A third person narrator tells the short story Indian camp. It is an omniscient narrator, but the story is getting told from a point of view, where we don’t get a lot of information. We do not really hear how the characters are feeling, so the narrator do not have a lot of inside knowledge. Ernest have done it this way to make is read between the lines, and imagine things ourselves. the point of view is Nick’s perspective, instead of just George, he is called Uncle George (page 15 line 24” Uncle George was standing against the wall”. All the different characters are mostly described by the actions they do. Therefore, the narrator is very objective.
There are two main characters in this text. Nick and his father. Nick is a young boy, we don’t know how old he is but on page 12 line 9-10” Nick lay back with his father’s arm around him” in addition of what we get told Nick’s age is around 10-12. Nick is a very calm boy, and he makes his own decisions. Under the operation of the woman, he decides not to look. He also ask questions about suicide, and death and after having watched and learned about life and death he feels even more secure. Because on page
The father is a doctor, as well as with Nick we do not know a lot about his background. Nevertheless, we can see in the text that he is also a very calm man, and he is very careful and passionate about his job. He tells and teaches Nick many things when they are in the shanty as seen on page 14 line 4-6 where he is describing where she is screaming “ All her muscles are trying to get the baby born. That is why she is screaming”.
There are a few themes in the text. The main theme is growing up. Because Nick is trying to grow up in a way where he sees how the world really is. He is trying to find out what his limits are. Also identity. Nick is trying to find out whom he is. He sees things that kids in his age would never see. So he is getting more mature, he is growing up.
The language and style is very simple, not a lot of things is being described. He do not use many metaphors and of the environment. None of the persons got described. Ernest Hemingway wants us to very few descriptions read in between the lines and use our imagination. There is no slang in text except for one line where Uncle George on page 3, line 35 says “damn squaw bitch”.
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