Complete Opposites-Life and Death

In the reading of “Indian Camp” by Ernest Hemingway, I found it to be a very distinctive story of a little boy, Nick, who traveled with his father. At first I thought this was going to be a story of adventure. It was a story of adventure but in a different way than I expected. This was an adventure of a little boy witnessing both life and death.

Nick was a young boy who accompanied his father on many outings that some would feel not appropriate for young children. Nick’s father must have felt that this experience would be important in the growth and development of his son both mentally and emotionally. As a result of witnessing the Indian woman give birth, Nick was able to see the beauty of life; however he also was able to see the tragedy of death from the Indian mans suicide. Luckily, Nick did not see everything; a few times Nick chose not to look at what his father was doing. Also I think from reading this quote by Hemingway, Nick could have associated life with women and death with men especially when he asked his father, “Do many men kill themselves, Daddy?” followed by “Do many women?” (30).

As for anyone witnessing life and death can be an experience to remember. Nick was like any normal child in asking his father questions about what he had witnessed. His questions were still simple because of his age, but like everyone else what really caught me was when Hemingway made the point of Nick that “…he felt quite sure that he would never die.” (31). My opinion is he thought this because he either cannot see himself taking his own life, he is in denial and does not want to face the fact that one day he will die just as his father and everyone will, or he is still too young and immature to fully understand.

While only about a day has passed, Nick grew more mentally and emotionally than some kids his age would grow in a year. This is nothing but a mere fact of life, numerous births happen everyday just as numerous deaths occur everyday. It is evident that because of this experience Nick has grown up and will continue to grow as he experiences and witnesses more situations. However, it is a strong possibility that as Nick continues these outing with his father, he may grow up too fast and he may not have the opportunity to live a normal childhood.

Sipiora, Phillip. “Indian Camp.” Reading and Writing about Literature. Pearson Education, Inc., 2002. 28-31.