Ernest Hemingway’s collection of short stories, In Our Time, contains many symbols and topics about the future, and more specifically about how events don’t always go as planned. Many of those symbols are expressed in the short stories “Indian Camp,” “The Three Day Blow,” and “Big Two-Hearted River: Part 1.” People may have a plan for their future, but they can never know exactly what’s going to happen is a big theme that is expressed throughout Hemingway’s collection.
One of the first stories, “Indian Camp,” shows how certain events may not go as fluid as people hope. Henry, the father, and Nick, the son, are going to a camp so Henry can deliver a Native American woman’s child. Henry brings Nick along because he expects the operation to be easy and proceed without complications. Henry has to deliver the baby by …show more content…
In the preceding story, Nick broke up with his girlfriend and now he thinks about how “he had once had Marjorie and that he had lost her” (Hemingway 47). In the short story, Nick passes a mirror and he “smiled at the face in the mirror and it grinned back at him. He winked at it and went on. It was not his face but it didn’t make any difference” (Hemingway 45). This action is a symbol for Nick feeling lost and feeling like he won’t be able to get back on the right path, and because of these helpless thoughts he doesn’t try. His despair from losing Marjorie makes him think there is nothing left that’s important: “It was all gone … [Marjorie] was gone and he had sent her away. That was all that mattered” (Hemingway 47). Nick describes his ending relationship like it’s “when the three day blows come ... and rip all the leaves off the trees” (Hemingway 47). Nick thought breaking off his ties with Marjorie would be easier to deal with, but in reality he feels empty just like the trees after they lose their
One of the first stories, “Indian Camp,” shows how certain events may not go as fluid as people hope. Henry, the father, and Nick, the son, are going to a camp so Henry can deliver a Native American woman’s child. Henry brings Nick along because he expects the operation to be easy and proceed without complications. Henry has to deliver the baby by …show more content…
In the preceding story, Nick broke up with his girlfriend and now he thinks about how “he had once had Marjorie and that he had lost her” (Hemingway 47). In the short story, Nick passes a mirror and he “smiled at the face in the mirror and it grinned back at him. He winked at it and went on. It was not his face but it didn’t make any difference” (Hemingway 45). This action is a symbol for Nick feeling lost and feeling like he won’t be able to get back on the right path, and because of these helpless thoughts he doesn’t try. His despair from losing Marjorie makes him think there is nothing left that’s important: “It was all gone … [Marjorie] was gone and he had sent her away. That was all that mattered” (Hemingway 47). Nick describes his ending relationship like it’s “when the three day blows come ... and rip all the leaves off the trees” (Hemingway 47). Nick thought breaking off his ties with Marjorie would be easier to deal with, but in reality he feels empty just like the trees after they lose their