Forget The Legend And Read The Work: Teaching Two Stories By Ernest Hemingway

When first reading Indian Camp, you are hit with a visceral reaction, being forced to witness a caesarean section without any usage of anesthetic. The story pulls at your heart strings, and makes you view Dr. Adams and Uncle George as barbarians’ intent on torturing an indigenous woman in one of the most vulnerable points in her life. However, we must as an audience reread, and dive further into this short story. This in conjunction with reading “Forget the Legend and Read the Work: Teaching Two Stories by Ernest Hemingway” by Margaret Bauer, provides a different picture. In Indian Camp, Ernest Hemingway weaves the tale of Dr. Adams treating a Native American woman in good faith but misjudges the impact the experience will make on his young

Adams wants to show Nick what he does for a living. He wishes to show the courage, heroism, and stoicism of his profession, but ends up showing his young impressionable son more than they all bargained for. Since this encounter was most likely impromptu, Dr. Adams does not have all the necessary tools and medicine for his surgery. He has no anesthetic to offer the woman, and has a jack knife (foldable pocket knife), to make the incision with. The woman is cut open with a dull blade and without any pain killers, leading to unnecessary suffering. This is nothing a young boy should be witnessing. When Nick asks if his father has any anesthetic to offer her, he replies no and “But her screams are not important. I do not hear them because they are not important” (Hemingway 68). To a child this seems sociopathic and cruel, but Margaret Bauer finds “- for had he allowed [screams] to enter his consciousness, he could have lost his concentration and brought death instead of life to both mother and baby” (Bauer 127). Dr. Adams should have explained further in depth what he meant to Nick. Uncle Georges racist outburst of “Damn squaw bitch!” (Hemingway 68), also aids in painting the wrong picture to Nick of what his father and uncle are there to

This is a shocking site to the trio, and this is the moment when the reality of the situation sets in for Dr Adams. Margaret Bauer accurately states, “Dr. Adams may have saved the baby, but a death did occur, and he showed Nick more than he intended…. That loving someone can be so painful that one would take his own life” (Bauer 128). Uncle George recedes to his solitude, and Dr. Adams is forced to have a tough conversation with his confused and traumatized son. This is too much for a child to bear, and Dr. Adams is aware of this stating, “I am terribly sorry I brought you along, Nickie” (Hemingway 69). All the adrenaline Uncle George and Dr. Adams shared during the surgery and “success” have since faded. Not only had Dr. Adams lost the life of an individual, but he scarred his brother and son with his good