Julia Snchez

Language II Book review

2015

Indian Camp by Hemingway

A harsh criticism of masculinity
"Indian Camp" is a short story written by Ernest Hemingway. The
story was first published in 1924 in Ford Madox Ford's literary
magazine Transatlantic Review in Paris. "Indian Camp" influenced much of
Hemingway's subsequent work, including "The Sun Also Rises", "For Whom
the Bell Tolls, "The Old Man and the Sea", among others. When the story
was published, the quality of writing was noted and praised, moreover,
nowadays critics consider "Indian Camp" an important story in
Hemingways canon.
The story begins as the young Nick Adams, his father -and doctor-, his
uncle and their Indian guides row across a lake to a nearby Indian camp to
help a pregnant woman. Nick's father is forced to perform a
caesarean intervention on the woman without anaesthetics because the
baby is in the breech position; he asks Nick to assist by holding a basin. The
story goes on and after the baby is delivered, Nick's father turns to the
woman's husband on the top bunk and finds that he slit his throat with
a razor; unable to stand the merciless operation. On the contrary, Nicks
father brought his young son to see what the father of the newborn could
not stand. Ideal male behaviour is shown through the doctor: he does not
hesitate to cut the woman and to examine the state of the mans death
body. The doctor apparently wants to teach Nick a stoic attitude; he does
not give Nick long answers to his questions, and he treats this incident with
silence himself.
This strong, silent masculinity reappears throughout the flow of the
story in a sharp way only Hemingway is capable of achieving. The story
ends with only Nick and his father on the lake, rowing away from the camp.
Nick asks his father why the woman's husband killed himself, and tells
himself that he will never die.
This story clearly introduces the theme of masculinity. Hemingway
turns the typically female-act of giving birth into a male-dominated
situation. This is shown as the story focuses on the experience of the doctor
rather than the woman herself. Most of the attitudes coming from the doctor
-Nicks father- show us indifference and even contempt through the mask of
masculinity; however, these are not directed to Nick but to the Native
Americans. This can be considered a sharp and smart criticism of western
society implied by Hemingway the bottom of the iceberg-.
In this masculine atmosphere the suicide of the Indian father, thus,
seems to be an example of a man acting in a feminine manner. It must not
be forgotten that the newborn family is Native American, so, opposite to
Nick and his father, they are not strikingly influenced by the white culture
that has such a stereotype of masculinity. As a consequence, the newborns
father was allowed by his own environment to react in such a distressing
way.

Julia Snchez
Language II Book review
2015
All things considered, by writing this short story Hemingway created a
new writing style which has become known as the "iceberg theory", because
in Hemingway's writing the hard facts float above water while the
supporting structure -including the symbolism of masculinity- operates out
of sight. I strongly recommend this reading not only to improve your English
reading due to its sophisticated lexicon- but also to enjoy a subtle narration
and a harsh criticism.