Analysis and interpretation of Hemmingway’s:Indian Camp The story is about a boy, Nick, who goes to an Indian camp with his father who is a doctor and his uncle George. They go to the Indian camp to help a woman who, according to Nick’s father, “is very sick”; she has been in labor for two days.
The main theme of the story is love; between father and son, and between husband and wife. A major theme in this story is racial differences and the whites’ alleged superiority and the contrast between light and dark is repeated throughout the story. The protagonist is a young boy named Nick who, contrary to the other characters, always stays positive and, throughout the story, keeps a feeling of hope – he is ignorant and because of his innocence, the reader may consider him quite naive.
Nicks father is well educated; he is a doctor. He is very protective of him and it is obvious that there is great love and affection between him and Nick. This shows in the beginning of the story, when the Indians row them to the camp; the father has his arm around Nick as they lie in the rowing boat. He wants to avoid making Nick nervous about the trip, therefore he only tells him a few necessary things. He is very sensible and educational when he explains to his son what is happening with the woman 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.” There is no physical description of the father, but I would say he is a middle-aged since he has a long education and a family. The racial differences are shown several places in the story; first of all Nick, his father and his uncle go to an Indian camp – the Indians are not equal to the whites since they were deported to a reservation – away from the civilized white “settlers’ world”. A few Indians row Nick and his family to the camp; they don’t assist. Also, when they reach the shore, Uncle George gives the Indians cigars. This could be seen as a nice gesture; as a gift or a way of congratulating with the baby about to be born; we often see fathers of newborn babies hand out cigars to men around them. On the other hand, it could be seen as a way of showing his superiority, as he knows the Indians won’t be able to reciprocate with such a gift. At the camp they find the woman in labor. She is lying in the lower bunk of a bed, and in the upper bunk is her husband, who has hurt his foot a few days earlier. Nick’s father performs a very primitive caesarian using a jackknife as a scalpel and some fishing line to sew up the incision. While in labor and during the surgery, the pregnant Indian woman screams, but Nick’s father explains to his son that her screams are not important and therefore he doesn’t hear them. After a job well-done the doctor and Uncle George are quite exhilarated; an exhilaration which disappears as soon as they discover that the husband has cut his throat.
It is hard to say why the husband commits suicide; there are many different ways to interpret this act. It could be because he couldn’t stand the fact that his wife was in so much pain; a pain showed by her screams which weren’t important according to Nick’s father. It could also be because of shame – either because he wasn’t able to help his wife give birth to their son and needed help from two white men, or maybe he felt ashamed because he knew it wasn’t his child.
If we stick to the last interpretation of the suicide, several other things would fall into place. If the Indian man wasn’t the child’s father, Uncle George could be the father; this would explain why he gives the Indians cigars, why he takes it with a smile when the Indian woman bits him in the arm, why he disappears at the end of the story when Nick and his father go home and why he comes along in the first place. Although the story outwardly is about childbirth, it is not the important part of the story; the interesting thing about the story is the development Nick goes through. The symbolism of light and dark is used several times in “Indian Camp”; it is seen with the racial differences; the darker skinned Indians contrary to the white men, and the symbolism is also used in the protagonist’s development – to describe the enlightenment and understanding of life.
In the beginning of the story it is dark, and this darkness represents Nick’s unawareness – at this time he doesn’t know where he and his father are going, he is naïve and immature. At the end, Nick and his father row across the lake in the early daylight. At this time Nick has witnessed the beauty of birth and the sorrow of death; the circle of life. His experiences have caused him to grow; this growth is symbolized by the light of the new day. On their way back in the boat, Nick’s father is aware of the way the powerful experience has affected his son. He apologizes and calls him “Nickie” – a way of holding on to his son and keeping him in the innocence of childhood. Nick lies in the boat as his father rows – another way of the father to maintain control over his son’s life; he wants to lead him and make sure he gets home safe. In spite of the father’s attempt of keeping Nick in the innocence of childhood, he asks questions about suicide and death in general, and he “feels quite sure that he will never die.” He has grown.