Ernest Hemingway

Ernest Hemingway pulled from his past present experiences to develop his own thoughts concerning death, relationships, and lies. He then mixed these ideas, along with a familiar setting, to create a masterpiece. One such masterpiece written early in Hemingway's career is the short story, "Indian Camp." "Indian Camp" was originally published in the collection of "in Our Time" in 1925. A brief summary reveals that the main character, a teenager by the name of Nick, travels across a lake to an Indian village. While at the village Nick observes his father, who is a doctor, deliver a baby to an Indian by caesarian section. As the story continues, Nick's father discovers that the newborn's father has committed suicide. Soon afterward Nick and his father engage in a discussion about death, which brings the story to an end. With thought and perception a reader can tell the meaning of the story. The charters of Nick and his father resemble the relationship of Hemingway and his father. Hemingway grew up in Oak Park, a middle class suburb, under the watchful eye of his parents, Ed and Grace Hemingway. Ed Hemingway was a doctor who "occasionally took his son along on professional visits across Walloon Lake to the Ojibway Indians" during summer vacations (Waldhorn 7). These medical trips taken by Ernest and Ed would provide the background information needed to introduce nick and his father while on their medical trip in "Indian Camp." These trips were not the center point of affection between Ed and Ernest, but they were part of the whole. The two always shared a close father-son bond that Hemingway often portrayed in his works: Nick's close attachment to his father parallels Hemingway's relationship with Ed. The growing boy finds in the father, in both fiction and life, not only a teacher-guide but also a fixed refuge against the terrors of the emotional and spiritual unknown as they are encountered. In his father Ernest had someone to lean on (Shaw 14). In "Indian Camp," nick stays in his father's arms for a sense of security and this reinforces their close father-son relationship. When Nick sees the terror of death, in the form of suicide, his father is right there to comfort him. From this we are able to see how Nick has his father to, physically and mentally, "lean" on, much like Hemingway did (S...

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...egular job or move out" (Waldhorn 9). Both Hemingway and Krebs moved out and got jobs. Beyond a doubt, Hemingway wrote from his past experiences. In "Indian Camp," Hemingway used his own relationship with his father to breathe life into the fictional characters of Nick and his father. By leaving his childhood and entering the war, Hemingway recalled his own accounts of injuries and love that made up the character Henry and Barkley in A Farewell to Arms. And finally, with his return home after the war, Hemingway uses Krebs in "Soldier's Home" to express his distaste for the home life.

Bibliography

Gajduske, E. Robert. Hemingway's Paris. New York: Charles Scribner's Sons, 1978. Mahoney, John. Ernest Hemingway. New York: Barnes and Noble INC., 1967. McSowell, Nicholas. Life and Works of Hemingway. England: Wayland, 1988. Meyers, Jeffery. Hemingway: A Biography. New York: Harper and Row Publishers, 1985. Shaw, Samuel. Ernest Hemingway. New York: Fredrick Ungar Publishing Company, 1974. Tessitore, John. The Hunt and The Feast, A life of Ernest Hemingway. New York: Franklin Watts, 1996. Waldhorn, Arthur. A Reader's Guide to Ernest Hemingway. New York: Octagon