Native Americans example essay topic

Ernest Hemingway attempts to describe the interactions of white Americans and Native Americans in his short story "Indian Camp". By closely reading this short story using a Postcolonialist approach, a deeper understanding of the colonization and treatment of the Native Americans by the white Americans can be gained. Hemingway uses an almost allegorical story as he exposes the injustices inflicted by the white oppressors through his characters. Through his characters Hemingway expresses the traits of the colonizer and the colonized.

Nick embodies innocence, the Doctor represents dismissal or denial, and George represents oppression. The nameless natives in the story juxtapose the white characters highlighting traits such as loss of identity, inability to properly cope with colonization, and fear of extinction. Ernest Hemingway grew up on the outer banks of Michigan, a section of the country with extensive integration of Native Americans and whites. Hemingway's short story expresses actual events that he witnessed in his everyday life.

The story contains several biographical parallels to Hemingway's life as his father was a physician who often took young Ernest fishing at a camp in the Michigan woods similar to the one in his story (244). Because of these obvious biographical parallels, Hemingway has an understanding that enables him to write in a postcolonial fashion. Postcolonialism originated in 1970. It "piggy backed" on the already existent study of African American literature. Postcolonialism quickly progressed and now encompasses literature from any culture that has been oppressed or colonized. Postcolonialist critics attempt to view the limited views and biases of colonial ized countries.

They continue to analyze a colonized culture and examine it in a manner of different ways: the culture that existed before the; the culture that exists after the colonization; and the hybrid creations of the two (Bressler 268). By using Postcolonialism Hemingway is able to create characters that represent the features manifested in a colonized society. Hemingway uses Nick's character to embody untainted innocence. Hemingway wanted to portray the cruel treatment of the Native American's in a way that would substantially impact his readers.

What better way to portray the cruel punishment than through the eyes of an innocent child. Previously unexposed to the injustices of life, Nick's journey to the Indian camp is his initiation into adulthood. Nick is able to view this New World with fresh ideas. His na " ive and inexperienced mind recognizes the cruel and unwarranted white treatment of the Native Americans. It is important that Nick be the narrator, and bearer of bad news to the audience, so the audience can endure as Nick discovers the wrongs subjected upon the Native Americans. The readers are horrified just as Nick is as he witnesses the labor and birth of the squaw woman, the actions of George, and the suicide of the Native American man.

Nick is the only character in the story that expresses any kind of remorse or empathy for the tribe: "Oh, Daddy, can't you give her something to make her stop screaming?" (240). Provided by Hemingway, the Doctor is representative of the colonizer's mentality for denying and dismissing their unconscionable actions forced upon the Native American culture. Throughout the story the white characters exemplify the altitude of insignificance toward the Native Americans. The Doctor dismisses the pains of the Native American woman while she is in labor when he says, "No. I haven't any anaesthetic. But her screams are not important.

I don't hear them because they are not important" (240). The Doctor fails to validate the screams of this Native American woman. He continues to scoff at her when he performs her caesar ian section in a barbaric and savage manner, "That's one for the medical journal, George. Doing a caesar ian with a jack-knife and sewing it up with nine-foot, tapered gut leaders... ".

(241). The Doctor doesn't even have the common courtesy to use the proper tools as he performs her surgery. Hemingway holds these two actions by the Doctor as representative of the colonizer's mentality. The colonizer would not recognize the cruel harsh reality he was thrusting onto another culture. Egocentric, colonizers viewed themselves as a dominant and superior culture.

This notion is crucial to the actions exhibited by the Doctor. He denies that there is anything wrong with the squaw woman and he continues to perform the surgery using mid-evil techniques that he would never exercise upon a white (247). Hemingway uses George as a key character in this story to embody the oppressive traits of the white colonizers. As the three, Nick, George, and the Doctor, first arrive at the camp, George is passing out cigars. This is an awkward implication because it is appropriate for cigars to be passed out at a new birth by a father, but George should not be the father. Although it is never explicitly stated that George is the father of the squaw woman's child, it is heavily implied.

While the woman is in labor George is pacing back and forth in angst instead of the Native American man who is supposedly the father-to-be. The Doctor makes a reference to the squaw woman's husband when he says, "Ought to have a look at the proud father. They " re usually the worst sufferers in these little affairs" (241). The irony of this statement is that he is not the father, and that is why he is not participating in the birth or agonizing over her labor. Hemingway uses George in this type of predicament to imply that white society "screwed" the Native American society.

In addition to the illegitimate father, Hemingway designates George to the larger role as representing the entire American "white" population. George is the stereotypical colonizer who does what he wants with the Native American tribe, and he does not give them the respect they deserve. His name is representative of the ultimate American culture. The name "George" was chosen to resemble "George Washington" the first American president, who was, like Hemingway's George, a colonizer (248).

Created by Hemingway, a motif is emphasized throughout the story in which the Native Americans experience a loss of their true identity, and adopt the white ideologies. The Native Americans have given their sense of self to another culture and have become mindless individuals. As the story begins, Nick's father, the Doctor, wants to expose Nick to the experience of birth. He wants Nick to help him deliver a baby at an Indian tribe.

In order to reach the tribe, located at an island across the bank, they must take a canoe. Several Native Americans, who automatically start canoeing, man the canoe. "The Indians rowed with quick choppy strokes", drone like the Native Americans row the white men across the lake (239). The Doctor and George had a predetermined notion that the Indians would row the boat. As the boat approaches the shore, Nick views the lights of the tribe, but refers to the Native Americans as bark-peelers, "Ahead were the lights of the shanties where the bark-peelers lived" (240). This derogatory term refers to someone who works in a lumberyard, particularly the men and women of the tribe who work for the white man in a lumber mill (244).

Again, they have been coerced into doing something that is not native to their culture, but to the white European culture. Originally, Native Americans did activities that were instinctual and necessary to their survival, which did not include making lumber for paper, houses, or other material items. In fact, this notion goes against everything their culture strive d to protect. They viewed Mother Nature as a sacred earth that should be respected, and they betrayed or went against their own beliefs because of white colonization.

Trying to cope with the stresses of being colonized, the Native Americans participate in a passive aggressive attack upon the white culture. After reaching the camp Nick goes with his father into a house to deliver the baby of a Native American woman. The woman is having birthing difficulties because the baby is turned in a breach position. The woman is in excruciating pain and Uncle George is asked to assist with the birth.

As George holds the woman's hand she bites him on the wrist, "She bit Uncle George on the arms and Uncle George said, 'Damn squaw bitch!' and the young Indian who had rowed Uncle George over laughed at him" (241). In this short statement Hemingway is able to express two different passive aggressive techniques used by the oppressed natives. The woman is angry with George for impregnating her or "colonizing" her, and her only insurgent reaction is to bite him on the hand. The Indian man who rowed George over merely laughs.

After all the ill treatment and disrespect they have been given, the members of the tribe don't wage war. They purge their anger through small incidences that temporarily inconvenience the white man, but certainly don't hinder his overbearing actions. Hemingway includes in his short story the Native American's own fear of extinction, by providing the image of a Native American man committing suicide. The man was the intended father of the squaw woman in labor, but clearly not the biological father.

In an act of shame and humiliation the husband crawls onto the top bunk while his wife is in labor and slits his throat. Hemingway uses this image to indicate that the Native American tribes were a dying breed. The tribes were on a downward spiral across the nation. At the time this was written Native American tribes on the East Coast had completely disappeared as a result of the white colonization. Hemigway's horrific image further emphasizes and highlights the preeminence of the colonization of the Native Americans (247). Whether this short story was an attempt to describe childhood experiences or the persecution of the Native Americans, Hemingway wrote a riveting short encounter that captivates the readers' minds and highlights the injustices inflicted on a Native American culture.

It is clear through the story that colonized cultures often encounter a loss of identity, and adopt a different one that is bestowed on them from the dominant or parent colonizer. The oppressed have to deal with demeaning and difficult situations, but by educating readers and characterizing the wrongs, Hemingway opts for changes in the future. Hemingway paved the way for social change of Native Americans in a time that was lacking it.