Comparing Hemingway's style to an iceberg makes an awful lot of sense. He states only the bare bones of what's happening, which leaves the imagining of the details to the reader. "The Indian Camp" is an excellent example of what I'm talking about.
I had to read through this story twice. The first time, I looked at the facts that Hemingway had stated, figuring out what had happened and when. The second time I read it, I tried to picture what had happened as it was happening. It made a lot of difference.
In his typical, understated way, Hemingway describes what was probably a profoundly scarring experience for Nick. I can't imagine a circumstance where watching childbirth would be pleasant for a child, especially not a difficult childbirth. I know that it would horrify me, at pretty much any age - blood and guts are not my strong point. And then his father, the doctor begins to perform a C-section on the woman - an unanaethetized C-section - and I honestly don't know how he was still standing there. The father of the unborn child apparently couldn't take it, because he slit his own throat, and he wasn't even watching, just listening. . . I guess I assume that Nick was watching, because it's never really stated. Brrr.
When you sit there and think about it, it must have been a horrifying experience. First the childbirth - never a pretty sight, even now with powerful painkillers - and then the operation, done pretty much on the fly, with whatever the doctor had at hand, and then discovering that the new father was dead. I don't blame Nick for thinking he was never going to die, because dying in his experience was linked with pain and blood and screaming.
Like I said, blood and guts are not my thing - I get sick whenever I watch Monty Python and the Holy Grail during the duel with the Black Knight, when his "flesh wounds" are spouting the most ridiculous fake blood anyone has ever seen. So I'm a little relieved that Hemingway left out the descriptions of the blood and pain. But they are still there - not explicitly stated, but understood, the other 7/8 of the iceberg that the captain of the Titanic forgot about.
Hi Julia, Thanks for your last two posts. I must say I am impressed when any student uses the word "assuage" in a sentence. But I also thought your look at -Time- was interesting in that you picked out stylistic differences. The older columns were more gossipy and opinionated, while today the emphasis is on pseudo-objectivity. Both are full of interpretations. I also liked your response to -Indian Camp- I also think it is a good example of H's iceberg technique. There's quite a lot going on that is never directly stated. Good work. dw
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