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Indian Camp
a retrospective scholarly grouping, the Lost Generation was an
INTR
INTRODUCTION
ODUCTION actual community. Many of these writers and artists lived in
Paris during the economic boom of the 1920s, forming
BRIEF BIOGRAPHY OF ERNEST HEMINGWAY friendships that influenced their work. It was both the
Hemingway was born and raised in a well-to-do suburb of intellectual tradition generated by WWI and the expatriate
Chicago to a physician father and a musician mother. In high community that Hemingway formed with other members of the
school, he developed an affinity for writing, and edited his Lost Generation that were most influential to his work.
school’s newspaper and yearbook. Upon graduation, he took a
job as a reporter for The Kansas City Star, and left after six RELATED LITERARY WORKS
months to join the Red Cross Ambulance Corps in WWI. While
driving on the Italian front, Hemingway was seriously injured Hemingway took cues from diverse types of writing—not just
and received a Silver Medal of Bravery. Returned from war and literary fiction—to forge his unique style. His experience as a
still not 20 years old, Hemingway took a job at the Toronto Star journalist contributed to his habit of writing in short,
and moved to Chicago, where he met his first wife, Hadley declarative sentences, a style that set Hemingway apart from
Richardson. The two married in September 1921 and moved to some of his experimental modernist contemporaries. Modern
Paris, as the Star hired Hemingway as a foreign correspondent. poetry also had a profound impact on Hemingway’s writing,
In Paris, Hemingway met a dynamic group of writers and especially that of his friend and collaborator Ezra Pound. Pound
artists, among them Gertrude Stein, Ezra Pound, and James was a leader in a poetic movement called Imagism, which
Joyce. Hemingway wrote and published “Indian Camp” in Ford favored simplicity, clarity, and precision. Hemingway credited
Maddox Ford’s The Transatlantic Review around this time. In Pound with teaching him more “about how to write and how
not to write” than any other living writer. One of Pound’s most
1926 he began his career as a novelist, publishing The Sun Also
famous poems, “In a Station of the Metro,” bears some
Rises
Rises. The following year, he divorced Hadley, and married
similarity to Hemingway’s work for its brevity, plain-
Pauline Pfeiffer, with whom he had been having an affair. The
spokenness, and clarity. Hemingway was also a vital part of a
two left Paris in 1928 and moved to Key West, Florida.
community of expatriate American writers who gathered in
Hemingway spent the next decade travelling and writing until,
Europe in the years following WWI. These other writers, like F.
in 1937, he became a correspondent in the Spanish Civil War,
Scott Fitzgerald and James Joyce, were dubbed the “Lost
where met he the journalist Martha Gellhorn. Upon his return
Generation” by Gertrude Stein. Many of their works explore
in 1939, Hemingway traveled to Cuba, where he lived with
similar themes about breaking from historical tradition and
Gellhorn and began work on For Whom the Bell T Tolls
olls, a novel
trying to find new ways to make meaning.
inspired by his experience in Spain. As WWII began,
Hemingway returned to Europe. There, he met another
journalist, Mary Welsh, whom he married in 1946 after KEY FACTS
divorcing Gellhorn. In the following years, Hemingway’s health • Full Title: Indian Camp
began to deteriorate, due to a spate of accidents and his
• When Written: 1923-1924
alcoholism. In 1954, he was awarded the Nobel Prize in
Literature. Beset with pain and suffering bouts of paranoia, • Where Written: Toronto, Paris
Hemingway shot himself at his home in Ketchum, Idaho in • When Published: 1924
1961. • Literary Period: Modernism
• Genre: Short Story
HISTORICAL CONTEXT • Setting: Native American Camp in Michigan
The “Lost Generation” is a term—coined by Gertrude Stein but • Climax: A baby is born through C-section
popularized by Hemingway—that literary scholars have used to
• Antagonist: Death
refer to the generation of American writers who came of age
during WWI. Their experiences with the horrors of WWI • Point of View: Third Person
disillusioned many of these artists and left them skeptical of
traditional value systems, like religion and patriotism. As in EXTRA CREDIT
“Indian Camp,” many of the Lost Generation’s works concern Art Imitates Life: Just before Hemingway began work on
themselves with the fundamental themes of birth and death, “Indian Camp,” his first wife, Hadley, gave birth to their first son.
highlighting the impact of the war on their work. More than just When Hadley went into labor, Hemingway was on a train

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returning to their Toronto home from New York. Hemingway’s in the shanty. Nick’s Father responds to each question with
biographer has argued that his feeling of helplessness on the short, deflating answers: normally deliveries are easier; the
train, unable to support his wife through birth, served as husband must have killed himself because “he couldn’t stand
inspiration for this story. things;” most people don’t kill themselves; and dying must be
“pretty easy.”
Revisions: Hemingway’s first draft of “Indian Camp” was As Nick sits back in the boat, his father rowing him away from
entitled “One Night Last Summer” and was 29 pages long. The the camp, the narrator makes observations about the beautiful
final draft, published in Ford Maddox Fort’s Transatlantic morning scene at the lake. When the story comes to an end, the
Review, had only seven pages. narrator notes that Nick, with his father steering, “felt quite
sure that he would never die.”

PL
PLO
OT SUMMARY
CHARA
CHARACTERS
CTERS
Nick Adams, the young protagonist of “Indian Camp,” arrives at
a lakeshore with his father and his uncle where they meet Nick Adams – Nick is the young protagonist of the story,
several Native Americans. The Native Americans row them brought along by his father and Uncle George on a trip to a
across the lake and lead them through the woods until they nearby Native American encampment to care for an “Indian
come to a small shantytown—a Native American lady” who has been in labor for two days because her child is
encampment—and enter the first building, where a woman is being born in breech position (meaning bottom instead of head
very sick. first). The narrator doesn’t make clear how old Nick is, but his
Inside the lamp-lit shanty, the mother lies on a bed screaming. childlike questions throughout make it seem that he is years
She has been in labor for two days. Many of the older women in from reaching puberty. Nick a curious boy who idolizes his
the village are helping her, while many of the men stay out of father as a paragon of strength and wisdom. The trip begins as
earshot of her screams. The father lies on the bunk above her, an occasion for Nick to learn about some of life’s realities, but
smoking a pipe and nursing a wound on his foot. The room things quickly go awry as it becomes clear that the Indian
smells very bad. woman will need to be given an emergency cesarean. At some
point during the procedure her husband takes his own life,
Nick’s father is a doctor, and he doesn’t have any anesthetic to
leaving behind a bloody scene which Nick glimpses despite his
ease the woman’s pain. He instructs the older women to boil
father’s attempts to shield him from the sight. Nick leaves the
water and uses the water to sanitize his hands and his
“Indian camp” shaken. On the trip home, he retreats into his
equipment. He describes the problem with the birth (the baby
father’s arms, believing that he will never die.
is being born in breech, which means bottom-first instead of
head-first) and suggests that he might have to operate. Nick’s Father – Nick’s father is a doctor who travels to an
“Indian camp” to help deliver a baby. He brings his son Nick
Some time later, Nick’s Father begins the procedure. Uncle
along on the trip, hoping to teach him lessons about life and
George and three male villagers hold the mother down while
work. He’s a decisively masculine figure, and reacts to his world
Nick’s father performs the surgery. The mother bites Uncle
with self-assurance, stoicism, and grit—and not a small amount
George, causing him to call her a “squaw bitch.” Eventually,
of male chauvinism. Regarding the pained screams of the
Nick’s father successfully delivers a baby boy. Throughout the
woman in childbirth, Nick’s father says that he doesn’t hear
procedure, he enlists Nick’s help and tries to demonstrate his
them “because they are not important.” Ultimately, Nick’s
process, but Nick is unable to watch. After the delivery, Uncle
father’s emotionally distant behavior both supports and
George congratulates Nick’s Father for performing the surgery
undermines his goals; it helps him successfully perform a
with a jack knife and remarks that Nick’s Father is a great man.
complex operation in an intense situation, but prevents him
Nick’s father announces that he will return in the morning with
from empathizing other people, leading him to treat the Indian
a nurse.
woman and her husband without care and to put Nick through
With the surgery complete, Nick’s Father goes to check on the a traumatic situation, exposing him at a young age not only to
husband in the top bunk. He finds that the husband has slit his the gruesome realities of a complicated birth, but to the even
own throat with a razor, the bed pooling with blood. more gruesome realities of death and suicide.
Immediately, Nick’s Father orders Uncle George to take Nick
The Indian W Woman
oman – The Indian woman is the reason for
out of the shanty, but it’s too late: he’s already seen the dead
Nick’s father’s trip to the “Indian camp.” She has been in labor
man.
for two days and requires medical attention because her child
Now outside the shanty, with day breaking, Nick’s Father is being born in breech position (meaning bottom instead of
apologizes to his son for bringing him along on this trip. Nick head first). She is subjected to great pain throughout the story,
then asks his father a series of questions about what happened

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both in enduring a complicated childbirth and a surgery birth and death, Hemingway suggests that these two
without anesthetic. Her screams echo through the camp. In the fundamental aspects of human life cannot be fully
face of great pain, she demonstrates strength, and is ultimately understood—and that to acknowledge their gravity requires a
able to survive the operation, successfully delivering a baby boy sense of awe, and even the impulse to look away.
with the help of Nick’s father. Her husband, however, commits The story establishes the similarity between birth and death by
suicide at some point during the operation. depicting both as painful, bloody, and violent. The woman’s
The Indian WWoman
oman’s
’s Husband – The husband of the Indian birth is complicated because her baby is born in breech position
woman who, when Nick and his father arrive in the shanty, lies (i.e., bottom-first instead of head-first), and for days she has
prostrate in the bunk above her, nursing a serious axe wound been in terrible pain. While her screams are excruciating, Nick’s
on his foot and smoking a pipe. The story presents the husband father suggests that this pain is a natural part of the birthing
as a hapless bystander. He’s deeply pained by his wife’s process: “All her muscles are trying to get the baby born,” he
screams, but is unable to offer her the help she needs. All he tells Nick. “That is what is happening when she screams.”
can do is stay nearby and witness Nick’s father’s callous yet Furthermore, since she can’t deliver the baby naturally, Nick’s
effective treatment of her. This condition wears on him and, father operates on her with his buck knife, and without
near the end of the story, he slits his own throat with a razor for anesthetic. This leaves her in such pain that three men must
reasons that remain unknown to the reader, though Nick’s hold her down, and she bites Uncle George. By the time the
father hypothesizes glibly that it was because he “couldn’t woman is stitched up, she is “pale” and “quiet”—it seems that
stand things.” her pain was so extreme that it left her unconscious, not even
Uncle George – Uncle George largely spends “Indian Camp” aware that her baby has finally been born. Similarly, when the
assisting Nick’s father in his operation. He’s an affable man who birth is over and Nick’s father checks on the woman’s husband
gets along with the Native American men and, like Nick, greatly in the top bunk, he finds a grisly scene: “His throat had been cut
admires Nick’s father, flattering him with compliments and from ear to ear. The blood had flowed down into a pool where
calling him a “great man” after he successfully performs the his body sagged the bunk.” Although the reasons for the man’s
operation. Uncle George lets his prejudice show during the suicide will never be known, it seems plausible that the pain he
operation when he calls the Indian woman a “squaw bitch” after felt watching his wife give birth overwhelmed him and led him
she bites him. to suicide, explicitly linking the violence and pain of birth to the
violence and pain of death.
While Hemingway depicts birth and death as similar
THEMES experiences, Nick and his father react to them differently.
Nick’s father treats the birth with nonchalance; he encourages
In LitCharts literature guides, each theme gets its own color- Nick to watch each step and he dismisses the woman’s screams
coded icon. These icons make it easy to track where the themes as “not important.” However, the woman’s painful birth clearly
occur most prominently throughout the work. If you don't have scares Nick. He asks his father to “give her something” to stop
a color printer, you can still use the icons to track themes in her screaming, and even as he helps his father prepare for
black and white. surgery, he can barely look at what he’s doing. Of the actual
surgery, Hemingway writes, “Nick did not watch. His curiosity
BIRTH AND DEATH had been gone for a long time.” While Nick’s father clearly
In “Indian Camp,” a young boy named Nick watches thinks it’s appropriate—and even important—for Nick to watch
his father, a doctor, surgically deliver a baby this difficult birth, he tells Uncle George to take Nick outside
without anesthetic. The baby’s mother, an “Indian when he finds the dead man in the top bunk. However, Nick has
lady,” is clearly in excruciating pain, but she and the baby live. already seen it—he had a “good view” of the top bunk when his
Meanwhile, in the course of her labor, the Indian woman’s father “tipped the Indian’s head back.” These details (compared
husband dies quietly, slitting his own throat as he lies above his to the lack of detail in Hemingway’s description of the surgery)
wife in the top bunk. The bloody and painful birth occurs suggest that Nick looked unflinchingly at death, while he shied
simultaneously with the violent suicide—and both are away from watching birth.
accomplished with knives—thereby explicitly associating these Perhaps Nick’s father treats birth with nonchalance and Nick
two experiences and making Nick understand that birth and treats death with nonchalance because neither fully
death are somehow interlinked. However, while Nick has a understands the gravity of each situation. When Nick’s father
difficult time watching the birth (a situation his father handles tells Nick that the woman is having a baby and Nick says that he
with performative nonchalance), he seems unfazed by the knows, his father corrects him: “You don’t know,” he says. But
death, and comes away from the experience feeling that he will his follow-up explanation is clinical, as though what Nick
never die. Through Nick and his father’s opposite reactions to doesn’t understand is simply the mechanics of labor. It seems

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that his father has missed the point that this woman is bringing highly clinical vision of what birth is. When Nick’s father
a human life into the world. Meanwhile, Nick seems to observes that the mother is going to need surgery, however, his
understand the gravity of the situation. Unlike his father, he teaching becomes more implicit, as he no longer has time for
understands that the woman is in great pain and he seems to verbal explanations. As Nick’s father sterilizes his equipment
share her fear of such a gruesome and dangerous surgery. As a and his hands, for instance, he leads by example, with Nick
child, Nick has no way of properly understanding the gravity of watching and taking note of his father’s care and thoroughness.
birth, but he knows enough to look away from it—perhaps In doing so, Nick’s father communicates implicitly that calm
because he realizes, to some extent, that he cannot understand. attention to detail can help adults take on tough situations.
Conversely, Nick’s father seems far more aware of the gravity As the birth becomes increasingly complicated, Nick’s father’s
of death than Nick. In the scene after they find the dead man in plan to initiate his son into maturity and teach him adult values
the top bunk, Nick seems unfazed—and even emboldened—by goes awry. Although Nick’s father encouraged his son to watch
what he has just seen. He asks questions about birth and death the surgery, the experience overwhelms Nick and he quickly
(particularly about death), whereas during the birth the stops watching, losing all his curiosity about what is happening.
narrator notes that his “curiosity had been gone for a long time.” This severely limits what he can learn from the situation.
That Nick doesn’t understand death, despite his ability to look Furthermore, after the operation, Nick’s father seems to
at it and inquire about it, is clear at the story’s end when he acknowledge that the experience may have traumatized his son
notes that he felt “quite sure that he would never die.” Of rather than educated him, as he apologizes for the “awful mess”
course, Nick will die, so his experience with death has not led that came of the situation. Nonetheless, Nick’s uncle George
him to understand it. Instead, he is left with a false confidence remarks that Nick’s father is a “great man” for successfully
and a superficial understanding of death, similar to his father’s performing the operation, which shows Nick that other adults
superficial and clinical explanation of birth. In this way, ascribe value and respect to the way his father conducts
Hemingway suggests that birth and death share a fundamental himself, signaling to Nick that he should take his father’s advice
similarity: both are difficult and painful experiences, and both seriously.
are not easily understood. To Hemingway, it seems, the
However, when Nick does take his father’s words seriously in
appropriate response to such painful and incomprehensible
the final scene, it backfires. As Nick and his father prepare to
situations is to look away.
leave the camp, Nick begins to ask questions about what
happened in the shanty, but his father undermines any complex
GROWING UP adult lessons Nick might have learned by giving his son
When Nick’s father brings Nick along on a trip to simplistic answers. When Nick asks his father about why the
deliver a baby, he intends to initiate his son into man killed himself, for example, Nick’s father replies that, “He
adult life by teaching him explicit lessons about life couldn’t stand things, I guess.” This response betrays a lack of
and the value of work. However, the trip takes an unexpectedly empathy for the father’s plight, and it also implies that suicide is
traumatic turn when the baby’s mother requires an emergency a result of weakness. Nick also asks his father if dying is hard, to
surgery and her husband kills himself. In their debriefing which Nick’s father responds, “No, I think it’s pretty easy, Nick.
afterwards, Nick’s father tries to tell his son how to interpret It all depends.” Again, this observation seems to contrast with
what he saw, but his simplistic answers to Nick’s complex the bloody, self-inflicted death that Nick witnessed, and it’s a
questions undermine the lessons that Nick’s father initially simplistic response to a particularly complex human
intended to impart. In this way, Hemingway suggests the phenomenon. At the end of the story, the narrator remarks,
complexity of growing up. The experiences that propel Nick “with his father rowing, [Nick] felt quite sure that he would
towards maturity seem to overwhelm and even traumatize him. never die.” It seems, then, that Nick’s father’s dismissive and
Meanwhile, the comforting words of his father, instead of simplistic attitude towards death has led Nick to a false
making him more capable of facing the world, leave him less understanding of death. Perhaps this confidence comes from
prepared for the difficult realities of life. his increased trust and admiration for his father (“with his
Initially, Nick’s father teaches Nick as though he were a father rowing,” Nick feels immune from death), or perhaps it’s
student, carefully explaining the decisions he makes and the because Nick’s father has unintentionally implied that death
ways in which an adult goes about his work. For instance, Nick’s comes as a result of weakness, and Nick does not, in this
father starts his procedure by telling Nick that the mother is moment, feel weak. Regardless, instead of helping Nick become
going to have a baby. When Nick replies that he knows, his a mature adult (as the trip was meant to do), Nick’s father’s pat
father insists that he doesn’t know, and goes on to give a more answers about dying make Nick seem naïve and unprepared to
specific definition of the birthing process, explaining that “all of face reality. In this way, Hemingway suggests that such
her muscles are trying to get to baby born.” He seems to be shocking experiences don’t necessarily help young people like
attempting to re-educate Nick, imposing his personal and Nick mature—especially when the understanding that results

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from such experiences is so shallow. screams, since they are “not important.” While Nick’s father
clearly believes that his stoic calm is admirable and important,
MASCULINITY his dismissal of the woman’s pain comes off as callous and cruel.
Furthermore, after performing a surgery on an
In “Indian Camp,” Nick’s father tries to demonstrate
unanaesthetized woman, Nick’s father still makes the
to Nick the characteristics of adult men. Above all,
observation that fathers are “usually the worst sufferers in
his words and actions communicate his belief that
these little affairs.” In this case, Nick’s father’s recognition of
men ought to face adversity with stoic grit, responding to life’s
the husband’s suffering makes his failure to recognize the
difficulties with stoicism and emotional distance. While this
woman’s suffering naïve to the point of absurdity, since the
disposition allows Nick’s father to handle intense emotional
obvious reality of the situation is that the woman enduring the
experiences (such as performing a difficult surgery), the story
surgery must be the worst sufferer, and her grotesque,
also shows that the pressure to live up to masculine ideals can
complicated birth could hardly be called a “little affair.”
limit a man’s perspective, leading him to callousness and moral
weakness. In fact, the contrast between the men’s behavior and the
women’s undermines the traditional association of masculinity
Hemingway portrays Nick’s father as a masculine archetype,
with strength and femininity with weakness, since the men
embodying many of the defining qualities of a traditional man:
seem unable to acknowledge the woman’s pain, while she
the ability to impose his will on the world and command respect
herself is perhaps the story’s strongest character. For example,
in others. When the Adamses enter the shanty, for instance, the
when Nick and his father arrive in the camp, they find many
narrator describes its unhygienic conditions, but Nick’s father
Indian men smoking out of earshot of the mother’s screams,
immediately imposes order, asking for water to be boiled to
presumably because merely hearing her cries of pain is too
sterilize his equipment and wash his hands, and refusing to
much for them to bear. Meanwhile, many of the women from
touch a blanket once his hands have been cleaned. Beyond
the camp are in the shanty, helping the mother birth her child.
cleanliness, he combats the shanty’s chaos by commanding
Furthermore, when the mother bites Uncle George during the
others to carry out an identifiable procedure. He recruits a
operation, he immediately lashes out, unable to handle this
handful of the villagers as his aides and asserts himself as the
comparatively minor pain, while the mother is wordlessly
person in charge, which results in a successful surgery and
withstanding an incredibly painful surgery. Finally, just being
birth. From these actions, he earns the respect of others; Uncle
near the mother’s operation is such an intense experience for
George remarks that Nick’s father is a “great man.”
the baby’s father that he’s led to kill himself, while the mother
Nick’s father’s unemotional responses are just as important to survives an emergency caesarian delivery, performed with a
his masculinity as his commanding behavior, suggesting that jackknife.
men should be reserved and stoic. For example, Nick’s father
Regardless of whether Hemingway meant for his depiction of
describes the birthing in a conspicuously clinical manner. While
masculinity to expose the absurdity and naivety of such rigid
many people ascribe great emotional significance to the
conceptions of masculinity, the story makes it clear that these
phenomenon of birth, he portrays it flatly as a physiological
conceptions can be limiting: masculinity leads Nick’s father into
event, explaining that the birth is merely the process of the
cruel dismissal of female pain, and it blinds him to the fact that
Indian woman’s muscles “trying to get the baby born.” Nick’s
the story’s women are ultimately its strongest, most stoic
father’s responses to Nick’s questions at the end of the story
characters.
also suggest that he reacts unemotionally to some of the
world’s harsher realities. For example, he tells Nick that dying
must be “pretty easy,” and he suggests that the woman’s CROSS-CULTURAL ENCOUNTERS
husband killed himself because he “couldn’t stand things.” This In “Indian Camp,” the Adams family (who are
cryptic comment implicitly places blame on the man’s weakness certainly white, though this is never specified)
for his suicide. While what specifically he couldn’t stand is come to an Indian village to assist a difficult
never specified, it was presumably witnessing the mother of his childbirth. The complex dynamic between these characters of
child in excruciating pain. Therefore, Nick’s father associates different cultural backgrounds shows that such encounters
the baby’s father’s extreme empathy and emotion with often have mixed results. When people share their unique
weakness and a lack of masculinity. knowledge with people from a different culture, the results can
Perhaps unintentionally, Hemingway’s depiction of what be positive, as when Nick’s father’s medical expertise saves the
masculinity should be also reveals some drawbacks of this lives of the Native woman and her baby. On the other hand,
perspective. For instance, Nick’s father’s masculine perspective when outsiders enter a different cultural space without grace
blinds him to the pain the mother is enduring during childbirth. or care, they can humiliate and hurt other people as well as
When Nick asks his father to give the woman something to themselves. Nick’s father and uncle, for example, are cruel and
ease her pain, he refuses, saying that he doesn’t even hear her dismissive to their hosts because they seem to believe that

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Native people are less deserving of respect. The story, then, is and uncle’s disrespect and cruelty have demoralized and
something of a parable for European settlers’ treatment of traumatized the mother, while driving the baby’s father to
native peoples in American history, in which white settlers suicide. Readers thus must ask themselves what “progress”
believed they were bringing civilization to a “New World,” but means and whether it is even desirable if it causes such
their callousness only brought destruction and suffering for the distress, but this is a question Hemingway doesn’t attempt to
people who lived there first. answer.
To highlight the cultural differences between white American
and Native American culture, Hemingway contrasts Nick’s
father’s medical practices with the traditional birthing practices
SYMBOLS
already underway when he arrives at the shanty. These Symbols appear in teal text throughout the Summary and
descriptions paint Western culture as ordered, clean, and Analysis sections of this LitChart.
effective, while Native culture is portrayed as uncivilized,
chaotic, and dirty. For example, Hemingway’s narrator takes
note of the inadequate sanitary conditions of the shanty when WATER
the Adamses arrive, which Nick’s father’s training in Western Water appears throughout “Indian Camp” as a
medicine leads him to immediately remedy. The first thing he medium that separates Nick’s family from the
does is fastidiously clean his hands and his tools, and he doesn’t native people who live in the shantytown. Nick, Nick’s father,
begin operating until he has ensured a higher standard of and Uncle George must cross a lake to arrive at the camp and
cleanliness. Nick’s father also imposes order via a structured return from it. This trip evokes the transatlantic voyages
hierarchy; he enlists Native Americans as his surgical team, and, chartered by Europeans to the Americas in which white
with them reporting to him, they are able to perform a settlers came into contact with native peoples for the first time.
successful operation. This depiction suggests that Nick’s father This miniaturization of the original voyage encourages the
has been able to create life-saving order out of hopeless reader to interpret this story as an allegory for the European
disorganization, clearly indicating a view not only that the birth settlement of the Americas, highlighting the racial and cultural
would have been doomed if not for the arrival of this white divides that form the subtext of the story. Moreover, within the
doctor, but that the cultural and medical practices in this Native shanty, water also becomes an index of cultural differences
American village are inferior to those of white American between the Native Americans and the Adamses. When Nick’s
culture. Father takes over the birthing process, he finds the hygienic
While Nick’s father does appear to save the woman’s life by conditions in the shanty unsuitable, and orders water to be
bringing his expertise to her childbirth, his treatment of his boiled so he can sanitize his tools to his medical standards.
Native patient provokes the reader to consider how his Thus, throughout the story, water highlights the differences
prejudice affects his ability to do his job. Certainly, she would (and distances) between Native American communities and
have had a better experience if her doctor had treated her like a white American society more broadly.
human being. For example, it’s clear that the mother’s screams
are extreme enough that they cause deep distress to her
husband and to other villagers in the shantytown (who try to KNIVES, AXES, AND RAZOR BLADES
stay out of earshot). Nevertheless, the screams don’t faze Nick’s father and the Indian woman’s husband both
Nick’s father. As he prepares to operate on her without use blades in significant ways in the story. When
anesthetic, he even says that he doesn’t “hear [her screams] Nick and his father arrive at the shanty, the husband is nursing
because they are not important.” Furthermore, when Uncle a bad axe wound on his foot from days prior. Near the end of
George holds the mother down for Nick’s father to operate on the story, he kills himself by slitting his own throat with a razor.
her, she bites him, likely due to the pain of undergoing a surgery Meanwhile, Nick’s Father is able to execute a caesarian delivery
without anesthetic. Rather than bearing this (relatively minor) using a jack knife. Nick’s Father’s superior skill with the knife—a
pain and empathizing with her distress, Uncle George’s first skill that allows him to save both the Indian woman and her
reaction is to call her a “squaw bitch.” This reaction discloses a baby—emasculates the woman’s husband in comparison. The
lack of empathy for her situation and is inflected by racial husband’s use of tools only serves to demonstrate his
prejudice. haplessness. However, Nick’s Father’s use of the jack knife also
Ultimately, the mixed outcome of Nick’s father’s intervention suggests his callousness—part of his stoically masculine
(the child is successfully born, but the mother is left sickly and demeanor—as he operates on the Indian woman without any
pale and her husband kills himself) illustrates the mixed results regard for her pain. Although it remains unclear why the
of imposing one’s culture on another. The story leaves open the husband takes his own life, there are a number of ways to
possibility that, despite the surgery’s “success,” Nick’s father interpret his suicide: it is possible that Hemingway meant to

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suggest that the intervention of a white doctor (and the “Listen to me. What she is going through is called being in
performance of a caesarian delivery) was felt to be such a labor. The baby wants to be born and she wants it to be
physical and cultural violation that the man took his own life; it born. All her muscles are trying to get the baby born. That is
is also possible that the husband simply felt ashamed that what happening when she screams.”
another man had saved his wife’s life; a third way of
interpreting the suicide is that the man could not bear to see
Related Characters: Nick’s Father (speaker), The Indian
his wife in so much pain. In any case, blades become symbolic of
Woman, Nick Adams
the cultural and personal divide that separates Nick’s father
from the Indian woman’s husband—whether that divide is Related Themes:
about race, masculinity, culture, or sensitivity to the pain of
others. Page Number: 68

Explanation and Analysis

QUO
QUOTES
TES When Nick tells his father that he believes he knows what’s
going on—that the Indian woman is going to have a
Note: all page numbers for the quotes below refer to the
baby—his father corrects him with this clinical, unemotional
Scribner edition of The Complete Short Stories of Ernest
description of birth. Nick’s father offers an interpretation of
Hemingway published in 1987.
birth that makes it seem like a simple physical process,
consequently removing the mother’s desires from the
Indian Camp Quotes process, or any other emotional aspect of birth. According
Inside on a wooden bunk lay a young Indian woman. She to Nick’s father, it’s the muscles that do the work, not the
had been trying to have her baby for two days. All the old woman, which is an attitude that gestures to his misogyny.
women in the camp had been helping her. The men had moved Here, Nick’s father demonstrates a stereotypical brand of
off up the road to sit in the dark and smoke out of range of the masculinity by trying to teach his son this stoic vision of
noise she made. She screamed just as Nick and the two Indians birth that minimizes emotion.
followed his father and Uncle George into the shanty.

Related Characters: The Indian Woman, Uncle George, “Oh, Daddy, can’t you give her something to make her stop
Nick’s Father, Nick Adams screaming?” asked Nick.
“No. I haven’t any anesthetic,” his father said. “But her screams
Related Themes: are not important. I don’t hear them because they are not
important.”
Page Number: 67

Explanation and Analysis Related Characters: Nick’s Father, Nick Adams (speaker),
Prior to this passage, Nick’s father only told Nick that they The Indian Woman
are going to the Indian camp to help a sick Indian woman. In
this passage, however, it is clear that the woman is going Related Themes:
through a difficult labor, and that Nick’s father is there to
Page Number: 68
help deliver the baby. The fact that the men in the camp
can’t bear the screams, but women have been helping the Explanation and Analysis
Indian woman for two days, undercuts the picture of
This exchange exposes the negative outcomes of Nick’s
masculinity as powerful and dominant that exists in the rest
father’s stoic, masculine posture. On one hand, Nick’s father
of the story. Here, it is the women who are strong enough to
can’t let the Indian woman’s screams bother him too much
bear this traumatic situation and empathetically offer their
as a doctor. His goal is to deliver the baby and must remain
help.
calm and focused in order to achieve his task—a lesson he
tries to teach Nick. However, this disposition mitigates his
empathy for the mother’s clearly unbearable pain. This
callousness, perhaps aimed at treating the mother more
effectively, also demonstrates a deep disrespect for her
wellbeing. It also provokes the reader to wonder if Nick’s

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father’s disregard for her pain is related to disrespect for Uncle George’s outburst in this passage suggests that a
women or native people. In this way, the lesson he imparts blatant disregard for the Indian woman’s pain is not limited
to Nick might serve to hurt his value system, not help it. to Nick’s Father. When the mother bites him, Uncle
George’s reaction isn’t to consider that this might be the
reflex of someone enduring a major surgery without
“Those must boil,” he said, and began to scrub his hands in anesthetic (after all, her screams are “not important.”
the basin of hot water with a cake of soap he had brought Moreover, his slur connotes disrespect for both native
people and women, leading the reader to believe that this
from the camp. Nick watched his father’s hand scrubbing each
disrespect might color his disregard for the Indian woman’s
other with the soap. While his father washed his hands very
carefully and thoroughly, he talked. pain. Yet, the Native American man’s jovial response to
Uncle George suggests that Indian men also fail to
empathize with her pain. Perhaps the men share a disregard
Related Characters: Nick’s Father (speaker), Nick Adams for female pain across their cultures.

Related Themes:

“Now,” his father said, “there’s some stitches to put in. You
Related Symbols:
can watch this or not, Nick, just as you like. I’m going to
Page Number: 68 sew the incision I made.”
Nick did not watch. His curiosity had been gone for a long time.
Explanation and Analysis
This scene demonstrates one of the symbolic functions of
Related Characters: Nick’s Father (speaker), Nick Adams
water in the story. In several occasions, water acts to
separate Nick Adams and his father from the native people Related Themes:
in the shantytown. At first, it’s a lake that physically
separates the Adamses from the camp. Here, boiled water Page Number: 69
separates Nick Father’s medicinal standards of cleanliness
required in birthing from the native cultural standards Explanation and Analysis
underway before his intervention. In washing his hands and In this passage, Nick’s refusal to watch the operation any
tools, Nick’s Father seeks to impose order on a situation on longer signals a turning point in his initiation journey. Nick’s
a chaotic situation that he inherited. Importantly, Nick father brings him on this medical trip ostensibly to expose
observes that his father washes carefully and thoroughly, him to a chaotic adult situation and demonstrate how one
suggesting that his work perhaps is suffused with values can overcome such a situation through hard work and focus.
worth learning. This care is contrasted with Nick’s Father’s When Nick refuses to watch the end of the surgery, he is
emotional callousness in other parts of the story. actively retreating from brutal realities. However, it’s not
the brutality of the scene that causes Nick to look away, it’s
that his curiosity is gone—a phenomenon associated with
Later when he started to operate Uncle George and three adulthood. In this sense, his father’s attempt to initiate him
Indian men held the woman still. She bit Uncle George on into adult life has mixed results. It does seem to divest him
the arm and Uncle George said, “Damn squaw bitch!” and the of some childlike qualities, but it also moves him into
young Indian who had rowed Uncle George over laughed at adulthood unable to face trauma.
him.

Related Characters: Uncle George (speaker), The Indian He was feeling exalted and talkative as football players are
Woman in the dressing room after a game.
“That’s one for the medical journal, George,” he said. “Doing a
Related Themes: Caesarian with a jack-knife and sewing it up with nine-foot,
tapered gut leaders.”
Page Number: 68
Uncle George was standing against the wall, looking at his arm.
Explanation and Analysis “Oh, you’re a great man, all right,” he said.

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Related Characters: Uncle George, Nick’s Father (speaker) Hemingway leaves the father’s motivation to kill himself up
to speculation. Perhaps he was the only one who truly
Related Themes: empathized with his wife’s pain, so much so that it led him to
take his own life, or maybe it was that Nick’s Father had
Related Symbols: taken control of the birthing of his own son, a process in
which the Indian woman’s husband was helpless to support.
Page Number: 69 Ultimately, it suggests that the father’s suicide was
motivated by emasculation, either because he couldn’t
Explanation and Analysis
maintain a stoic disposition or couldn’t take care of his wife
This exchange between Nick’s father and Uncle George and child.
illustrates their insensitive view of the operation. First, the
passage reveals that the tools Nick’s father operated with
weren’t standard medical equipment, making the procedure
“Why did he kill himself, Daddy?”
more gruesome in retrospect. Also, the observation that the
two men banter like players after a football game exposes “I don’t know, Nick. He couldn’t stand things, I guess.”
that they saw the operation as a sort of game where Nick’s […]
Father could demonstrate his skills and his masculinity.
“Is dying hard, Daddy?”
Their sporty jocularity, combined with the revelation that
the surgery was even more gruesome than the reader might “No, I think it’s pretty easy Nick. It all depends.”
have thought, further demonstrates that their masculine
posture has made them callous. The men focus on Nick’s Related Characters: Nick’s Father, Nick Adams (speaker),
father’s role in the operation rather than realizing that it The Indian Woman’s Husband
was likely an extraordinarily painful, emotional, and life-
altering experience for the mother. Related Themes:

Page Number: 70
“Ought to have a look at the proud father. They’re usually Explanation and Analysis
the worst suffers in these little affairs,” the doctor said. “I
After witnessing the gruesome events in the shanty, Nick
must say he took it all pretty quietly.”[…]
asks his father a series of questions to try to understand
The Indian lay with his face toward the wall. His throat had what happened. Nick’s father’s curt, emotionally distant
been cut from ear to ear. responses confirm the particular lesson he’s trying to teach
Nick. Nick asks existentially hefty questions about life and
Related Characters: Nick’s Father (speaker), The Indian death that would, for many people, require equally
Woman’s Husband complicated responses. Instead, Nick’s father suggests that
one shouldn’t bother to understand big questions, but
Related Themes: rather should work to shield oneself from emotional
vulnerability. For instance, he says that The Father killed
Related Symbols: himself because he couldn’t stand things. He brought his
guard down. Nick’s Father shows him that, if one keep one’s
Page Number: 69 guard up against these sorts of questions, one can move on
to another day. However, indoctrinating young Nick into
Explanation and Analysis this sort of emotional position might not be the healthiest
Nick’s father’s statement takes on a tragically ironic twist in option.
this passage when he finds that the father has killed himself.
At first, it seems another example of his inability to
empathize with female pain—suggesting that the father They were seated in the boat, Nick in the stern, his father
would suffer worse than someone who had just undergone rowing. The sun was coming up over the hills […] In the
a surgery without anesthetic. However, the father’s death early morning on the lake sitting in the stern of the boat with
confirms his seemingly ridiculous idea. his father rowing, he felt quite sure that he would never die.

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Related Characters: Nick’s Father, Nick Adams understanding of the harsh realities of life, in turn building a
healthy, adult perspective. Instead, the whole experience
Related Themes: seems to have insulated Nick further from the adult world.
Here, the tone of the story turns brighter as the narrator
Page Number: 70 observes the natural beauty surrounding the characters.
Nick sits back in the boat, in his father’s care, believing that
Explanation and Analysis
he will never die. This rosy, romantic shift shows that Nick
This final passage makes it clear that Nick received messy, has actually regressed to an even more childlike state,
ineffective initiation into adulthood. Nick’s father had the unable to process death and suffering.
opportunity to introduce Nick to this scene of gruesome
birth and death and help Nick to build an empathetic

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SUMMARY AND ANAL

ANALYSIS
YSIS
The color-coded icons under each analysis entry make it easy to track where the themes occur most prominently throughout the
work. Each icon corresponds to one of the themes explained in the Themes section of this LitChart.

INDIAN CAMP
Nick Adams, Nick’s father, and Uncle George arrive at the The opening scene establishes this story as a journey narrative. The
shore of a lake where “two Indians” are waiting with rowboats. Adamses cross a body of water into foreign, native territory, much
Nick and his father board one boat, while Nick’s uncle gets in like European settlers in colonial America. Nick is surrounded by the
another. The Indians begin to paddle them across the lake. It’s care of older male figures, his family and the rowing Indian,
cold, and Nick sits wrapped in his father’s arms. The Indian suggesting that he could be making a journey to join the ranks of the
rowing the boat is working very hard, while the boat carrying adult men.
Nick’s uncle speeds ahead into the mist. Nick asks his father
where they’re going and his father responds that they are
headed to the “Indian camp” to see about an “Indian lady [who
is] very sick.”

When they’re on the other shore, Uncle George is sitting Uncle George quickly develops a friendly rapport with the Indian
smoking a cigar, and gives one to each of the Indians as well. men, highlighting a sense of mutual understanding despite their
The Indians lead Nick’s family across a meadow and through cultural difference. Their sharing cigars and traveling through the
the dark woods by lantern light until they reach a logging road woods sets a tone of masculine camaraderie that shifts as the
where it is bright enough to see without the lantern. Eventually Adamses enter a feminine, domestic space in the shanty.
the group arrives at a grouping of “shanties where the Indian
bark-peelers lived,” and dogs rush out barking. Then they spot
the nearest shanty, where an old woman stands in the door
with a lamp.

Inside the shanty, a young Indian woman lies on a wooden bunk. The birthing process is in a state of disarray—the conditions seem
The woman is in her second day of labor. The camp’s older unsanitary and the labor is difficult. Nevertheless, the women in the
women have been trying to help her birth her child, while the camp are able to withstand the gruesome scene, while most of the
men have moved out of earshot of her screams. Her husband men avoid the shanty, demonstrating weakness of some of the male
lies on the bunk above, smoking a pipe and nursing an open foot characters.
wound he got from an axe. The narrator notes the room smells
bad.

Nick’s father orders water to be boiled. He turns to Nick and Nick’s father takes control of the situation, ordering boiling water
explains that the Indian woman is going to have a baby. When presumably to use as disinfectant. He also offers Nick a naturalistic
Nick replies that he knows, his father argues that he doesn’t. description of birth—it’s not a monumental emotional moment, but
He offers instead a specific description: that she is in labor and merely a physical process. In doing so, he tries to teach Nick to react
all her muscles are trying to get the baby born, causing her to stoically to intense situations at the risk of an empathetic view of
scream. Nick then asks if his father has anything to give the the mother’s pain.
mother to stop her screams. His father replies that he doesn’t
have anesthetic, but he doesn’t even hear the screams because
“they are not important.”

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The older women signal that the water has boiled. Nick’s father In his cleaning ritual, Nick’s father brings some order to a chaotic
pours half of the water into a basin, using it to scrub his hands situation through care and thoroughness. Again, this is an intended
with soap. He places several things unwrapped from a lesson for Nick about how a man can exert control over his
handkerchief in the other half. Nick watches his father prepare surroundings. He also imposes a Western medical standard for
and observes how “carefully and thoroughly” he washes his birthing over the traditional one underway.
hands. While washing, Nick’s father explains that the birth is
difficult because the baby is in breech (turned feet-first).

Later, Nick’s father begins a Caesarian section to deliver the Uncle George exposes his lack of empathy and racism toward the
baby. Uncle George and three Native American men hold the mother. Instead of understanding the bite was a reaction to her
Indian woman down. During the operation, the mother bites pain, he immediately lashes out with a racial slur.
Uncle George, causing him to yell “damn squaw bitch!” at her.

Throughout the surgery, Nick holds the basin of water for his Eventually, the birth becomes so traumatic that Nick can’t stand to
father. After a long procedure, Nick’s father successfully watch, suggesting that he is not as desensitized (or insensitive) as
delivers a baby boy. However, Nick is unable to watch the his father is. Despite the birth’s success, the lesson that Nick’s father
surgery, despite the fact his father is instructing him while is trying to teach appears to get botched.
performing it.

The mother is exhausted following the surgery; her eyes are Uncle George’s congratulations carry some irony. It supports Nick’s
closed, she’s pale, and doesn’t know if the baby is alive or not. father’s intended lesson (that good work is a reflection of good
Meanwhile, Nick’s father is triumphant after the successful character) but it disregards the poor state the mother is left in post-
delivery. He informs the mother that he will be back with surgery. The two men are only able to acknowledge the successful
nurses in the morning. Uncle George proudly congratulates birth, not the woman’s suffering.
Nick’s father for performing a C-section with a jack knife and
remarks that he’s a great man.

Nick’s father remarks that they should check the father Once again, Nick’s father’s statement illustrates that he fails to
because “they’re usually the worst sufferers in these little empathize with the mother, and he belittles her suffering by calling
affairs.” When he reaches for the father’s blanket, his hand gets labor a “little affair.” However, he’s strangely correct in his claim that
wet. Upon further inspection, Nick’s father finds that the Indian fathers are the “worst sufferers.” Perhaps Nick’s Father’s rash
woman’s husband slit his throat with a razor and the bed is commandeering of the child’s birth left the father feeling helpless
pooling with blood. Nick’s father asks Uncle George to take and doomed, driving him to take his life.
Nick out of the shanty, but it’s too late: Nick has already seen
the father’s head.

Now outside the shanty, Nick’s father apologizes to his son for When Nick witnesses more intense trauma than anticipated, his
taking him on the trip. Nick, trying to reflect on the events in father is unable to respond to his emotional needs. However,
the shanty, asks his father a series of questions about birth and although Nick’s father models an emotionally detached and
death. Nick’s father responds with a level of stoicism and stereotypically masculine response, his earlier request that Uncle
calculated remove. Ultimately, he asks his father if dying is George take Nick out of the shanty, as well as his apology to Nick for
hard, to which he guesses that it’s pretty easy. taking him on the trip, suggests that Nick’s father does understand
that this trauma is too much for his son to bear.

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As Nick’s father rows his son back across the lake, away from It seems that Nick received the opposite of the intended lesson.
the camp, the narrator notices beautiful details about natural Instead of learning how an adult can handle the trauma of birth and
world in the morning. The story finishes with the narrator death, Nick retreats into childlike obliviousness.
observing that Nick, sitting in the boat with his father rowing,
felt quite sure that he would never die.

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To cite any of the quotes from Indian Camp covered in the Quotes
HOW T
TO
O CITE section of this LitChart:
To cite this LitChart: MLA
MLA Hemingway, Ernest. Indian Camp. Scribner. 1987.
Browne, Matthew. "Indian Camp." LitCharts. LitCharts LLC, 18 Jul CHICA
CHICAGO
GO MANU
MANUAL
AL
2018. Web. 21 Apr 2020.
Hemingway, Ernest. Indian Camp. New York: Scribner. 1987.
CHICA
CHICAGO
GO MANU
MANUAL
AL
Browne, Matthew. "Indian Camp." LitCharts LLC, July 18, 2018.
Retrieved April 21, 2020. [Link]
camp.

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