Summary of Ernest Hemingway's 'Indian Camp'

Indian Camp is a story written by Ernest Hemingway and is about a boy called Nick, his father, who is a doctor, and his Uncle George.

They are going to see a woman who is in labor on the other side of the river.

They use rowboats to cross the river, Nick and his father in one boat and Uncle George in another. There are two Indians, sitting in the back of the boats, rowing, while Nick, his father and his uncle are sitting in the stern of the boats. They arrive on the other shore where they walk on a logging road to a small village made out of shantys. There is light in one of the first shantys and they can hear a loud screaming voice. They walk inside and see the pregnant woman lying in the lower bunk. It is she who is screaming. In the upper bunk is her husband who is smoking a pipe. Nick’s father is going to perform a caesarean operation on the woman. He orders an old woman, who is nursing the pregnant woman, to heat up some water while he find his tools. He does not have any anesthetics to give the pregnant woman, so both the two Indians and Uncle George hold the woman to the bunk, while the father operates. He uses a jack-knife to cut her stomach open with and tapered gut leaders to sew her back up. When he is done he tells the woman that a nurse is arriving tomorrow and that she is going to be all right. Then he turns to the husband in the upper bunk, who is lying with his face against the wall. He puts his hand on the husbands shoulder but pulls it away quickly. His hand is wet. He takes a lantern and orders George to take Nick outside. However Nick has already seen the razor, the pool of blood and the big cut across the man’s throat. He has commit suicide.