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Madison Wilson

Dr. Charlotte Rich

ENG 455

17 February 2022

The emotionless qualities of traditional masculinity: a strength, or a weakness?

It is not uncommon to find that authors often use their narrative abilities to explore deep

and prevalent topics. Earnest Hemingway uses omission or “iceberg theory” in his stories to

present deeper meanings that are not evident on the surface, arguably making them more

meaningful. One of the most relevant topics in literature is the idea of gender stereotypes and

expectations, specifically the ideas of traditional masculinity and femininity. “Indian Camp,” one

of Hemingway’s most well-known short stories, explores the topic of gender stereotypes and

their consequences using his surface level narrative style. In “Indian Camp,” Hemingway

employs narrative style and gender comparison to explore whether stoicism and traditional

masculinity actually represent strength or weakness.

Throughout the entire short story, Hemingway uses a very straightforward and rather

emotionless narrative style to reflect the theme of stoicism and emotional detachment. In

addition to the consistently blunt dialogue between the characters in the story, there is a lack of

any emotion to the narration of what is happening. For example, one of the main characters in

the story is the husband of the Native American woman who is being assisted by the doctor in

having her baby; the man is injured and bedridden, and the only information from the narrator is

“in the upper bunk was her husband. He had cut his foot very badly with an ax… He was

smoking a pipe. The room smelled very bad” (Hemingway 16). There is no description or

mention of any feelings, only simple sentences that describe exactly what is happening in the
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setting. The same emotionless language is used by the doctor, who is performing a Caesarean

section on the Native American woman with no anesthetic. When describing to his son what is

happening, the doctor says “What she is going through is called being in labor… All her muscles

are trying to get the baby born. That is what is happening when she screams” (Hemingway 16).

The doctor, who is the archetype for traditional masculinity, displays complete stoicism and

emotional detachment to what is a very emotional and painful experience. Instead of explaining

to his son and acknowledging the emotion of the situation and the woman, the doctor only

explained birth as a physiological event and nothing more. The doctor acts with emotional

detachment and sets this example for his son, embodying the idea of traditional masculinity that

being emotionless is equivalent to being strong and masculine. Emotional detachment continues

during this exchange when the doctor tells his son the woman’s screams “don’t matter”

(Hemingway 16). Not only do the gender stereotypes and comparisons convey the theme of

traditional masculinity and its stoicism but the narrative style itself is demonstrative of it.

In conjunction with the emotionless narrative style, the metaphor of gender comparison

in the story poses the question of what qualities actually reflect strength and weakness. Men and

women are consistently compared throughout “Indian Camp,” with men implied as strong

because of their ability to be stoic and detached from emotion. When the doctor and Nick arrive

at the camp, “the men had moved off up the road… to smoke out of range of the noise she made”

while the women had been helping her labor for two days. During the labor, the entire narrative

surrounds the doctor and his accomplishment of a Caesarean section with only a jackknife and

fishing line rather than surrounding the laboring mother, who underwent the procedure with no

anesthetic (Hemingway 16-17). While the narrative and praise focus on the doctor (noting his

pride like a football player after a game) it ignores the profound strength of the mother in her
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experience (Hemingway 18). The absurdity of the men being acknowledged and narrated in what

is a female centered phenomenon is arguably Hemingway’s method of getting the reader to

question which characters are actually displaying strength: the women who gathered to

acknowledge and assist in the situation, or the men who must be detached and walk away.

Possibly the most significant example questioning the true strength of stoicism and

detachment is seen in the Native American woman’s husband and his suicide. Upon first being

introduced to the woman and her husband, he is described as residing in the bunk above hers and

bedridden because his foot was cut with an ax (Hemingway 16). While this may simply be for

the plot, it is arguably metaphorical that the husband cannot physically walk away from his

wife’s screaming and anguish as the other men did. Additionally, the husband detaches in the

only way he can as he “rolled over against the wall” after hearing the doctor say the woman’s

screams were unimportant and there was no anesthetic (Hemingway 16). The idea that the

husband does not have the option to walk away and detach is presented and then reinforced when

he does what he can by rolling over. After the procedure, the doctor says that fathers are “usually

the worst sufferers in these little affairs” and “I must say he took it all pretty quietly”

(Hemingway 18). The diction of “little affairs” referencing a mother’s laboring compared to the

father who stands by being the sufferer is extreme, and it is likely intended to make readers

“raise an eyebrow.” Finally, the doctor says the father took the situation quietly while implicitly

being impressed as if it displayed strength; comparably, the woman’s screaming was taken as a

sign of weakness while the ability to be silent was considered strong. The father was silent only

because he had committed suicide while his wife was laboring, another instance of comparison.

While it is never explicitly stated why the father committed suicide, one can infer that

experiencing the anguish of his wife became too much. Hemingway possibly uses this instance
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to again make readers question why the individual who did not experience the physical pain is

the “worst sufferer,” and it also raises the question of how important emotional experience is.

The husband’s suicide ultimately raises the question of whether one who is stoic and

emotionally detaches is actually strong and could be resilient in a situation that cannot be

detached from. Additionally, the detachment from emotions through Hemingway’s narrative

style and the doctor reflect traditional ideas of masculinity and strength by being stoic; but the

suicide of the father who had to experience anguish demonstrates just how impactful emotions

can be. Through all these devices in “Indian Camp,” Hemingway ultimately raises the question

of whether the stoic quality of traditional masculinity actually demonstrates strength or

weakness. While the comparisons, absurdity, and narrative style in the short story imply

questioning and prompt exploration; Hemingway’s use of omission will only leave readers to

debate.
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Works Cited

Hemingway, Earnest. “Indian Camp.” In Our Time. Scribner, Published by Simon and Schuster,

2003.