Indian Camp
Young Nick goes with his doctor father to an Indian camp across a lake, watches a brutal emergency birth, and then learns what the woman’s husband has done in the bunk above.
In the dark, two men row Nick, his father, and his Uncle George across a misty lake. On the far side, a young woman has been trying to give birth for two days, and Nick’s father, a doctor, has no anaesthetic and must operate with a jack-knife. The operation succeeds, and the doctor is proud of it, until he checks on the silent husband in the upper bunk. Hemingway’s story is only a few pages long, yet it puts birth, death, and a boy’s first attempt to make sense of both into a single night.
What happens in Indian Camp
In the dark, two Indian men row Nick, his doctor father, and his Uncle George across a lake in two boats. Nick’s father tells him that an Indian woman at the camp is very sick. On the far shore Uncle George gives both men cigars. A young Indian man carries a lantern and leads them through a wet meadow and along a logging road to the shanties where the Indian bark-peelers live. In one shanty a young woman has been trying to have her baby for two days, helped by the old women of the camp. The men have moved up the road, out of range of her screams. Her husband lies in the upper bunk, smoking a pipe; he cut his foot badly with an ax three days earlier. Nick’s father explains labor to Nick. When Nick asks whether he can give her something to stop the screaming, his father says he has no anaesthetic and that her screams are not important. The husband rolls over to face the wall. The doctor boils things he brought wrapped in a handkerchief, scrubs his hands, and explains that babies are supposed to be born head first and that he may have to operate. He does, while Uncle George and three Indian men hold the woman still. She bites Uncle George on the arm, he curses her with a slur, and the young man who rowed him laughs. Nick holds the basin. The doctor delivers a boy and asks Nick how he likes being an intern, but Nick looks away, and he does not watch the stitching. Afterward the doctor is exultant, boasting of a Caesarean done with a jack-knife and sewn up with nine-foot, tapered gut leaders. He goes to look at the father and finds that the man has cut his own throat with a razor. He tells Uncle George to take Nick out of the shanty, but there is no need: Nick, standing in the kitchen doorway, has had a good view. At daybreak, walking back, the doctor apologizes for bringing Nick. Nick asks why the man killed himself, whether many men and women do, where Uncle George has gone, and whether dying is hard. His father answers briefly. In the boat, with his father rowing and the sun coming up, Nick trails his hand in the warm water and feels sure that he will never die.
Where and when Indian Camp happens
The lake
A misty lake crossed by rowboat in the cold dark on the way out and at sunrise on the way back.
The camp
A group of shanties where the Indian bark-peelers live, reached by a logging road through cut-over timber in the hills.
The shanty
A bad-smelling home with a kitchen and a pair of bunks, where the birth and the suicide both take place.
One night, until dawn
The story runs from a crossing in the dark to sunrise. The nurse is expected from St. Ignace, which places it in northern Michigan.
Timeline the story arc, beat by beat
- The crossing Rowing in the dark
Two men row Nick, his father, and Uncle George across a misty lake at night toward the camp.
- The shanty Two days of labor
In a shanty, a young woman has been in labor for two days while her injured husband lies in the bunk above.
- The lesson No anaesthetic
The doctor explains labor to Nick, says he has no anaesthetic, and calls the woman’s screams unimportant.
- The operation Uncle George is bitten
The doctor operates while men hold the woman still, and she bites Uncle George on the arm.
- The pride One for the journal
After delivering a boy, the doctor boasts about operating with a jack-knife and gut leaders.
- The discovery The upper bunk
Checking on the husband, the doctor finds he has cut his own throat, and Nick sees it from the kitchen doorway.
- The return Sunrise on the lake
On the lake at dawn, after asking his father about death, Nick feels sure that he will never die.
Characters and how they connect
Nick
Protagonist
A young boy who goes with his father to the camp, holds the basin during the operation, looks away when he can, and still sees the husband’s body.
Nick’s father
The doctor
A capable, confident doctor who operates without anaesthetic, treats the birth as a lesson for Nick and a triumph for himself, and is shaken by what he finds afterward.
Uncle George
Nick’s uncle
A member of the party who hands out cigars, helps hold the woman down, curses her when she bites him, and has disappeared by morning.
The Indian woman
Mother in labor
A young woman who has been trying to give birth for two days and endures a Caesarean without anaesthetic.
The husband
The woman’s husband
A man in the upper bunk with a badly cut foot, who rolls over to face the wall during the ordeal and is later found with his throat cut.
The young Indian
Rower and guide
The young man who rows Uncle George across, lights the way with a lantern, and laughs when Uncle George is bitten.
The old woman
Helper at the birth
One of the camp’s old women, who meets the visitors at the shanty door with a lamp; the doctor hands the newborn to an old woman.
Character Relationships who connects to whom, and the themes that bind them
Love / marriage
Family
Friendship / ally
Connection
Themes in Indian Camp what the story is really about
Birth and death
A new life and a violent death happen in the same small room on the same night, and Nick has to take in both.
Initiation
Nick’s father treats the night as a lesson, and it teaches Nick far more than his father intended.
Pain and endurance
The woman’s long labor, the operation without anaesthetic, and the husband’s despair show how differently people bear suffering.
Power and indifference
The visitors take charge of the camp’s crisis, the doctor calls the woman’s screams unimportant, and Uncle George curses her, which many readers see as the story exposing the outsiders’ disregard.
Fathers and sons
Nick looks to his father for answers, and the father’s confidence gives way to an apology and uncertain replies.
Symbols & motifs
The lake crossing
The trip over dark water and back at sunrise frames the night as a passage into hard knowledge and a return to safety.
The upper and lower bunks
The husband lies directly above his suffering wife, unable to help and unable to escape her pain.
The jack-knife and gut leaders
The doctor’s improvised tools, one a knife and the other fishing gear, show his skill and feed a pride that keeps him from noticing the man above until too late.
The warm water
The lake feels warm in the cold morning as Nick trails his hand in it, matching the comfort he takes in believing he will never die.
Recurring motifs
Darkness and light. The lantern, the lamp in the doorway, the lamp held up to the bunk, and the sunrise mark each stage of the night.
Screams and silence. The woman’s screams fill the shanty while her husband stays silent, and the silence turns out to be the more terrible sign.
Looking away. Nick looks away from the operation and skips the stitching, yet he cannot avoid seeing the husband.
Conflicts
Person vs. nature
The doctor struggles against a birth that has gone on for two days and cannot proceed without an operation.
Person vs. self
The husband, unable to act or bear what he hears, turns his despair on himself.
Person vs. person
Uncle George and the doctor treat the camp’s people with a roughness the story shows plainly, from the slur to the dismissed screams.
Literary devices
- Omission
- Hemingway leaves out explanations, including why the husband dies and why Uncle George leaves, in line with his so-called iceberg theory, the idea that what is left unsaid can carry the most weight.
- Irony
- The doctor jokes that fathers are the worst sufferers in these affairs just before he finds the husband dead.
- Understatement
- Flat, simple sentences describe the operation and the suicide, which makes them more shocking.
- Dialogue
- The short exchange between Nick and his father on the walk home carries the story’s questions about death.
- Symbolism
- The lake, the bunks, and the sunrise give physical shape to the passage from innocence toward knowledge.
Important quotes
“But her screams are not important. I don’t hear them because they are not important.”
“Doing a Cæsarian with a jack-knife and sewing it up with nine-foot, tapered gut leaders.”
“He couldn’t stand things, I guess.”
“No, I think it’s pretty easy, Nick. It all depends.”
“he felt quite sure that he would never die.”
The ending of Indian Camp, explained
The last scene moves from the shanty to the lake at sunrise, and from horror to a strange calm. On the walk back, the doctor’s excitement is gone, and he tells Nick he is sorry he brought him. Nick’s questions come in a simple chain: whether women always have such a hard time having babies, why the man killed himself, whether men and women kill themselves, where Uncle George went, and whether dying is hard. His father answers briefly and not always with confidence. He guesses that the husband could not stand things, and he says dying is pretty easy, though it all depends. Then Hemingway gives Nick’s feeling without comment. In the boat, with his father rowing, a bass jumping, and the water warm against the chill of the morning, Nick feels quite sure he will never die. Many readers take this as irony: a boy who has just seen a birth by knife and a suicide retreats into the safety of childhood, his father, and the morning. Others read it as a real, if passing, comfort, with the natural world steadying him after the night. Why the husband kills himself is left open. The text shows a man with a badly cut foot lying in the bunk above his wife, who has been in labor for two days, while an outside doctor calls her screams unimportant and later jokes about the proud father. Some readers see helplessness and shame; others see a man pushed aside in his own home. The story’s treatment of the camp’s people belongs to this debate. They are mostly unnamed, spoken for by others, and cursed by Uncle George, and some critics read the story as quietly exposing that disregard. Uncle George’s disappearance is another open question. Some critics have suggested he is the baby’s father, pointing to the cigars he hands out, but the text never says so, and many readers find the case thin.
Common misreadings
MythThe husband dies from his foot injury.
ActuallyHe cuts his own throat with a razor during the ordeal. The doctor discovers it when he goes to look at him after the birth.
MythNick learns at the end that death is nothing to fear.
ActuallyHis father says only that dying is pretty easy and that it all depends. Nick’s certainty that he will never die is usually read as a child’s comforting feeling, not a lesson learned.
MythThe story makes clear that Uncle George is the baby’s father.
ActuallySome critics have proposed this, but the story never says so. It shows only that he hands out cigars, is bitten during the operation, and is gone by morning.
Test yourself
1. Why is Nick’s father called to the camp?
The young woman has been trying to have her baby for two days, despite the help of the old women of the camp.
2. What does the doctor use for the operation?
He boasts of doing the Caesarean with a jack-knife and sewing it with nine-foot, tapered gut leaders.
3. Who bites Uncle George?
She bites his arm while he helps hold her still during the operation.
4. What does the doctor find when he checks on the husband?
The husband has killed himself with a razor in the upper bunk.
5. How does Nick feel at the end of the story?
In the boat at sunrise, with his father rowing, Nick feels quite sure that he will never die.
Nick is a boy who crosses a lake at night with his father, who is a doctor, and his Uncle George. At a camp, a woman has been trying to have her baby for two days, and it is going very badly. Nick’s father has to operate with a pocketknife and no medicine for the pain, while Nick holds a bowl. A baby boy is born, and Nick’s father is proud of himself. Then they discover that the woman’s husband, who was lying in the bunk above her, has killed himself. On the way home Nick asks his father big questions about life and death. Sitting in the boat at sunrise, Nick feels sure that he will never die.
Flashcards flip, self-grade, and the deck remembers what you know
Nice work.
Compare & connect the story universe
Big Two-Hearted River
An older Nick, alone in the woods, steadies his mind through the routines of camping and fishing.
The Killers
Nick meets violence he cannot fix and struggles to understand a man who has given up.
Soldier’s Home
Another In Our Time story, in which a young man back from the war struggles to talk about what he has been through.
Chickamauga
A small boy wanders into the aftermath of a battle and faces death without fully understanding it.
Discussion & essay prompts for class, or your next paper
💬 Discussion questions
- Why does the husband kill himself in Indian Camp
- What happens to Uncle George in Indian Camp
- What does the ending of Indian Camp mean
- How does Indian Camp explore the theme of birth and death?
- How does Indian Camp explore the theme of initiation?
- What is the central conflict in Indian Camp, and how does it shape the ending?
✎ Essay prompts
- Analyze how Ernest Hemingway develops the theme of birth and death in Indian Camp. Support your argument with specific evidence from the text.
- Examine the significance of the lake crossing in Indian Camp. What does it represent, and how does it deepen the work’s meaning?
- How does Ernest Hemingway use omission to shape the reader’s experience of Indian Camp?
- Some readers assume that the husband dies from his foot injury. Argue for or against this interpretation, using evidence from the text.
Key questions students ask
- Why does the husband kill himself in Indian Camp
- What happens to Uncle George in Indian Camp
- What does the ending of Indian Camp mean
- Why does Nick think he will never die
- How does Nick’s father deliver the baby in Indian Camp
- What is the iceberg theory in Indian Camp
Analysis is original StoryBites commentary. Quotations are from Ernest Hemingway’s Indian Camp as printed in In Our Time (Boni & Liveright, 1925; Wikisource transcription), which is in the public domain in the United States. The story remains under copyright in many countries that protect works for 70 years after the author’s death, so we quote short passages only.