Indian Camp and Barn Burning Research Paper Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2500 words

Indian Camp and Barn Burning - Research Paper Example s with the reality of cruelty in the world--with war, violence, death, racism, and hatred--while others deal with family, friends, or community issues† (2010). Both Hemingways Indian Camp and Faulkners Barn Burning transparently fit these criteria, but the stories have very different trajectories and symbolisms. While both Indian Camp and Barn Burning are coming of age stories, Indian Camps trajectory of responsibility has to do with the institutions and culture surrounding the phenomenon of death as well as the phenomenon itself, while Barn Burning has to do with realizing the limitations of ones parents and transcending them. In Indian Camp, Nick enters the story at an unknown age, but presumably as a younger teenager. He is young enough that his father feels that it must be explained that â€Å"This lady is going to have a baby†, but old enough that he knows what this means. But by the end of the story, Nick has been exposed to a trifecta: Death, birth and the connected sexuality, and pain and violence of a sort (Tetlow, 1992, pg. 53-55). He is exposed to the horrible blood and death of the Indian fathers suicide: â€Å"He pulled back the blanket from the Indians head. His hand came away wet. He mounted on the edge of the lower bunk with the lamp in one hand and looked in. The Indian lay with his face toward the wall. His throat had been cut from ear to ear. The blood had flowed down into a pool where his body sagged the bunk. His head rested on his left arm. The open razor lay, edge up, in the blankets†. He is exposed to sexuality and its costs by the birth of the child and by the relatio nship between the Indian woman and her husband. He is exposed to birth and its potential costs and dangers, and his father has to explain that not all births are that perilous. He is exposed to violence, to the way knives and razors both help and hurt. This is far too much for a kid to take in. Nicks father could be accused of callousness when he says, â€Å"But her screams are