Hemingway's ’Primitivism’ and 'Indian Camp

            Meyers starts his essay with several interpretations that are raised by the critics based on power and its meaning.  The doctor performs an operation to a pregnant woman with a jackknife without an anesthetic and this makes her husband commit suicide.  This makes the suicide become unjustified but did not explain the behavior of the Indians (Jeffrey, 211). 

            This interpretation explains the thesis of the author based on the limitations of the Hemingway criticism during his last years as the same explanation is given by the doctor about the Indian suicide.  This suicide shows the Hemingway’s approach to the prehistoric and his success in showing the account (Jeffrey, 215).

Meyers supports his thesis in that the story reveals the main character that shows his idea, experience and knowledge that he never had.  The doctor in question is has young boy in the North Woods of Michigan and accompanies his father to the Indian camp.  The boy assists his father in holding the woman but turns his neck away.  They discover that the Indian man was dead and Nick asks his father why the man killed himself.  Hi father explains that he could not stand seeing his wife in pain (Jeffrey, 217).

            Although the Indian man could not stand things, there are some other reasons as to why he committed suicide.  Meyers want the readers to understand that the approach of the doctor to the woman and the kind of treatment also were some other factors that caused him dead.  The doctor tells his son that the woman was screaming out of nothing and this makes the Indian man roll over the wall and cuts his throat with a razor (Jeffrey, 220).

Based on the Hemingway’s primitivism, the author is trying to show the difficult aspects of the story that Hemingway did not understand why the Indian stays in the room when the wife is groaning in pain.  He also stays in the room but he feels sympathy with his wife.  Thus the Indian camp shows Hemingway’s primitivism and demonstrates his success in showing it (Jeffrey, 222). 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Work cited

Meyers, Jeffrey. "Hemingway's 'Primitivism' and 'Indian Camp.'" Twentieth Century Literature. 34.2 (1988): 211-222. Print.   

Retrieved from: https://users.hfcc.edu/~pkim/HemingwaysPrimitivismandIndianCamp.pdf