THE IMPORTANCE OF UNDERSTANDING OTHERS: A REFLECTION PAPER ON “INDIAN CAMP”


Author: Kahona

A first-year student / English Reading Skills II

This article was granted permission for publication on February 10, 2023.


In “English Reading Skills II,” I learned that ‘Indian Camp’ criticizes imperialist ideology by showing Nick’s father’s unconscious stereotype of Indians. However, in my opinion, by showing Nick’s involvement with others in contrast to his father, the author criticizes people who distinguish themselves and others and conveys the importance of understanding each other.


‘Indian Camp’ criticizes imperialist ideology by depicting Nick’s father’s unconscious racial stereotypes of Indians. In the text, when Nick’s father said, “Her screams are not important. I don’t hear them because they are not important" (Hemingway 2), it can be read that Nick’s father does not consider the screams of the Indian women necessary. Moreover, this indifference to patients’ pain is related to the primitivism believed in the USA at the time, which claimed that uncivilized Indian people had no sense of pain (Takano 7). In other words, Nick’s father’s indifference to his patient’s pain was based on his own racial stereotyping of the Indian. Therefore, by depicting such a character, the author argued for a critique of primitivism and racial stereotypes.


By depicting Nick in opposition to his father, this novel emphasizes the importance of understanding others while criticizing the distinction between others and self. In the text, as opposed to Nick’s father, Nick is portrayed as a person who approaches others and tries to understand them. For example, in response to the Indian woman’s pain, he asks his father, ‘Oh, Daddy, can’t you give her something to make her stop screaming?’ (Hemingway 2). This shows that Nick is interested in other people and tries to understand them, which is different from his father. In addition, those interested in others affect his opinion of human life. At the end of the story, it said, “he felt quite sure that he would never die.”. Based on his experiences of having witnessed the death of a man and the birth of a baby, these words can be read as Nick’s belief that the cycle of life and death is eternally repeated in nature (Takano 16). This means that Nick does not separate himself from others, but sees them as a link in the chain of nature. Therefore, by depicting Nick, the author was trying to convey the importance of not making a distinction between the other and oneself, as in imperialist ideology, but of having an attitude of trying to understand each other.


In conclusion, I found that ‘Indian Camp’ criticizes the imperialist ideology and conveys the importance of understanding each other by depicting Nick’s father and Nick, respectively. 


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