Black Eyes and Peroxide in “The Battler” and “The Light of the World”

Abstract

The character in “Indian Camp” who signals that Dr. Adams may not be above reproach is, of course, Uncle George. A mysterious character himself, coming along for the birthing without any seeming cause, and then disappearing, we have to wonder why Hemingway included him at all. He gives cigars to the Indians, pulls back the quilt so Dr. Adams doesn’t have to touch it, holds the Indian woman down alongside three other Indian men, receives a bite from the Indian woman (calls her a “Damn squaw bitch”), sneers at his brother, “Oh, you’re a great man, all right,” then noticeably disappears from the story altogether. It is these last two acts, the denigration of his brother and the disappearance, that make his presence noteworthy. With characteristic economy of words, Hemingway leaves off any speech tags that indicate George “sneered” or “said with sarcasm,” but there is no mistaking his tone toward the doctor. And if the tone seems unwarranted, due to our faith in the doctor’s affective neutrality, then Uncle George’s sarcasm seems just plain strange. Is Dr. Adams a great man in “Indian Camp”? Why would Uncle George doubt it? What makes a “great man” in Hemingway’s short stories? It’s a question that weaves its way through all of Hemingway’s Nick Adams stories, and in fact the story Hemingway placed after “Indian Camp” and “The Doctor and the Doctor’s Wife” (in In Our Time), was originally entitled, of all things, “The Great Man.”