Theme Of Indian Camp By Ernest Hemingway

In Ernest Hemingway’s short story “The Short Happy Life of Francis Macomber,” Hemingway uses the author’s craft of perspective, along with dialogue and internal dialogue to create a multi-part claim that develops an overall negative characterization of the three main characters. Hemingway develops the characterization of Wilson, Margaret, and Francis by using multiple perspectives as he threads a negative tone throughout the story.

“Introduction to Ernest Hemingway: Hills Like White Elephants.” The Norton Introduction to Literature Shorter Eleventh Edition. Ed. Mays, Kelly, J. New York, London: W. W. Norton & Company, 2013. Page 590. Print.

Set on an African Safari in the early 1900s, Ernest Hemingway’s “The Short Happy Life of Francis Macomber” tells the story of a young man and wife, Francis and Margot Macomber, and their English guide, Robert Wilson, on a hunting trip gone awry. This essay will show how Hemingway’s character tied into the story itself.

There was no need to explain what he used to do the caesarian when they knew what he used. The primitive nature of the entire practice could affirm the stereotypes Nick’s father has about Native Americans, which could provide a sense of comfort for him. The reason he would garner some sense of comfort from this is because it reaffirms his superiority. Nick’s father, an outsider, needed to help the Native American people with a birthing, which while difficult, has been a practice that has been around for hundreds of years. This almost paternalistic drive is being passed from father to son. Nick’s father knows and understands that it is almost his duty to help these “poor Native people,” and he gains a rush from both the praise he can garner from it and what his help truly means. His ‘help’ lets him not only feel some sort of gratification from actually helping people, but it also grants an intense emotional experience that reaffirms his position above the Native American people. After all, they need his help; he does not need

Hemingway's "Indian Camp" concerns Nick Adams' journey into the unknown to ultimately experience and witness the full cycle of birth and death. Although Nick's experience is a major theme in the story, cultural inequality also is an issue that adds to the the story's narrative range. Throughout this short story, there are many examples of racial domination between Nick's family and the Indians. Dr. Adams' and Uncle George's racist behavior toward the Native Americans are based on the history of competition between Caucasians and America's indigenous peoples.

In the beginning of the story we are introduced to Nick, his father and uncle George who arrive to an Indian camp on an Island in Michigan. The Indians in the camp are not very privileged and they live in shanties. Nick, his father and uncle George are lead to a shanty were a young Indian woman is

'What 's that? ' she asked a waiter and pointed to the long backbone of the great fish that was just now garbage waiting to go out with the tide. 'Tiburon, ' the waiter said, 'Shark. ' He was meaning to explain what dare grapple happened. 'I didn 't know sharks had such handsome tails. ' 'I didn 't either, ' her male companion said." (page 109) these two tourists who speak are hardly differentiated from the group to which they belong. They are all metaphors for individuals who are spectators of the human scene rather than participants in its activity. They see, but they see without fully comprehending. They are only faintly curious, only passingly interested, only superficially observing, they have not been initiated into the mysteries that Santiago understands. These tourists live their lives as tourists, skimming the surface of life, without resolution or clarity. Their life reflects that of all people who live their lives ashore, who dare not grapple with the mysteries of the ocean, or of life. This is the type of life that Hemingway always tried to avoid, to the point of his taking his own life. Hemingway uses metaphors to reflect his opinions of life and the people that he has met in life. The metaphor of the sea symbolizes all of life and the roles that people must choose to have in life. The lions are a metaphor for the

Nick's father does not want to answer his wife’s questions, and when he does, he lies to her. He assumes that she will not understand his reasoning for the argument he just had outside. In addition, his wife's religious demands for him to not lose his temper show that she does not want him to be a stereotypical aggressive and protective male. Also, Christian Science religion does not believe in medicine, which means that she has no respect for her husband’s work. Nick's father decides to go hunting, where he can express his masculinity. When Nick decides to go with him, Nick is also showing an interest in male to male interaction over male to female interaction with his mother. We see Nick at the end of the story, still calling his father “daddy” and wanting to follow him around. If the family would interact more, then it is probable that Nick would be able to develop more psychologically. He is still being treated like a little child, so he is still acting like one.

In Hemingway’s short story, The Short Happy Life of Francis Macomber, we begin with the married couple, Franics and Margaret Macomber, on a safari in Africa with a man named Robert Wilson. Francis is shown to be a coward when he shoots his first lion twice, but is too afraid to finish it off even though it may be suffering. Margaret is very displeased with her husband’s cowardice and shows her contempt by berating him profusely. Francis is awoken from his sleep late at night after a bad dream to find his wife, Margaret, is gone. When she returns to the tent she claims she was out getting “a breath of air” but Francis knew she had just slept with Robert Wilson. Francis

Ernest Hemingway’s short story, “The Short Happy Life of Francis Macomber,” chronicles a rich American couple’s safari hunting trip. Francis Macomber, a seemingly perfect man- handsome, wealthy, and athletic- and his wife, Margot Macomber travel to Africa for a hunting trip. The story opens on an afternoon cocktail hour, after a morning of hunting. Quickly, Margot’s frustration towards her husband emerges. She is embarrassed of his cowardness, and torments him. Richard Wilson, their safari guide, listens to the argument. Wilson is brave and athletic, essentially the qualities Macomber lacks. Earlier that morning, Macomber ran away from a lion, leaving Wilson to mercy kill it. Later, in an effort to win back Margot’s admiration, Macomber successfully gunned down three buffalo. However, an injured one charges, leaving Margot to shoot the buffalo, and Macomber. Hemingway’s use of literary elements enhance and deepen the reader’s understanding of the characters. He develops their actions and motivations through a code hero, symbolism, and allusion.

Everyone is born to live and to die. People go through life fearing the inevitable which in the end is always death. Ernest Hemingway wrote two short stories that examine this idea of life and death through the use of a variety of different symbols. In both “Indian Camp” and “The Killers”, Hemingway examines these ideas by putting forth a character named Nick Adams. Nick Adams develops as a character throughout these stories ultimately learning lessons about life and death that will better his understanding of the world. Nick goes from having an imperfect immature understanding of death in the “Indian Camp” to a more mature and grown up understanding in “The Killers”. In “Indian Camp”, Nick believes that the only way one will die is if they kill themselves. Nicks father also brings Nick to the Indian Camp where his father will deliver a baby. Nicks father wants Nick to watch the birth and learn the importance of life, but instead the procedure takes a turn for the worst and Nick becomes disturbed by what he sees. In “The Killers”, Nicks understanding of death becomes more understood when he notices how Ole Anderson has given up on life and has ultimately taught Nick the lesson that death is inevitable. By his use of light and characters lying down in bed facing the wall in both “The Killers” and “Indian Camp”, Hemingway is attempting to show us how Nick develops a better understanding of light and death.

In A Farewell to Arms, For Whom the Bell Tolls, and The Sun Also Rises, Ernest Hemingway uses damaged characters to show the unglamorous and futile nature of war and the effects it has on people. Hemingway wants readers to know that war is not what people make it out to be; it is unspectacular and not heroic. Hemingway also feels that war is futile by nature and that most goals in war have almost no point. He also shows readers that military conflict often causes people to have shallow values and to hide their pain for their own protection.

Roles depicted in the story of “Indian Camp” are mostly dominated by men. “His female characters are typically shallow, and at best, are merely passive receptors of the dominant men that surround them” (Wray). The roles of the men are active compared to the women, whose roles are generally passive. Nick’s father, the doctor, has to perform a cesarean section on the Indian woman. This creates the idea that the woman cannot handle having the baby on her own and suggests that a man is needed to complete the job that is typically performed by a woman in the Native American culture. He takes away the natural process of a woman producing a baby, which is the one valuable thing that a female is able to do that a man cannot. The word “Cesarean” itself suggests power or control as a result of its root “Caesar” (Anderson). The Indian woman that assists the doctor is just used to retrieve water as the doctor requests and then just stands there. She has no part of taking action in the situation besides what the doctor tells her to do. The other women present are only mentioned once to show that they are just there. Three Indian men and Nick’s Uncle, George, holds the Indian woman down as if she cannot allow herself to let the doctor perform his operation and gives the men power or strength over the woman. The woman’s husband commits suicide by cutting his own throat. “The Indian lay with his face toward

Many of the passages of the novel reflect his life. Hemingway writes: “But man is not made for defeat," he said. "A man can be destroyed but not defeated.” This has been shown through his life, as Hemingway wrote the novella to prove he wasn’t finished as a writer. This is also reflected during his time in World War 1. Hemingway was wounded by Austrian Mortar fire, and yet despite his injuries or “defeat,” Hemingway carried a wounded italian soldier to safety. Hemingway wrote: "When you go to war as a boy you have a great illusion

Ernest Hemingway the winner of the Nobel Peace prize lived a troubled life over his Sixty-two years of life and experienced many struggles. He went through a few marriages, different faiths and in the end, he lost his battle with depression. However, though all of this he made an impact on the world with the style and theme of American literature he wrote and is a significant influence to many authors and readers alike. During his life, there were many things that were an influence and help shape his writing into what it is today. Hemingway heavily focused on the theme of war during his career and was a topic of several of his novels one of those novels being “For whom the bell tolls” (Hemingway) The recognizable effects of Hemingway’s influence on literature is still witnessed around the world in the many tributes to him to this day.