Hemingway uses a narrative technique called “in media res”, opening the story from the midpoint of events with dramatic action, grabbing the readers curiosity, provoking intrigue and making us to wish to know what happens. The reader is being walked into a situation, to become a witness of it.
In “Indian Camp” the starting point of the story is a situation where Indians in the middle of the night hurry to deliver a doctor to one sick Indian woman and the narrative perspective of the story is through the eyes of the child. In this story we see a child at a tender age, being introduced to the cruelty of real life. His father, who does not even have a name, but is called “Daddy”, takes little Nick into a life journey – to enlighten him about the professional side of being a doctor. Thought Nick is not mentally ready yet for this, he obeys his father without argument, knowing it is a necessary thing to be done. We see the indifferent attitude of his father to the young woman in labor, with no wish to reduce her suffering. She is more like an object, on which he must perform the professional work. And he teaches this principle to his son, with his calm actions and words like: “Her screams are not important. I don`t hear them, because they are not important” meaning – when you will do the operation, you must forget about your feelings and concentrate on what must be done, to do your work the best. He also demonstrates his professionalism by washing his hands very thoroughly and asking Uncle George to pull back a quilt, so he would not touch it to keep his hands clean.
Though he does everything according to the rules, he did not take any proper materials with him. As an experienced