Indian Camp is a short story written by Ernest Hemingway and was first published in 1924.

The setting of this story is in the American Indian Camp .The story starts when Nick Adams
followed his father, Dr. Adam to the Indian Camp . His father had been called out to deliver a
baby of an indian woman. At the camp , they find the woman in a cabin lying on a bottom bunkbed and her husband is on top of bunk with a cut foot. Nicks father had to perform a caesarian
operation on the women because she had been in great labour pain for the past two days. The
doctor had done the operation using a jack-knife and he asked Nick to assist his. The woman
scream so loud through the operation because she is not given any anaesthetic to relief the pain .
After the operation finished, Nicks father turns to the womans husband and shocked to see the
husband killed himself by slitting his throat using a razor during the operation. After that, Nick is
sent out to avoid him from seeing the fatal accident but Nick already seen it before he was sent
out. The story ends when Nick and his father are on their way home on the boat and his started to
asked his father questions about what had happened. I finds the plot really interesting as it shows
father and son relationship , and how Nick experiences something that he never expect and
learned something through it. The plot twist somehow gives the strength to this short story. The
fact that the womans husband killed himself is really interesting . I kept questioning myself why
does the men kill himself and this make me want to read more until I found the answer.

The theme that Ernest Hemingway tries to convey in his short story are masculinity and
mortality of human .Firstly in masculine environment, the suicidal of the woman husband
appear to be in feminine manner .In my opinion, men have to be strong and be able to go through
any situations calmly without getting influences by emotional . They should be braver then the
women in order to protect their families. This story shows how men can cross their nature
behaviour by killing themselves when they get so worried in a time. The second theme is
mortality, this theme shows a birth of a new human might be replaced by anothers death. In my
perspectives, Nick is still not be able to understand the real meaning of life .Besides, he
questioning about death and he pretty sure that he would never die. I believe that this is the first
time Nick is exposed to the death and suicide case , Nevertheless, he took it well in the sense that
he might be a brave kid because he didnt seem to be scared.

The point of view in this short story is the third person omniscient , this is because we see
everything through Nicks observation . How Nicks view things and what does he feels about
what he sees . Moreover, I practically feel and knowing every action happen through Nicks
perspective. Next, the symbolism in this short story are birth, death and medicine. Firstly birth
and death shows how associate women and men respectively. This is because I take the birth
event as lightly as possible. Also, I just assuming that the event it an ordinary event but when
the death of his husband takes place after the birth of the baby , I started to link these two events
and agreed that birth and death are symbolically associated. Secondly is medicine, it shows the
position of a doctor in patients environment. In Indian Camp, Nicks father didnt care much
about the Indian womens condition whether she hurt or not. Even when the woman screaming ,
The doctor couldnt care much and still continue operation.

Indian Camp by Ernest Hemingway is a great piece of story that I will share with my
friends and family. I must admit that it is a little bit boring in the beginning of the story but I like
this story a because it educate the reader about something that we always take for granted like
the birth of baby is something that common and the death of someone is really ordinary , but
when this story placed these two event together, it is a mind opener for me .In addition, I have to
remind myself that sometimes a man cant stand under a great pressure. Moreover, a man also an
ordinary human being and at certain point they also can emotionally breakdown. I like the
symbolism of birth and death as we always take easy on this matter , the birth and death is
something that real and will happen to everybody whether we like it or not.

Citation :
Literary devices . Retrieved October 9,2014 from http://www.shmoop.com/indian-camp/literarydevices.html
Indian Camp analysis . Retrieved October 9 ,2014 from http://www.shmoop.com/indiancamp/literary-devices.html
Hemingway, Ernest (1925). In Our Time. New York: Scribner.