"Indian Camp" is a short story written by Ernest Hemingway and was published in 1925 in Paris, when he was 26 years old. It’s a short story and is about 5 pages long, but because Hemingway uses the iceberg principle a lot of things happens, and you have to think through them all. The story is about a young boy called Nick who faces both life and death in one night, when he visits the Indian camp with his father and his uncle to help an Indian woman who has been in painful labor for days. The main theme is that the short story shows the contrast in Indian camp between life and death and the psychological effect it has on Nick.
Nick is the main character, and he is a young curios boy without that much knowledge of life. We can see that during the story he asks a lot of questions from his father. “Do ladies always have such a hard time having babies?' Nick asked. 'No, that was very, very exceptional.' 'Why did he kill himself, Daddy?' I don't know, Nick. He couldn't stand things, I guess.' 'Do many men kill themselves, Daddy?' 'Not very many, Nick.' 'Do many women?' 'Hardly ever.' 'Don't they ever?' 'Oh, yes. They do sometimes.' 'Daddy?' 'Yes.' 'Where did Uncle George go?' 'He'll turn up all right.' 'Is dying hard, Daddy?' 'No, I think it's pretty easy, Nick. It all depends.” (s. 3, ll. 30-33) (s. 4, ll. 1-12).