicks father goes to the American Indian camp to help a young American Indian woman who has been screaming because of severe labour pains for two days, still unable to deliver her baby. When Dr. Adams 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. Doctor Adams asks Nick to assist him, holding a basin of hot water while four American Indian men hold down the woman. Using his fishing jack-knife as a scalpel, Dr. Adams performs a caesarean on the woman, delivers the baby boy, then sews up the womans incision with some gut leader line from his fishing tackle. Exhilarated by the success of his impromptu, improvised surgery, Doctor Adams looks into the top bunk and discovers that the young American Indian husband, who listened to his wife screaming during her labour pains and during the caesarean, has cut his throat. Although this very short story deals with violence and suffering, with birth and death, sexism and racism, Hemingways emphasis is not on the shocking events themselves; instead, Hemingway shows the effect of birth and death on young Nick Adams. Nicks progression in this short story is vividly portrayed in polarities. For instance, on the way to the camp in the boat, Nick is sitting in his fathers arms; on the way back, Nick sits on the opposite end of the boat. Similarly, while his father wants Nick to witness the birth (and his surgical triumph), Nick turns his head away; when the American Indian husband is discovered dead in his bed, Nick sees it, even though his father wants to protect him from it. The fact that Nick sits across from his father in the boat on the way back after this experience can indicate a pulling out from underneath his fathers influence. The young boy asks his father why the young American Indian man cut his throat and is told, I dont know. . . . He couldnt stand things, I guess. However, there are more subtle undercurrents for the American Indian husbands suicide as well. The treatment and attitude of Dr. Adams toward the woman, who is an American Indian, are key also. When Dr. Adams tells Nick that her screaming is not important, it is at this point that the American Indian husband rolls over in his bunk toward the shanty

PC/TSRS-DLF/ENG-XII/06

Page 1 of 4

wall, as he is found later, after slitting his own throat with a razor. While this failure to confront the events at hand indicates fear, it can also indicate the American Indian husbands resignation to the thoughtless racism of the White men who have come to help her. Some have suggested that Uncle George is possibly the father of the child, as he seems to have a friendly relationship with the American Indians in the beginning of the story and hands out cigars to everyone after the birth. His handing out cigars to the men present could possibly be interpreted as paternity, although one could also surmise that he is simply sharing his way of celebrating the miracle of birth with the American Indians. Additionally, he stays behind in the camp after Dr. Adams and Nick leave. Following the interpretation of Uncle George being the babys father, the husbands suicide could be seen as an inability to deal with his own shame and the cuckoldry of his wife. Here, Dr. Adams emphasizes to Nick that although this young American Indian man committed suicide, women rarely do. Fear conquered the young American Indian man; he did not have the courage and strength to cope with it. He failed his test of manhood. During the boat trip back across the lake, while Nick and his father are talking, the reader learns that Nick feels quite safethat he would never die. Even at this young age, Nick vows never to succumb to fear. His resolve never to bow to fear is so great that hes ready to defy even the concept of natural, mortal life. Throughout his entire writing career, Hemingway would write about men who could stand things and men who couldnt stand things. Of vital importance to him was the concept of being able to stand things, no matter how violent and painful the situation is. He called this strength grace under pressure. A real, authentic man never succumbs; most of all, he does not kill himself. Ironically, both Hemingway and his father committed suicide. In his later stories about Nick Adams, Hemingway explores how this young boy matures and how his vow never to bow to fear is central to the crisis in each story. Commentary This story introduces the theme of masculinity in these stories. Hemingway turns a typically female act in a female space into a male-dominated situation. Although this story is about a childbirth, it focuses on the experience of the doctor rather than the woman. Plus, instead of a natural childbirth, the baby is brought into the world by a Caesarean section, which is a surgical procedure. The woman does not even have a role in such an operation. Instead, this squaw is held down by the men present as a man takes over the role of child-birthing. After the birth, Uncle George and Nicks father have a playful, exuberant camaraderie over the job well done. In this masculine atmosphere, the suicide of the Indian father, then, seems to be an example of a man acting in a feminine manner. Nicks father says that he probably killed himself because he could not stand it. Nicks father could not think much of this mans courage because he brought his young son to see what the father could not stand. Nicks father and Uncle George exhibit more ideal male behaviour. Nicks father does not hesitate to examine the state of the mans body. And, Uncle George, clearly disturbed by the scene, simply withdraws from company. This kind of stoicism is what Nick's father seems to want to teach Nickhe does not give Nick long answers to his questions, and he treats this incident with silence himself. This strong, silent masculinity reappears throughout these stories. From a fishing trip the local doctor is summoned to an Indian village to assist a woman in labour. With him are his young son and an older male relative. The physician assesses the situation in the closed, pungent hut and determines that his only option is section--with a pen knife and fishing leader as his PC/TSRS-DLF/ENG-XII/06 Page 2 of 4

instruments, and no anaesthesia for the Indian woman. The doctor arrogantly, but only briefly, celebrates his success as a surgeon only to discover that the woman's husband, apparently unable to tolerate his wife's pain and the racism of the white visitors, has silently slit his own throat. The child, who has observed the entire proceedings asks, "Is dying hard, Daddy?" This very short, terse piece from Hemingway's Nick Adams stories is laden with ethical problems. What justification is there for forcing a child to become part of a brutal sequence of medical events? When, if ever, is it morally acceptable to treat patients as though they were animals? The medical treatment of the labouring woman is unquestionably life-saving, but the cruel insensitivity of the two white men contributes to the unnecessary death of the infant's father. Duties to children and to patients, as well as simple inhumanity, racism, and sexism in the professional relationship are all aired in these five pages. Nick Adams as Code Hero In Our Time Ernest Hemingway is noted for having made many contributions to the literary world and one of his most notorious contributions is the Code Hero. The birth and growth of the Code Hero can be easily observed simply by watching the growth and development of Nick Adams throughout Hemingway's writing. In Our Time contains a various assortment of Nick Adam stories at various stages of his life and also shows the Code Hero at various stages of its development. In Our Time was the second book Hemingway had published. His first contained only three short stories and ten poems and had little to do with the Code Hero, making In Our Time the first time Hemingway revealed the Code Hero to the rest of the world. The technique and characterization contained in In Our Time is consistent with most of Hemingway's later writings, setting up In Our Time as a model of Hemingway's style and the Code Hero. According to Professor Paul Totah of St. Ignatius, Hemingway defined the Code Hero as "a man who lives correctly, following the ideals of honour, courage and endurance in a world that is sometimes chaotic, often stressful, and always painful." The Code Hero measures himself by how well they handle the difficult situations that life throws at him. In the end the Code Hero will lose because we are all mortal, but the true measure is how a person faces death. The Code Hero is typically an individualist and free-willed. Although he believes in the ideals of courage and honour he has his own set of morals and principles based on his beliefs in honour, courage and endurance. Qualities such as bravery, adventuresome and travel also define the Code Hero. A final trait of the Code Hero is his dislike of the dark. It symbolizes death and is a source of fear for him. The rite of manhood for the Code Hero is facing death. However, once he faces death bravely and becomes a man he must continue the struggle and constantly prove himself to retain his manhood (Totah). The Code Hero is present in the majority of Hemingway's novels. Even the young man in Hills Like White Elephants contained many of the characteristics of the Code Hero such as free-willed, individualist, and travel. The individualism comes out in his desire to not have a child. It would solidify the group aspect of a family between him and the lady. The travel trait is obvious by the mention of the stickers on the luggage denoting the many places they had been. His free will comes out also in his desire not to be a father. If he were a father he would have to begin making decisions for his child and family, not just for himself. The first Nick Adam story, Indian Camp shows Nick as a young boy and also shows Nick as he experiences the main characteristic of the Code Hero, facing death bravely. Nick's witnessing of the Indian's suicide introduces him to death for the first time. Instead of being frightened or sickened by the

PC/TSRS-DLF/ENG-XII/06

Page 3 of 4

experience, Nick stays strong and asks his father questions about it instead. The fear of darkness is also touched upon in Indian Camp. When Nick first goes to the camp it is dark and he sits in the boat with his father's arm around him, providing a sense of security. When Nick leaves the camp it is light outside. Nick runs his hand through the water, which is described as warm and provides the sense of security that his father had to provide during the night. The light shining on the water and warmth that Nick feels is also mentioned along with Nick's thought that he would never die. Nick draws strength and sanctuary from the morning as opposed to the night before. Nick's feeling that he would never die shows this as an early stage in his development into a Code Hero. He has not accepted the inevitability of death, yet.

PC/TSRS-DLF/ENG-XII/06

Page 4 of 4