The first three short stories that I've assigned deal with the central character experiencing an epiphany. Reread Indian Camp, Araby and Soldiers Home.
Articulate your own themes.
Be original by developing your own ideas- not ones found haphazardly on the internet or, God forbid, a book.
Once you have developed your themes, compare the theme of any two of the stories.
Please note that posting expectations have been outlined in the April 2006 post, Welcome.
These short stories can be found on the course website.
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A common theme found in the short stories “Araby” by James Joyce and “Indian Camp” by Ernest Hemingway is the growing up of a young, innocent child. In both stories, a youthful boy comes to a realization in his life and at this point he makes the transition into being a young adult while at the same time losing the innocence he has had his whole life. By the end of the two short stories, both Hemingway’s and Joyce’s protagonists understand something that they did not at the beginning; the concepts of mortality and vanity respectively.
By the end of the second paragraph of “Indian Camp”, we already have a general idea of the main character, including a sense of his youthful innocence. “Nick lay back with his father’s arm around him.” (15) Nick’s reliance and trust in his father is shown in the fact that he is laying in his arm. Near the end of the story Nick begins questioning life and death, at the same time wondering which direction his is going in. “Is dying hard, Daddy?” (19) All of Nick’s inquiries regarding death help him understand this new concept and allow him to begin his evolution into a more mature person.
The protagonist in “Araby” becomes infatuated with a girl and is completely transfixed by mere conversation with her. “When she addressed the first words to me I was so confused that I did not know what to answer.” (17) He then proceeds to make arrangements to buy her something at the bazaar, showing his efforts to impress a girl whose name he is still oblivious to. His realization comes when it finally dawns on him how foolish he was to put all of the faith he had into a girl because she was pretty. “Gazing up into the darkness I saw myself as a creature driven and derided by vanity; and my eyes burned with anguish and anger.” (19) He can no longer stand to think of himself and the way he would act around pretty girls, seeing himself purely motivated by looks and nothing else. This is his point of realization where he no longer has a childish view of the world, but a more educated and experienced one.
With both protagonists having experienced a life-altering event, they now continue life with a much more mature approach. Although their youthful purity has been tarnished, their minds are now able to see the “bigger picture” much easier and therefore they have a firmer grasp on the harsh reality of life.
Experiencing an Epiphany
No matter a persons age, race, height, or intelligence, there comes a point in every lifetime when one is able to comprehend something about themselves or the world around them that is so vast it can only be described as an epiphany. Such is the case when reading Indian Camp, written by Ernest Hemingway, as well as Araby, written by James Joyce. These two stories tell of two young boys both having a renewed sense of the life they lead.
The young boy present in Indian Camp is Nick, who tags along with his father to help a woman across the lake deliver her child. Experiencing childbirth is not easy for fathers in the 21st century, and Nick is observing this in his early youth, “What she is going through is called being in labor” (16). In addition to witnessing a life being born that day, Nick also saw the father of the baby commit suicide. Suicide is a lot for a person to handle, so it is especially complicated for Nick’s father to answer the questions his son is asking about life and death, “Do ladies always have such a hard time having babies?” as well as, “Do many men kill themselves, Daddy”(19)? Nick is very curious; he is going through a life changing event and wants answers.
The main character in Araby is probably well into his early teens and is infatuated with Mangan’s sister, prototypically “the girl next door”. He cannot breathe without thinking of her, and cannot sleep without dreaming of her, and when she speaks he is at a loss for words, “When she addressed the first words to me I was so confused that I did not know what to answer”(17). He does however, manage to let her know that he will go to the bazaar and bring her something back because she cannot accompany him. He then goes to the bazaar and realizes that there is nothing there that he wants to give her. He then becomes conscious to the fact that he could never really give her the perfect gift; he does not even know her first name, “I knew my stay was useless…I saw myself as a creature driven and derided by vanity…” (19) The boy now understands more about himself and why he does what he does.
In both stories both the main characters had revelations to undergo and they both learned from them, about life and about love.
Nick, Meet Krebs (You Two Aren’t That Different Are You?)
Though several years apart, Krebs and Nick are very similar characters. In Earnest Hemmingway’s two short stories, "Indian Camp" and "Soldier’s Home", both of the protagonists go through a loss of innocence, which is displayed through the events that unfold around them. Though unavoidable, their loss of innocence is an important learning process that all humans will go through, whether they are youth, or young adults.
In "Indian Camp", Nick and his father were thrown into an unfortunate situation where an Indian woman was in labor, and she needed to have a caesarean section preformed on her immediately. Instantly, Nick is thrown into a whole new world where he learns the hardships of life. Firstly, Nick has to bear witness to the screams of pain of the mother in labor. When Nick immediately asked his father, “Oh, Daddy, can’t you give her something to make her stop screaming,” (16). He was told that his father had no anesthetic on him, and he would have to endure the screams of the woman in pain. Secondly, Nick also witnessed the gruesome hardships of death. After the woman had given birth to the child, the supposed father of the child has selfishly taken his life. At this age, Nick should not have had to observe a man slit his throat and see the shocking aftermath of the ordeal. Nick clearly saw that “His throat had been cut from ear to ear,” (18), and that, “The blood had flowed down into a pool where his body sagged the bunk,” (18). Nick had now seen the hardships of death and his innocence is lost. In addition, Nick now continues to ask his father questions about death when he asks, “Do many men kill themselves, Daddy,” (19) and, “Is dying hard, Daddy?” (19). With the previous quotes, it is clear that Nick’s innocence has been lost, and even though he is so young, he has experienced some of life’s harsh realities.
Even though Krebs is much older than Nick, in "Soldier’s Home", the two characters are not actually as different as one thinks. Krebs loss of innocence was also forced upon him when he joined the army. Like Nick, one can assume that Krebs had to endure the painful screams of many of his allies on the battlefield, witness death in the blink of an eye, and then ask why it all happened. The short story does not directly relate to, or even mention Krebs’ experiences on the battlefield, but one can assume by the way he is acting that he is distressed. In addition, his parents are being ignorant of what their son went through. They are telling him to go out and get a job because she “knows the temptations [he] must have been exposed to,”(4). She then adds that his father thinks he has “lost [his] ambition,” (4). On top of that, as compensation they are letting him take the car out in the evenings. If that was not enough, they are encouraging Krebs to go out and find a girlfriend! His mother claimed, “If you want to take some of the nice girls out riding with you, we are only too pleased,” (4). While Krebs is clearly in no state of mind to be doing such acts, his mother and father are being ignorant of his state of mind. Krebs is in emotional distress because he no longer has clear thoughts. Like many others who served in the war, he has been traumatized by the amount of death. Like the Indian woman’s screams, Krebs listened to the screams of his allies as many of them died on the battlefield.
It is evident that Nick and Krebs both are very similar characters, and their situations were also similar. Though they were at two different extremes, the context of witnessing death, and the suffering of others simply adds on to their loss of innocence. Krebs had to watch his friends die on the battlefield, and Nick had to witness the selfish suicide of an Indian man. With this evidence, one can see how the theme of losing ones innocence is evident in "Indian Camp" and "Soldier’s Home".
From child to man
The short stories “Indian Camp” written by Ernest Hemingway, and “Araby” written by James Joyce both have a conjoint theme of maturing into a young man in the harsh and complex real world. Both stories have juvenile protagonists who are very naïve and inexperienced in the harsh and unforgiving world. Both youths experience an epiphany when they come to realize that life is a lot more complex then they once thought. In the end of both stories the protagonists evolve into young men and have a new sense of the real world.
In the story “Indian Camp” the young protagonist Nick is expressed as a very naïve and vain character “Oh, Daddy, can’t you give her something make her stop screaming?”(16). Nick’s lack of mature thinking is highlighted in this quote because he does not understand the whole situation and what other people are going through. At the end of the story Nick starts questioning life and his existence, “Is dying hard, Daddy?”(19) and “He felt quite sure that he would never die”(19), Nicks questions and thought’s are the beginning of a new level of maturity for him. Nick has now evolved into a more mature and less naïve youth.
The protagonist in “Araby” is understood as a young boy in his very early teens, and has a new found love with Mangan’s sister. He is so infatuated with her looks that he waits every morning at his door for her to come out, “Every morning I lay on the floor in the front parlor watching her door”(16). The main character is so mesmerized by her looks that he feels he cannot take his eyes off of her. His infatuation does not dawn on him until he is at a bazaar about to buy something for the girl who’s name he does not even know, “I saw myself as a creature driven and derided by vanity; and my eyes burned with anguish and anger”(19). He no longer has that innocent and youthful view of the world. He now realizes that he was only infatuated with her looks and he did not even know her name or anything about her. His realization is the point where his maturity overcomes his youthfulness and he is now a young man.
The epiphany’s of both protagonists has a lifelong reaction on their level of maturity. Even though their youthful innocence is deceased, they can now see the world and its harsh reality. They are now the mature young men in the harsh real world.
A Loss of Innocence, a Gain in Strength
For many individuals there is a moment when they have come to a realization that changes their views about life. For many, this time comes when they notice that the world they live in is not as simple as it once seemed. This can be observed through heartbreak, death, or even, injustice. In the short stories Indian Camp and Soldier’s Home, both written by Ernest Hemingway, the main characters experiences a loss of innocence and comes to a heightened awareness about their lives.
In the story Indian Camp, Nick is a young boy who is excited to set out on an adventure with his dad. However, what awaits him at the camp is shocking and far too hard for a child to understand. Nick’s father has to perform a caesarian on an Indian woman whose pain is unbearable, “Oh Daddy, can’t you give her something to make her stop screaming?” (16) Although Nick is too young to fully understand what the woman is going through, he is scared for her. The process of childbirth has made Nick anxious and the excitement that he had when he began his trip has disappeared, “Nick did not watch. His curiosity had been gone for a long time.” (17) The screams of the Indian woman pierced Nick’s ears and gave him his first insight to an unfortunate reality of life. The father of the newborn was then found dead in his bunk, “His throat had been cut from ear to ear,” (18) an act of suicide that brought Nick to disbelief. Although Nick did not see the man cut his throat, he saw enough to make him question the man’s motive for committing such an act, “Why did he kill himself, Daddy?” (19) Nick had observed two situations that caused him to ask complicated questions, “Is dying hard, Daddy?” (19) which are too difficult to explain to a young child. In this way, Nick lost his clear and innocent mind and now has a more mature view on life.
In the story Soldier’s Home, the main character, Krebs, is similar to Nick. Krebs is a young adult veteran who has just returned from Europe after spending military time in the war. Upon his return, he had lost his motivation and ambition. The harsh realities of war were still fresh in his mind, “[…] He had been badly, sickeningly frightened all the time. In this way he lost everything.” (70) His remembrance of how terrified he was made him feel weak. Once home, Krebs ignored his responsibilities, “But you are going to have to settle down to work, Harold.” (74) This made his mother worried. His job at war was to kill people, and although he was a hero to his country, he had seen and done too much to ever fully return unchanged. Krebs’ innocence was left somewhere among the dead bodies on the battlefield. He learned the harsh truth that with life comes death, and the world continues to go on even though one is frozen in the past. Krebs refuses to continue on with his life and feels that he cannot be with God, “I’m not in his Kingdom.” (75) Krebs had to grow up among the bombs and trenches and the result of this was an inner strength; the ability to remember the past with a mature mind.
Nick and Krebs both witnessed events that caused them to become aware of life’s realities. These characters went through horrifying situations that will forever scar them. They reflect real human beings and real human situations that result in a loss of innocence. For Nick and Krebs, and individuals alike, they grew up and lost their pure minds, but gained a strong intellectual understanding of life.
Loss of Innocence
For every person, there is a distinct moment throughout the course of their life that may change they way they treat the rest of their existence. This realization, in most cases, results in a loss of youthful innocence. For this individual, the world becomes a place that is vastly different than the one they are used to. Because of this, they tend to live out certain events and behave in a way that is not typical of their behavior. In the short stories, Araby and Soldier’s Home, the main characters live out experiences that are life changing, and ultimately result in their loss of innocence.
In Araby, the plot follows a young boy as he experiences his loss of innocence. In the beginning of the story, the reader is introduced to the main character while he still possesses youthful purity. He is out at night, playing a game with his friend, “The cold air stung us and we played till our bodies glowed. Our shouts echoed in the silent street”(15), revealing to the reader that he has a childlike sense of entertainment. Following this, he discovers what it is to be completely and utterly infatuated with a person, “I had never spoken to her, except for a few casual words, and yet her name was like a summons to all my foolish blood”(16), indicating what would be the beginning of his loss of innocence. The particular life changing moment, for the young boy, comes in the form of an epiphany, “Gazing up into the darkness I saw myself as a creature driven and derided by vanity; and my eyes burned with anguish and anger.”(19). In this, the main character discovers how shallow a person he truly is and realizes he does not even know the name of the girl he claims to have such strong feelings for. It is through these incidents that the main character is able to lead the reader through the events that ultimately change his life.
In the case of Soldier’s Home, the reader meets the main character, Krebs, when he is already past the point in his life that changes him as a person. Krebs’ loss of innocence comes as a result of being in the war. When he returns home late from the war he does not get the hero’s welcome he deserves, “Now the reaction had set in. People seemed to think it was rather ridiculous for Krebs to be getting back so late, years after the war was over”(1), and on top of this, he is still suffering deeply from the effects of the war. Because Krebs loses a great deal of his youth to the war, he bypasses the experiences most youths have the ability to take part in. An example of this would be his incapability to connect with, and understand the opposite sex, “He did not want them themselves really. They were too complicated. There was something else. Vaguely he wanted a girl but he did not want to have to work to get her.”(2). Finally, the change in Krebs’ life, as a result of his loss of innocence, is best portrayed when he expresses the fact that he does not love anyone, “‘Yes. Don’t you love your mother dear boy?’ ‘No,’ Krebs said. His mother looked at him across the table. Her eyes were shiny, she started crying. ‘I don’t love anybody,’ Krebs said.”(4). This particular moment is quite effective in presenting the way that Krebs has been incredibly influenced by his time in the war, and the way that this certain influence has taking over every aspect of his life. Krebs’ entire life has been changed and is effected by of his loss of innocence.
The main characters of these two short stories have been through experiences that have taken away their youth and innocence. Both characters have been affected by specific circumstances that have changed their lives entirely. Through the short story, Araby, the reader is exposed to the kind of events that can lead to a loss of innocence, and through Soldier’s Home the reader can realize the outcome of a loss of innocence. When one loses their youthful imagination and tendencies they are forced to adapt to a new kind of world that they are unfamiliar with. It is the kind of situation that will change a person’s life forever.
Is hope real?
The main characters in the short stories, “Araby” by James Joyce and “Soldier’s Home” by Ernest Hemingway, are given a hope of having their desires come true. The stories bring out their struggles to keep those hopes alive. By the end, both of the characters have an epiphany and discover that their hopes were for nothing. A common theme in both books is false hope.
In “Araby”, the main character is first given hope when Mangan’s sister starts to talk to him about the bizarre called Araby. At the end of this conversation the main character has a hope that he can impress her, “If I go,’ I said, ‘I will bring you something” (Joyce 17). The main character thinks he can impress Mangan’s sister with a trinket from a bizarre neither of them have been to. It was this small thoughtful intention that would change his life.
While at the bizarre the main character sees two men talking to a young lady. He watches them and he finds that what they are doing is not different from what he is doing for Mangan’s sister. After this epiphany, the main character realizes that what he is doing is not worth it and that he was under control by an emotion that was not him, “Gazing up into the darkness I saw myself as a creature driven and derided by vanity; and my eyes burned with anguish and anger” (Joyce 19). It was through this epiphany that the main character realized that he was instilled with a false hope.
In “Soldier’s Home”, Krebs comes back from the war and hopes for a simple and smooth life. After he got home from the war, he lied about the battles he was in, and he decided he was never going to lie again. All Krebs wanted to do was live his life and not worry about anything else, “He did not want any consequences. He did not want any consequences ever again” (Hemingway 2). As He lived his life he noticed that things were missing and he filled them just like any other person would.
One day while he was eating breakfast, his mother wanted to talk to him. During the talk his mother made him lie and he discovered that he would never have his hope come true, “He wanted his life to go smoothly. It had just gotten going that way. Well, that was all over now, anyway” (Hemingway 5). Through this epiphany Krebs discovers that he would never live a simple life, like he wanted, but a complicated life that is forced on to him by other people. Through this epiphany Krebs’ hope of a simple life proved false.
In both short stories, the main characters were first instilled with a hope. As the stories progressed they both had an epiphany that proved their hopes false. These short stories share a common theme of false hope.
The epiphany of life and death.
In life, there are the processes of being born, living your life, and death. This is the theme of life. All three of these concepts are portrayed by the protagonists in both “Araby” and “Indian Camp”. In “Araby”, the protagonist begins to understand life, as he lives it and finds out that it is not always perfect. In “Indian Camp”, Nick experiences a death, and begins to question what it is to live, and what it is to die.
The narrator of “Araby” discovers what it is to live. He experiences real emotions that he has never experienced before. In particular, his epiphany of life comes from the emotion of love. The love that he feels with Mangan’s sister puts him in his own fantasy world. In his thoughts, he is taken away by her beauty. “I kept her brown figure always in my eye and, when we came near the point at which our ways diverged, I quickened my pace and passed her.” (16) His thoughts allowed him to believe that going to Araby to purchase a gift for her would make all of his dreams come true. His epiphany is evident when he comes to a realization that purchasing her a gift would not make anything that he thought come true. The narrator begins to feel depressed at his realization of life, and how cruel it can be. “Gazing up into the darkness I saw myself as a creature driven and derided by vanity; and my eyes burned with anguish and anger.” (19) The life that the narrator had created for himself was completely changed into a life that he has never experienced before.
The protagonist, Nick of “Indian Camp” was very inexperienced when dealing with the subject of life. Nick is very young, and did not understand what it is to live, and to die. He was very oblivious to life and death before he actually witnessed a death. “Nick, standing in the door of the kitchen, had a good view of the upper bunk when his father, the lamp in one hand, tipped the Indian’s head back.” (18) Seeing the husband of the mother who gave birth kill himself made Nick experience an epiphany. His epiphany was that humans can indeed experience death just as easily as one can be born. After Nick experiences his epiphany, he begins to question his father about life and death. “Why did he kill himself, Daddy?” (19) He becomes very curious about the subject, because it is his first time experiencing it. He wants to figure out why men kill themselves, and how hard dying is. “Is dying hard, Daddy?” (19) Experiencing this epiphany changed Nick’s life and the way he thinks about it.
Life and death are both harsh realizations at one point in life. In “Araby”, the narrator comes to a realization about life by living it and finding out how life can be cruel emotionally. In “Indian Camp”, Nick finds out how life can be cruel physically because of a witnessed suicide. Both of these events lead these characters to reshape what they thought about life and death. The experience of realizing what life and death are is something that all humans share.
[Sorry sir I dont know what happened to my first comment I think I deleted it by accident]
Lies... An Escape From Reality
In Ernest Hemingway's “Soldier's Home”, we are introduced to Harold Krebs, an American and former marine who fought in Germany during World War I and is traumatized by all the misery and suffering he witnessed while serving his country. In James Joyce's “Araby”, we meet a boy who leads a peaceful life attending Christian Brothers' School in a quiet and peaceful neighborhood in England. Two boys from two different countries who lived during different periods of time but who also share a most common human flaw: they lie to themselves to escape from reality and to become more than who they really are.
Harold Krebs, who fought overseas during The Great War, is returned to the States a different man, robbed of his innocence and overwhelmed by the thought of lost years, Krebs tries to escape reality by lying about what really happened during his stay in Germany, “Krebs found that to be listened to at all he had to lie” (1). Him lying, is no more than a scream for attention due to the fact that after coming back from war, he was left feeling like an outsider who no one would listen to, “His town had heard too many atrocity stories to be thrilled by actualities” (1). By lying about the war Krebs is desperately trying to convince himself that what he experienced was not as terrifying than it really was, “When he occasionally met another man who had really been a soldier and they talked a few minutes in the dressing room at a dance he fell into the easy pose of the old soldier among other soldiers: that he had been badly, sickeningly frightened all the time. In this way he lost everything” (1). After sometime, Krebs comes to the realization that he was not and had not done what he told people he did but most importantly, that he had been truly hurt and had not recuperated from his frightening experience, “All of the times that had been able to make him feel cool and clear inside himself when he thought of them; the times so long back when he had done the one thing, the only thing for a man to do, easily and naturally, when he might have done something else, now lost their cool, valuable quality and then were lost themselves” (1). Harold wanted to convince himself that war is not as horrible than it really is by lying to himself.
In the short story “Araby” by James Joyce, we meet a young boy who lives in North Richmond Street, a low-class neighborhood in England. At the beginning of the story, the boy describes the setting as a cold, uninviting, dark, and lonely place to live. The only time when atmosphere of the street seems to lose that unwelcoming feeling, at least from the boy's perspective, is when Mangan's sister comes out to call his little brother in for tea. She becomes the central point of attention of the story and it then becomes obvious the little boy seems to think his feelings for her are real, this is basically the point when reality ends and the fantasy this boy creates in his mind begins. He says that “Her name was like a summons to all my foolish blood” (16). And yet he has never talked to her more than a few casual words, he makes many references to the way she looks, her figure, hair and gestures, “Her dress swung as she moved her body and the soft rope of her hair tossed from side to side” (16). He makes many more references about her physical attributes, but it is not possible to quote him commenting on her intelligence and by the end of the story it becomes clear he does not even know her name. The fact is the boy never really realized until the very end of the story how he really felt about Mangan's sister. The reason as to why he could not realize this sooner was simply because of the fact that he was trying to make her into someone she was not, he never realized that he did not really know who she was because he had fooled himself into believing that his image of her was the accurate.
In the end, two characters from different stories taking place in different periods of time and in different parts of the world, both obtain a new and better understanding about life because they learn that life is not always what you hope for, and that all the problems you are expected to overcome in life have to be dealt with and cannot be ignored or made into something they are not. Lies... are not more than an escape from reality.
A Boy Turns into a Man
In both short stories “Araby” by James Joyce and “Indian Camp” by Ernest Hemingway, the two young characters seem to be going through a journey to understand what life is all about. Understanding life is almost saying to grow up, because when thought about, children don’t understand life and its complexity. Instead it’s very simple and easy going for them. The theme is very simple to see, its based on manhood/maturity.
In the story Araby, the young boy seems infatuated by his friend Mangan’s sister. He is so obsessed by the idea of her that he would be willing to go and wait by her door until she left for school, “every morning I lay on the floor in the front parlour watching her door” (16), he seemed like he actually knew her to do so much as to waiting there just to walk in her footsteps. This shows a sense of childhood, a mature young man would not devote so much time just to stand and watch someone who probably doesn’t know your name, and certainly you don’t know hers. He seemed to be in love with her, but was fooling himself about it, he constantly thought about her, “her image accompanied me even in the places the most hostile to romance” (16), even in times that lovers don’t think about each other as much, he would about her. He approached her one time about going to the bazaar and she had told him she couldn’t so he tried comforting her, “if I go, I will bring you something” (17). A child would be about the only person who would tell someone they would purchase something, without knowing you. At the end when he finally did attend the bazaar he thought about what to get her, and it seemed as if he entered the real world when he went to the bazaar, realizing he doesn’t need to buy a girl something to get her affection and interest. It would also help him if he knew his “loved one”.
The next short story Indian Camp was a trip to a camp for Nick with his father, a doctor, and his uncle. His father was to go and help an Indian woman with the difficulties she was having while in labor. She was known to be having a breech birth and couldn’t deliver naturally, so to perform a healthy birth, the doctor needed to do a caesarian. While the woman was in pain, she was screaming very loudly and for a while, Nick didn’t like hearing her screaming, “Oh, daddy, cant you give her something to make her stop screaming?” (16), he seemed very uncomfortable and is known that a child would say such a thing, in such a manner. His father wanted Nick to see the miracles of life and mature by seeing something many children do not see, “he was looking away so as not to see what his father was doing” (17). Nick looked away and avoided looking at a woman in such great pain and in such a state. He most likely felt like it wasn’t his place to be and to see such something like that. Even if Nick avoided watching his father do the caesarian, he saw something much more serious and horrifying that even his father was shocked he saw it, “I’m terribly sorry I brought you along Nickie” (18). Nicks father felt great sadness for his little boy to witness a suicide. It came unexpectedly, and Nicks father didn’t think his son’s innocence would be washed away so suddenly.
All in all both short stories so different, yet so alike. Both the two journeys these two boys went through, they left coming back more then boys, but men. They both didn’t expect to be awakened in such a way of entering manhood and maturing, but it's always good to expect the unexpected because life doesn’t go the way someone plans it to, like the young boy didn’t expect himself to see a man that killed himself, and the other didn’t expect himself to realize what his “love” really turned out to be.
The Affect Strong Females Have on Young Impressionable Males
In life, women and men experience different things. Looking back in history at the obstacles women over came and the challenges they still face such as breast cancer and giving birth, goes to show the strong mentality that the female race has developed. The impression a women can put on a male figure is a theme found in Ernest Hemmingway’s Indian Camp as well as James Joyce’s Araby. The effect strong females have on young, impressionable males is life-altering.
In Indian Camp a young male, Nick, is influenced by a Native woman who is giving birth. The Native woman has a husband, but the woman is involved in an affair with young Nick’s uncle George. Uncle George is the father of the child about to be born. The husband is well aware that his wife committed adultery with George and as he lays in the bunk above his wife in labour, he is distracted by the loud screams she is giving off and the pain of his injured foot so he commits suicide uncle George finds the man dead after the child is born, “‘ought to have a look at the proud father. They’re usually the worst sufferers in these little affairs,’ the doctor said. ‘I must say he took it all pretty quietly.’... The Indian lay with his face toward the wall. His throat had been cut from ear to ear.” (18) This moment in the short story is a perfect moment to show the weakness of men in circumstances where the women is under the majority of pain and suffering and the effect a women’s actions, such as having an affair, can have on a man. All the men in the room have no idea in their mind what type of pain the poor women is enduring. The soon to be mother is in labour without any kind of anaesthetics, she pulls through things that the doctor seems to be quite impressed with, “’That’s one for the medical journal, George,’ he said. ‘Doing a caesarean with a jack-knife and sewing it up with nine-foot, tapered gut leaders’.”(18)even after describing all this rare surgery procedures he has just put on a tired, pale women – uncle George still stands in the corner staring at his bite mark the women in labour gave him in a moment of pain. The quote proves the amount of pain the women has undergone and with George still feeling pain from a small bite portrays perfectly the strength women can hold. Nick walks back to the boat with his father, full of questions and concerns after witnessing a suicide and birth in the course of a few hours, “’do many men kill themselves, Daddy?’ ‘Not very many, Nick.’ ‘Do many women?’ ‘Hardly ever.’”(19) Nick has been highly influenced by this women and Hemmingway uses this conversation to show the readers that both Nick and his father think highly of women in the end. The amount of pain a woman can endure in a life time makes them a strong individual and strong females leave a lasting impression on men.
In the story of Araby, a young boy is infatuated with a girl he has never even said two words to. The protagonist is a young male character who seems immature and innocent which explains the deep impression the girl has left on him, “I had never spoken to her, except a few casual words, and yet her name was like a summons to all my foolish blood.”(16) The way the narrator describes his feelings shows a perfect display of his weakness; being obsessed with a girl who may not even know his name. After finally having a conversation with the female later on in the short story, the boy is desperate to get to a nearby bazaar to get his love a gift. Due to his father being late on the night of the bazaar, the boy arrives late and then experiences an epiphany. As he stands by a booth where a lady is being talked to by two desperate guys trying to pick her up, the boy comes to the conclusion he is pathetic, “Gazing up into the darkness I saw myself as a creature driven and derided by vanity, and my eyes burned with anguish and anger.”(19) he describes himself as vain and he then realizes the intensity of the feelings this girl has made him feel. The affect a women has on men is life – altering.
In Araby and Indian Camp, the common theme is created by the dominant, strong females shown in each short story. The impressions, and ideas they left on all male characters changes the protagonists views on life.
There comes a time in every child or youths life when they experience an event so great that it leaves them realizing something so complex that everything around them stops, and focus is brought solely on this one immense epiphany which leads to the loss of innocence. In Ernest Hemmingway’s Indian Camp and Soldier’s Home, the young protagonists Nick and Krebs, respectively, experience two different situations, both connected by deaths, after which Nick and Krebs will never be the same again.
In Indian Camp, Nick has his epiphany after he watches a woman go through labour. It was not necessarily the woman giving birth that caused the epiphany but the fact that the Indian father killed himself during the process because he could not take it anymore, “The Indian lay with his face toward the wall. His throat had been cut from ear to ear.”(18) Nick’s innocence had been taken away after watching the terrible death which resulted from the tense delivery. Nick was no long invincible and death was on his mind and in his thoughts as he asked his father questions about dying that were next to impossible to answer, “Is dying hard, Daddy?” (19) Nick starts to question what it is like to be dead and is it hard, which implies that he is no longer a child to which death is not even a thought.
In Soldier’s Home, Krebs experiences his epiphany when he was fighting in the war. At a young age, Krebs experienced things that no one should ever have to see, hear, or feel in their whole life. The war was brutal and after living through it, he would ever be the same again, “ His acquaintances, who has heard detailed accounts of German women found chained to machine guns in the Argonne…”(1) When Krebs came back from the war, he wasn’t the same person anymore. He tried to become what he was before the war, but that was impossible, “We want you to enjoy yourself. But you are going to have to settle down to work.”(4) His parents are being really hard on him, expecting him to just pick up his life as if he never left for war, but he could not just continue with where he left off. The war was too much to comprehend and now Krebs didn’t know what he wants to do with his life, “Have you decided what you are going to do yet, Harold?’ ‘No.’(4) This is an extremely tough time for Krebs until he realizes that he needs to do something because he can not just sit there reminiscing the times at war. He just wants “his life to go smoothly,” (5) which display his loss of innocence and realization that he needs to be a man and provide for himself.
Both protagonists have moments of realization that life hereafter will not be the same. These epiphanies appear at different times in their lives, but nevertheless, have the same great impact. Nick lost his innocence after witnessing a death during childbirth and Krebs during the war. For Nick, he knew that this moment would change the way he looked at life but Krebs tried to go back to the way things were. Eventually he saw that he would never be the same, and things were just going to have to change.
It often takes the workings of an epiphany in order for one to realize how lost one truly is. This concept holds true in the case of both short stories “Araby” by James Joyce, and “Soldier’s Home” by Earnest Hemmingway. The central themes in both stories are tied into the plot with the use of symbolism. These symbols are both places in which the protagonists feel they will be able to find the answers they seek. However the answers they find are ones that tell of hopelessness and abasement.
The young narrator of “Araby” embarks on a quest of materialism and superficiality, in hopes of claiming the affections of a girl who cares not for him and knows not his name. The symbol that represents the young boy’s epiphany is a Bazaar known as “Araby”. This Bazaar holds hopes of love and romantic prosperity. Upon arrival, however, Araby is a grim sight to behold. All hope seems to have fled his person, and all that’s left are questions about what is really important, and what the rest of his life will hold. “Gazing up into the darkness I saw myself as a creature driven and derided by vanity”(19). As the story concludes, no questions are answered, and his epiphany leaves him filled with spite.
When Krebs, the main character of “Soldier’s Home”, returns from service in the military, he is forever changed. The epiphany referred to in the story does not happen in direct text, but is shown to have happened through the third paragraph in the story. “Krebs found that to be listened to at all he had to lie and after he had done this twice he, too, had a reaction against the war and against talking about it.” (1). Krebs suddenly feels isolated, and realizes that some time while serving his country, he had lost the ability to love and accept love. His inability to love is shown in the most meaningful and blunt of ways, he denies his love of his own mother. ‘"Yes. Don't you love your mother dear boy?" "No," Krebs said.’ (4). The symbol that shows his epiphany is his home, where nothing much around had changed, except for him.
These epiphanies will forever change the protagonist’s perspectives and relationships. And the themes of hopelessness and abasement are shown to be prevalent at the conclusion of both stories, leaving nothing answered. And yet, both leave lasting impressions. Because of the stories’ strong ties to human behaviour and actualities, both stories are still quite relevant, and their themes can be related to in today’s culture.
The disappointment of real life
The situations that cannot be avoided are most often the ones humanity cannot face. In life, people do not always have a choice in what they do or where they live. This often leads to a cycle of depression, as they feel that they have no choice or control over what happens in their own lives. This cycle of depression is displayed in both the short stories of “Soldier’s Home”, written by Ernest Hemingway and “Araby” by James Joyce. As the protagonists try and escape the lives they were forced to live, they come to the sad realization that life is full of bitter disappointment.
In “Soldier’s Home”, a young soldier, Krebs, returns home from the war in a state that is much less than ordinary. The harsh memories of what Krebs was forced to do in the war haunt him. As his family grows more aware of Krebs’ condition, they try to help him to get a job and move on with life. However Krebs is no longer in the same mentality as the people around him, he is now in a cycle of depression, for the things he has endured in the war are unimaginable to this society in which he lives. When Krebs’ mother attempts to talk to Krebs about God, his response is disturbing, “I’m not in His Kingdom.” (4) This displays the depression that Krebs is experiencing and cannot escape, as the acts he was forced to perform are considered terrible sins. Krebs continues to get pressured by the people around him to do something with his life, and so he decides that he will try and escape this stranglehold that life has on him by moving away. He does this not for himself, but for the others around him, “He would go to Kansas City and get a job and she would feel alright about it.” (5) Krebs can never quite get over what happened to him in the war, and while he will continue to try, by moving jobs or living in different places, the bitter disappointment that is life will always haunt him.
James Joyce begins the story “Araby”, with an extremely depressing mood. The story starts off with a dark, gloomy feeling for the reader about a boy and where he lives. The boy seems as if he is stuck is a cycle of depression that he was forced into. Everything in his life falls into this cycle, except one beautiful girl that the boy is in ‘love’ with. When the boy finally gets a chance to impress the girl by buying her a gift from the bazaar, he gets excited for there is a chance for something good to happen to him. However the boy’s uncle who was supposed to fund the boys bus ride there does not get home until late because of his daily routine he cannot escape. The boy goes anyways, but as he arrives as the bazaar is closing down. It is at this time that the boy realizes that he does not know the girls name nor does he know anything about her, “Gazing up into the darkness I saw myself as a creature driven and derided by vanity; and my eyes burned with anguish and anger.” (19) This is when all hope is lost for the boy, and he comes to the realization that there is nothing good about his life, and he will continue to be disappointed until he can escape this place he calls home; this cycle of depression he calls life.
In both short stories, the protagonists are forced to endure situations in which they have trouble dealing with. These disappointing experiences teach the characters that life is not always beautiful, but rather depressing. It is when the characters try to escape this cycle of depression and fail, that they come to the realization that life is disappointing. And go through what people in the real world have experienced, and will continue to experience, real life.
Fantasy, Reality, and the Loss of Innocence
Human’s lives are dictated by their emotions and their ability to react in situations using their emotions. Often emotions can cloud a person’s judgment. When a person cannot distinguish the difference between reality and fantasy then an event will occur where their flawless fantasy world comes crashing down. Now their perfect world has abandoned them for a world of imperfect events. In Indian Camp and Araby by Ernest Hemmingway, two young children are ignorant to reality. These children live their lives through idealization and a fantasy world. Two themes are present in these short stories. The loss of innocence and the dangers of fantasy. These themes are associated because as fantasy worlds are dismantled, the loss of innocence follows shortly after. In Indian Camp Nick’s fantasy world slowly ends due to the events that occur (mother in labor, exposed to the mother’s private area, and the surgery). However the event that triggers the loss of innocence is, “Nick, standing in the door of the kitchen, had a good view of the upper bunk when his father, the lamp in one hand, tipped the Indian’s head back.” (18) The sum of these events crush Nick’s fantasy world because all these negative events are occurring at once. It is also obvious through the dialogue that Nick and his father have on page 19 that Nick has lost his innocence. In Araby it is evident that the narrator lives in a fantasy world:
“Or if Mangan’s sister came out on the doorstep to call her brother in to his tea we watched her from our shadow peer up and down the street. We waited to see whether she would remain or go in and, if she remained, we left our shadow and walked up to Mangan’s steps resignedly. She was waiting for us, her figure defined by the light from the half opened door. [...] Her dress swung as she moved her body and the soft rope of her hair tossed from side to side.” (16)
The narrator learns he will never be with Mangan’s sister “Gazing up into the darkness I saw myself as a creature driven and derided by vanity; and my eyes burned with anguish and anger.” (19) Once again his fantasy world where he is together with Mangan’s sister, is destroyed and the narrator realizes that reality is tainted by flaws. As both characters lose their innocence they gain an understanding of the dishonest world they live in; and are initiated into adulthood. Adulthood is another quest in their lives where the water of the Earth only becomes murkier.
Themes: Indian camp and Araby
Growing old and becoming wiser and more aware of ones surroundings go hand in hand with on another. When someone is young they are naive and impressionable making it hard for them to understand how things work and why things happen. This is shown in both Araby by James Joyce and in Indian Camp by Ernest Hemmingway.
Both Indian camp and Araby have similar themes in which they portray the theme of how getting older makes someone realize what everything is really all about. In the short story Indian camp there are many situations in which it is shown. When the father realizes that the baby that his wife gives birth to he realizes that the last few months that he has been anticipating this child have all been a lie and couldn’t bare to raise a child that wsn’t his. Also in Indian camp Nick has a hard time coming to grips with why the father killed himself and begins to question life at such a young age because he has not experienced anything like that before and when he does he does not know what it means or why it happens so the natural thing to do is to ask questions and he asks his father, “‘do ladies always have such a hard time having babies?’ Nick asked” (19). Nick asks his father because Nick believes that because his father is older that he will have an explanation and will be able to make sense of all that has happened, but with each answer he got brought on more questions which were difficult for someone so young to understand. His father knew that with age would come a greater understanding of these sorts of matters and tries to make it simple for young nick to understand
In Araby the theme is the same as in Indian camp. The narrator is infatuated with Mangan’s sister and becomes obsessed with her because he has never felt that way before and does not know how to act, “Every morning I lay on the floor in the front parlour watching her door” (16). The narrarator becomes so enamored with the girl that he forgets that he knows nothing about her but is already saying he is in love, only because he never has experienced that kind of feeling before. As the story goes on he begins to realize that like the market, Mangan’s sister was also glorified by him and made out to be something extraordinary when in reality both were just disappointments because the market was dark and dingy and he never knew Mangan’s sister and was so vain because he didn’t even know her name, “Gazing up into the darkness I saw myself as a creature driven and derided by vanity; and my eyes burned with anguish and anger” (19) He realizes that with time he saw things for what they really were and how he became so blind to not see how he was putting both Mangan’s sister and the market on such a glorified high pedestal with no real reason or proof behind it. He only sets himself up for disappointment in the end.
The theme is mainly about learning and growing, with that people can see things for what they really are and what they are really worth. Only experience can help someone better understand things and experience can only come with time.
Self Gratification= Destruction
To love selfishly and to lust without thought of the consequence will end up in destruction inevitably. Selfish behaviour is portrayed in various ways. For example, one who is married and lusts another usually will destroy their marriage, whereas one who lusts or tries to love and/or obtain a person without truly wanting them, will prove to also be inescapably destructive. In either instance someone gets hurt. Indicated in both Araby and Indian Camp are individuals who think of only what benefits themselves and not the negative outcome of their actions.
Araby involves a boy who is obsessed and has the desire to display his affection for a girl he secretly loves. This short story ends in frustration and anger over his inability to purchase a gift for his secret love and his realization that this gesture is not necessary. “Gazing up into the darkness I saw myself as a creature driven and derided by vanity and my eyes burned with anguish and anger,” (19). The protagonist becomes aware of his vanity and knows that in reality he will never have a relationship with this girl (whose name is left unknown by not only the reader but also the main character). The epiphany is, why buy a gift when you can just tell someone you love them? Realizing what you are doing wrong is the first step, but what really matters is what you do to change it. The main character gains a greater insight about life and love and therefore he tries moving on from what he once wished he could have had.
Furthermore, in the second short story Indian Camp a doctor and his son (Nick) help to deliver a woman’s child. It turns out that the pregnant woman’s husband kills himself during the delivery because he is struck with the realization that this baby may not be his. “I’m terribly sorry I brought you along Nickie,” (18). Nick witnesses both the delivery and suicide and also the emotional aftermath of both and ponders why things like this happen. This proves that living/life is better then death and the epiphany is that life brings joy and that death brings sorrow and anguish. This story could also relate to acts of selfishness. The husband must have felt betrayed, but killing himself for only that reason would be foolish. He must have been embarrassed and felt that his ego would be ruined therefore committed suicide due to his inability to cope with his own problems.
In both circumstances, selfish behaviour is evident. The protagonist in Araby and the pregnant woman in Indian Camp are self gratifying themselves at the expense of others. After reading both short stories, the reader should have a better insight about life and that you should live to love and be loved. To lust is to live a shallow life which ends up hurting those around you the most. Therefore the overall theme of the above mentioned is that people who are self gratifying and only think of what best suits them will never find happiness.
In The Process Of Growing Up
Life presents new experiences that people learn from. People's lives are impacted by many experiences and new lessons are learnt from each one. This impact changes the way people live and view life. In the two short stories Indian Camp and Soldier's Home, the lives of two young people changed when they experience their own epiphanies. As they uncover things they have never come across, their outlook on life changes. The various challenges and encounters in life cause one to view life in different ways.
In the short story Indian Camp, the young boy Nick travels along side his father and questions things he has never witnessed. "Do ladies always have such a hard time having babies?"(19) This quote proves Nick to be a child in the process of growing up by his lack of understanding about how a baby is delivered. "Why did he kill himself, Daddy?"(19) Nick had just witnessed a baby delivery and did not understand the effect stress could have on a person. “Do many men kill themselves, Daddy?”(19) The lack of experience and understanding reason for a man ending his life proves that Nick is an innocent and inexperienced youth learning about life’s good and bad times.
In the short story Soldier’s Home, the young adult Krebs returns home from war having new things to consider. “We want you to enjoy yourself. But you are going to have to settle down to work, Harold.”(4) Krebs is a soldier involved in the army with the war on his mind but has other matters in his life to make sure are sorted out.
“Have you decided what you are?” (…)
Krebs parents expect their son to have his personal life already sorted out, but Krebs considered it.
“He wanted his life to go smoothly. It had just gotten going that way.” This quote proves that Krebs can not solve too many things all at once.
Lastly, as people mature their lives can seem difficult to comprehend. Nick and Krebs in the two short stories had gone through completely different experiences. They learnt that collectively however, that throughout life that there are new things to learn.
Disillusion
The thoughts and questions that can be articulated to expose the theme in Indian Camp and Soldier’s Home are practically boundless due to the chasm in the mind we call imagination. However, it is clear that the protagonists, Nick and Krebs stood face to face with death, thus realizing some harsh realities about the human nature. The author, Ernest Hemingway, magnificently shows us an idea of human suffering and of a person whose world is shattered to pieces, but in the end manages to show a glimpse of hope.
In the short story Indian Camp, Nick is young boy who got smacked in the face with a live picture of a man who just cut his throat from ear to ear, “Nick, standing in the door of the kitchen, had a good view of the upper bunk when his father, lamp in one hand, tipped the Indian’s head back”, thus, Nick’s little world has taken an abrupt twist. This is a moment of internal suffering for Nick because he is held in awe as he saw a man with a slit throat who was fine and well a few minutes ago. In this stunned period, Nick’s thoughts race to the notion of death and suicide, “Do many men kill themselves, Daddy?...Is dying hard, Daddy?”, so Nick’s whole body goes into a state of helplessness and accordingly tries to confide in his father in order to logically comprehend what he has just witnessed. In addition, Nick tries to swallow down what he has just seen and finds an inner strength to surpass the shock and live on, “he felt quite sure that he would never die.” On that account, Nick goes through a horrible ordeal but still has a vision of hope within him.
Meanwhile, Krebs is another figment of Ernest Hemingway in Soldier’s Home and this character returns from World War I to his home town that he feels ever so alienated from since he spends his days reading books, playing pool, and practicing his clarinet in total isolation. We can say that Krebs has come back a changed man, a man who has lost everything, “He fell into the easy pose of the old soldier among other soldiers: that he had been badly, sickeningly frightened all the time. In this way he lost everything”, as a result of witnessing death and hundreds of his fellow soldiers gunned down, Krebs subdued to internal suffering as this shock was too great for him. Also, Krebs denied his previous Methodist faith in God, “I’m not in His Kingdom”, and denounces the love for his mother and the people that surround him, “Don’t you love your mother dear boy? No, Krebs said… I don’t love anybody”. Accordingly, Krebs feels alienated from everybody in the community as a result of having nobody to confine in or openly share his real experiences instead of the lies that people only want to hear. This internal torture for Krebs is unbearable, but he finds the strength to make some decisions that would please his mother and allow him to rehabilitate as close to normal life as possible. “He would go to Kansas City and get a job and she would feel all right about it”, this shows his first plan that would allow him to change, but he also wants to start loving again. Hence why Krebs decides to go to Helen’s indoor baseball game because she told him if that if he loves her, he would come and watch, “If you loved me, you’d want to come over and watch me play indoor.” Appropriately, the ending of Soldier’s Home shows us that Krebs is willing to change and has the tinniest hope within him to become normal.
Thus, it is clear that these protagonists evidently show their great moments of agony and the power to find hope within themselves to go on and find refugee in a dream whether it is to think of immortality or ascending back into a normal lifestyle. To conclude, one can say that the themes of these two short stories by Ernest Hemingway portray the idea of human suffering and finding the will to not give up and face all challenges head on, as he probably did in his own lifetime.
Understanding Change
The two short stories “Araby” by James Joyce and “Soldier’s Home” by Ernest Hemingway contains the constant changes in life. The theme involves the means to change in order to meet the character’s needs and wants. This kind of change consists of a starting point with a cause or reason, which leads to affects on the character’s lives, and later advancing to understanding the change in the character’s life. The main characters of the short stories go through the process of change based on their own decisions for themselves.
Character’s change can be based on influence by reason or cause, which they can choose to follow. In the story of “Araby” the main character’s obsession with his friend’s sister causes him to make drastic measures to possess her. His strong desire establishes his change, as he knows he; “ […] had hardly any patience with the serious work of life which, now that it stood between me and my desire, seemed to me child’s play, ugly monotonous child’s play” (17). The main character’s infatuation causes him to change mentally based on his own desires and perception. Similarly in “Soldier’s Home” Krebs the main character tries to cope with effects of war by trying to talk to others. He returns home later than the other soldiers and discovers, “His town had heard too many stories to be thrilled by actualities.” (1). Krebs perception on his surroundings of society shows that the town is not the same anymore. In some way he feels like the town has turned its back on him so now he is separated from it. The initial change happens based on the character’s choice, which is affected by some kind of motive. For Krebs he has decided to not adapt and separate himself from the town as he sees it has changed. Comparing to the main character of Araby he has decided to follow his obsession because his desire for his friend’s sister.
The action of changing affects the characters surroundings because of their decision. The main character from “Araby” waits impatiently to buy a gift for his friend’s sister. He starts to lose enthusiasm in the things that used to matter to him as he sees his, “ […] companions playing below in the street. Their cries reached me weakened and indistinct […]” (18). The main character is showing his progress of change as he puts his friends aside and yearns for his friend’s sister. In comparison to Krebs his process of change makes him less ambitious to even approach girls that he is interested in. Although he is attracted to the girls in his town he finds, “ […] they lived in such a complicated world of already defined alliances and shifting feuds that Krebs did not feel the energy or the courage to break into it” (2). Krebs seems to be affected by his surroundings of society itself as it does have an impact on his desire to approach any girl. Change has place an affect on the character’s lives towards others socially. The character in “Araby” is affected by not going out with friends like he used to as Krebs is affected by not even trying to approach any girls. Basically both characters are both pushed to isolate themselves as a result of change.
People are known to realize changes in their lives gradually, as some are more mindful than others. In “Araby,” the main character’s trip to the bazaar to buy a gift for his friend’s sister is wasted as it is already too late. Most of the stalls are closed and at that point the main character, “Gazing up into the darkness I saw myself as a creature driven and derided by vanity; and my eyes burned with anguish and anger.” (19). The main character finally realizes he has changed all because of his own desire for his sister’s friend. Krebs he realizes change in his life as he sees that nothing will ever be the same. Krebs decides that, “He would not go down to his father’s office. He would miss that one. He wanted his life to go smoothly. It had just gotten going that way. Well that was over now, anyway.” (5). He understands that things have changed in his town since his return and by not going to his father’s office allows him to hang on to a memory that will remain the same. The titles of both stories reveal the places where the character realizes their change. In “Araby” the character realizes with the process of change that he is a selfish person as in “Soldier’s Home” Krebs understands that everything changes. The ending for both stories is uncertain in the way they reacted to their self-change.
In conclusion, both short stories cover the theme of changing for the good in this case bad. Each story, with its purpose and meaning portrays the process of change and how we change for our own reasons to better ourselves.
Vanity, the Fall of Man
Throughout the history of man, vanity, the placement of false value, has always been observed in the tragedies of men and women everywhere like the falls of Lucifer or of Adam and Eve, who were all banished from paradise because of trivial reasons such as clothes or pride. As a result, it should come to no surprise to the readers of James Joyce’s Araby or Ernest Hemmingway’s Indian Camp that vanity has also made its impact in the downfall of its characters.
To emphasize the significance of vanity in the stories of Indian Camp and Araby, the plot revolves around children, characters who have not yet had vanity touched their innocence lives. In Indian Camp, vanity is present when the husband to the newborn’s mother realizes that the child is not his, and kills himself. Upon seeing the husband’s corpse, Nick asks “ ‘Why did he kill himself, Daddy?’ ‘I don’t know, Nick. He couldn’t stand things, I guess’ (19)”, then later thinks to himself “he felt quite sure that he would never die (19)” showing that vanity has clouded the husband’s judgment for him to have valued his life over an illegitimate son. Not only is vanity present in Indian Camp, but can be found in Hemmingway’s Araby in which the unnamed pre-adolescent narrator finds himself in Araby, a bazaar in which he could never purchase anything worthwhile, simply because of a girl he is infatuated with “I had never spoken to her, except for a few casual words, and yet her name was like a summon to all my foolish blood (16)” and then later realizes his folly, “gazing up into the darkness I saw myself as a creature driven and derided by vanity; and my eyes burned with anguish and anger (19)”.
As a result, there is no doubt that vanity has indeed left its mark in not only in Hemmingway’s Indian Camp and Joyce’s Araby, but in mankind as well. To understand and to be able to overcome vanity, it is important for one to reassess their priorities in life and not place it in false causes such as valuing a part time job for one’s academic career.
The Matter of Theme
In every story there are themes which always give the meaning and the purpose of the story usually state as a generalization of human life. These could be found in Hemingway’s stories Indian Camp and the Soldier’s Home .
There are two big themes in Indian’s Camp story; these are the choice between life and death, and maturity. In the story , the main character was describe as an innocent child who do not know anything about life but after spending the night with his father at the Indian’s Camp he realized that one can make choices between life and death. He become aware of that human life is in his own hand. Hemingway said “ He felt quite sure that he will never die”(19). This means that in Nick’s heart he make a choice between life and death. He also learns that things will not be exactly they way they should. His father said “You see, Nick, babies are supposed to be born head first but sometimes, they’re not. When they’re not they make a lot of trouble for every body.”(17). What his father meant was that, in life there will definitely be a road blocks which you must learn how to take care of that. Example the woman’s husband was not mature enough to stand things this is why he chose death. Another way is that if someone chooses to live he/she should be ready to withstand what ever might come into their way. Because of what Nick head and saw in the camp make him very mature and aware of how life could be for him in future.
In Soldier’s home there are also, two major themes which are the lost of one’s ambition and isolation from one’s self and society. Krebs’s fear and lying makes him lost everything that hero should have. Hemingway said “In this he lost everything”(1). He lost how he lived in his own society and how he used to have connection with the people. He always sat at the porch reading because he knows he can not fit into his own society anymore that is also why he does not want to watch his sister play indoor. For him to adjust into the society he start living the life that he used to live before the war. He looks like somebody who is not thinking of anything. He starts living a life of a kid. But his parents realized that he start loosing his determination to achieve success. For them to bring him back into his senses, her mother attempt to direct him into the right path. They suggest that he should look for a job nor necessarily a job that pay a good wages but something that he can start his life with. But Harold realize that he cannot easily return to his old condition, he then decided to leave his home town and his family behind for work at the nearby city; so that he can relearn how to live a normal live.
These two themes are the same because they both deal with the reality of human live, something human bean experiences every day. Example: being fed up of a situation is something that appears in every day life. In the both story there is a clear description and the explanation of the basic components of realism. The both main character especially Nick had shown human consciousness in a realistic manner through his questions.
The Affect of People’s Lives On Others
Life has a unique path for every individual and many parts of these paths are affected by the lives of others. In the short stories “Indian Camp”, by Ernest Hemingway, and “Araby”, by James Joyce, the main characters experience interactions with others, which cause them to endure many new experiences such as life, love and the realization that all things must come to an end.
In “Araby,” a young boy becomes so infatuated with his female neighbour that his life begins to revolve around her. All of his thoughts and activities began to involve her image, “Her name sprang to my lips at moments in strange prayers and praises which I myself did not understand” (16), and causes him to be flustered with emotions. The boy finds himself in confused adoration, “‘O love! O love!’” (16), which he instigate as love for her. When the boy goes to a stall at the Bazaar to purchase a trinket for the girl, he realizes that he knows nothing about her, not even her name, “Gazing up into the darkness I saw myself as a creature driven and derided by vanity; and my eyes burned with anguish and anger” (19). The boy becomes conscious of the fact that he does not love her or even know what love really is.
In the story “Indian Camp,” Nick tags along with his father, on work related business. They go to an Indian camp where a distressed woman has been in labor for forty eight hours. On the boat ride over to the camp, Nick lay in the comfort of his loving fathers arms, “Nick lay back with his fathers arms around him” (15), awaiting his uncertain journey. Upon arrival, Nick followed his father into a smoky shanty and discovered the labor-induced woman. After hours of tedious surgery, Nick’s father removed the baby from its mother’s womb and displayed the new born to Nick “‘See, it’s a boy, Nick” (17). Nick witnessed this; his first encounter with new life. Moments later Nick’s father came across the father of the baby, dead in the upper bunk, “His throat had been cut from ear to ear” (18) and from where Nick was standing he had a good view of the dead body. Just as Nick had watched a new life begin, he saw another one come to a tragic end.
All in all, both main characters in the two short stories experienced different interactions with people, yet it caused both of them to obtain a new outlook on life and the ability to understand things with a new perspective. In life we do not get to choose the ways in which we will learn our life lessons, yet we do get to choose the way in which we want to interpret them. With each new thing we learn in life we should appreciate it and build character from it.
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