{"id":9546,"date":"2023-11-26T19:33:32","date_gmt":"2023-11-26T23:33:32","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lecturia.org\/?p=9546"},"modified":"2023-11-26T19:33:37","modified_gmt":"2023-11-26T23:33:37","slug":"ernest-hemingway-indian-camp","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lecturia.org\/en\/short-stories\/ernest-hemingway-indian-camp\/9546\/","title":{"rendered":"Ernest Hemingway: Indian Camp"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Synopsis<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

“Indian Camp” by Ernest Hemingway is a short story that is part of his collection of tales about Nick Adams. In this story, Nick accompanies his father, a doctor, to a Native American camp to assist in a difficult childbirth. The experience serves as a stark and revealing introduction to birth and death, marking a significant step in Nick’s journey to maturity. The story is characterized by its direct and minimalist style and addresses themes such as pain, bravery, and a child’s curiosity in the face of life’s harsh realities.<\/p>\n\n<\/div>\n\n\n

Indian Camp<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Ernest Hemingway
(Full text)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

AT THE LAKE SHORE THERE WAS ANOTHER rowboat drawn up. The two Indians stood waiting.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Nick and his father got in the stem of the boat and the Indians shoved it off and one of them got in to row. Uncle George sat in the stern of the camp rowboat. The young Indian shoved the camp boat off and got in to row Uncle George.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The two boats started off in the dark. Nick heard the oarlocks of the other boat quite a way ahead of them in the mist. The Indians rowed with quick choppy strokes. Nick lay back with his father\u2019s arm around him. It was cold on the water. The Indian who was rowing them was working very hard, but the other boat moved further ahead in the mist all the time.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWhere are we going, Dad?\u201d Nick asked.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cOver to the Indian camp. There is an Indian lady very sick.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cOh,\u201d said Nick.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Across the bay they found the other boat beached. Uncle George was smoking a cigar in the dark. The young Indian pulled the boat way up on the beach. Uncle George gave both the Indians cigars.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

They walked up from the beach through a meadow that was soaking wet with dew, following the young Indian who carried a lantern. Then they went into the woods and followed a trail that led to the logging road that ran back into the hills. It was much lighter on the logging road as the timber was cut away on both sides. The young Indian stopped and blew out his lantern and they all walked on along the road.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

They came around a bend and a dog came out barking. Ahead were the lights of the shanties where the Indian bark-peelers lived. More dogs rushed out at them. The two Indians sent them back to the shanties. In the shanty nearest the road there was a light in the window. An old woman stood in the doorway holding a lamp.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Inside on a wooden bunk lay a young Indian woman. She had been trying to have her baby for two days. All the old women in the camp had been helping her. The men had moved off up the road to sit in the dark and smoke out of range of the noise she made. She screamed just as Nick and the two Indians followed his father and Uncle George into the shanty. She lay in the lower bunk, very big under a quilt. Her head was turned to one side. In the upper bunk was her husband. He had cut his foot very badly with an ax three days before. He was smoking a pipe. The room smelled very bad.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Nick\u2019s father ordered some water to be put on the stove, and while it was heating he spoke to Nick.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThis lady is going to have a baby, Nick,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI know,\u201d said Nick.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cYou don\u2019t know,\u201d said his father. \u201cListen to me. What she is going through is called being in labor. The baby wants to be born and she wants it to be born. All her muscles are trying to get the baby born. That is what is happening when she screams.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI see,\u201d Nick said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Just then the woman cried out.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cOh, Daddy, can\u2019t you give her something to make her stop screaming?\u201d asked Nick.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cNo. I haven\u2019t any an\u00e6sthetic,\u201d his father said. \u201cBut her screams are not important. I don\u2019t hear them because they are not important.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The husband in the upper bunk rolled over against the wall.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The woman in the kitchen motioned to the doctor that the water was hot. Nick\u2019s father went into the kitchen and poured about half of the water out of the big kettle into a basin. Into the water left in the kettle he put several things he unwrapped from a handkerchief.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThose must boil,\u201d he said, and began to scrub his hands in the basin of hot water with a cake of soap he had brought from the camp. Nick watched his father\u2019s hands scrubbing each other with the soap. While his father washed his hands very carefully and thoroughly, he talked.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cYou see, Nick, babies are supposed to be born head first but sometimes they\u2019re not. When they\u2019re not they make a lot of trouble for everybody. Maybe I\u2019ll have to operate on this lady. We\u2019ll know in a little while.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

When he was satisfied with his hands he went in and went to work.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cPull back that quilt, will you, George?\u201d he said. \u201cI\u2019d rather not touch it.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Later when he started to operate Uncle George and three Indian men held the woman still. She bit Uncle George on the arm and Uncle George said, \u201cDamn squaw bitch!\u201d and the young Indian who had rowed Uncle George over laughed at him. Nick held the basin for his father. It all took a long time. His father picked the baby up and slapped it to make it breathe and handed it to the old woman.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cSee, it\u2019s a boy, Nick,\u201d he said. \u201cHow do you like being an interne?\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Nick said, \u201cAll right.\u201d He was looking away so as not to see what his father was doing.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThere. That gets it,\u201d said his father and put something into the basin.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Nick didn\u2019t look at it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cNow,\u201d his father said, \u201cthere\u2019s some stitches to put in. You can watch this or not, Nick, just as you like. I\u2019m going to sew up the incision I made.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Nick did not watch. His curiosity had been gone for a long time.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

His father finished and stood up. Uncle George and the three Indian men stood up. Nick put the basin out in the kitchen.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Uncle George looked at his arm. The young Indian smiled reminiscently.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI\u2019ll put some peroxide on that, George,\u201d the doctor said. He bent over the Indian woman. She was quiet now and her eyes were closed. She looked very pale. She did not know what had become of the baby or anything.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI\u2019ll be back in the morning,\u201d the doctor said, standing up. \u201cThe nurse should be here from St. Ignace by noon and she\u2019ll bring everything we need.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

He was feeling exalted and talkative as football players are in the dressing room after a game.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThat\u2019s one for the medical journal, George,\u201d he said. \u201cDoing a C\u00e6sarian with a jack-knife and sewing it up with nine-foot, tapered gut leaders.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Uncle George was standing against the wall, looking at his arm.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cOh, you\u2019re a great man, all right,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cOught to have a look at the proud father. They\u2019re usually the worst sufferers in these little affairs,\u201d the doctor said. \u201cI must say he took it all pretty quietly.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

He pulled back the blanket from the Indian\u2019s head. His hand came away wet. He mounted on the edge of the lower bunk with the lamp in one hand and looked in. The Indian lay with his face toward the wall. His throat had been cut from ear to ear. The blood had flowed down into a pool where his body sagged the bunk. His head rested on his left arm. The open razor lay, edge up, in the blankets.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cTake Nick out of the shanty, George,\u201d the doctor said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

There was no need of that. Nick, standing in the door of the kitchen, had a good view of the upper bunk when his father, the lamp in one hand, tipped the Indian\u2019s head back.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

It was just beginning to be daylight when they walked along the logging road back toward the lake.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI\u2019m terribly sorry I brought you along, Nickie,\u201d said his father, all his post-operative exhilaration gone. \u201cIt was an awful mess to put you through.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cDo ladies always have such a hard time having babies?\u201d Nick asked.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cNo, that was very, very exceptional.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWhy did he kill himself, Daddy?\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI don\u2019t know, Nick. He couldn\u2019t stand things, I guess.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cDo many men kill themselves, Daddy?\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cNot very many, Nick.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cDo many women?\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cHardly ever.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cDon\u2019t they ever?\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cOh, yes. They do sometimes.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cDaddy?\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cYes.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWhere did Uncle George go?\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cHe\u2019ll turn up all right.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cIs dying hard, Daddy?\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cNo, I think it\u2019s pretty easy, Nick. It all depends.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

They were seated in the boat, Nick in the stern, his father rowing. The sun was coming up over the hills. A bass jumped, making a circle in the water. Nick trailed his hand in the water. It felt warm in the sharp chill of the morning.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In the early morning on the lake sitting in the stern of the boat with his father rowing, he felt quite sure that he would never die.<\/p>\n\n\n

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