From End to Beginning

Earnest Hemingway develops an explosive plot in “Indian Camp”. Nick Adams is thrown into a journey of years that takes place in only a few short hours. One cannot arrive at maturity without the experience of the journey. These few hours are only a station in Nick’s transition to maturity. It will take thought and time for Nick to absorb and grow from this experience. Nick reveals his immaturity, and hope for immortality, in the last sentence: “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.”

Nick is exposed to life forming events throughout “Indian Camp”. These experiences begin when Nick’s father explains to him “this lady is going to have a baby.” Nick, showing his inexperience in life, replies, “I know”. Nick again tries to show understanding after his father explains: “All her muscles are trying to get the baby born. That is what is happening when she screams.” Nick responds with: “I see”. Those two words provide an interesting point for exploration. “I see” appears to indicate an understanding, a comprehension of the events that are taking place. More realistic is the literal meaning of the words. Nick “sees” what is taking place, almost in awe or curiosity.

Another time, Nick tells his father that he likes being an interene “all right”. While this appears to be an attempt to show maturity, his actions of “looking away so as not to see what his father was doing”, indicate his dislike of the experience. If Nick was showing maturity, he would have been able to express his feeling truthfully. Nick doesn’t show any further interest in what his father is doing to complete the surgery on the Indian woman. Nick also handles the suicide of the father rather benignly. A mature person could not witness and understand suicide without some type of reaction.

While Nick does question his father on the death of the father and suicide in general, Nick does not seem to fully grasp the fullness of what has happened. His thoughts ‘that he would never die”, indicate that he does not understand the realities of life and death, even after the events of the night. Certainly as the new day dawns, Nick has been changed forever by the revolting experiences of his night in the Indian camp with his father, Uncle George, the new mother and the suicidal Indian father. Nick will never look at things in quite the same light again, but maturity will come later for him, as will death.


Works Cited:
"Indian Camp." Sipiora, Phillip. Reading and Writing About Literature. Upper Saddle River: Pearson Education, Inc., 2002. 28-31.