23 pages • 46 minutes read
Ernest HemingwayTen Indians
Fiction | Short Story | Adult | Published in 1927A modern alternative to SparkNotes and CliffsNotes, SuperSummary offers high-quality Study Guides with detailed chapter summaries and analysis of major themes, characters, and more.
Literary Devices
Diction
“Ten Indians” is a dialogue-driven story, and the simple, straightforward diction reflects the characters’ lifestyle and helps build the setting. Reflecting Modernist techniques, the conversations use everyday language, vernacular, and contractions, such as “Carl ain’t no good with girls,” “What you laughing at?” and “Oh shucks” (20, 21). Likewise, the Garners’ diction—their use of slurs and stereotypes—plainly depicts their racism. Their speech patterns share some elements with Nick’s and his father’s, though neither of the Adamses uses slurs when discussing Indigenous people. As such, diction creates a contrast between the characters and their values. The conversational diction also differs from the anonymous narrator’s descriptions, which feature complex, sophisticated sentences and extended paragraphs. The distinction between the conversational diction between characters and the narrator’s more sophisticated diction helps deepen the distinction between Nick and the Garners, as the narrator follows his interiority.
Repetition
A predominant element of Ernest Hemingway’s style is the repetition of words and phrases, which creates a rhythmic and often staccato cadence that reinforces his themes. For example, the repetition of Joe Garner’s full name reflects his power as the family’s patriarch. Mrs. Garner’s repetition of “Them Indians” establishes the unthinking nature of her anti-Indigenous bias—this phrase is dismissive and not rooted in any specific event or idea and simply conveys her idea that Indigenous people are “other.” When Nick departs from the Garners’ house to head home, the good-bye phrases are repeated six times, emphasizing his politeness. This juxtaposes with the bigoted and rough speech that is repeated in the wagon, emphasizing Nick’s kind nature.
Nick and the narrator often repeat single words, which increases the impact of those words. For example, in the opening paragraph, the narrator mentions twice that Joe “dragged” the unconscious Indigenous man, emphasizing the violence of that act. After returning home, Nick says that the day was “swell” two times, establishing Nick’s positive mood before it gets ruined by bad news. Nick asks his father the same questions, sometimes with slight variation (“Did you see anybody?” […] “Didn’t you see anybody at all?”) (24), which conveys his panic after learning of Prudence’s betrayal. The final paragraph repeats natural imagery—the narrator references the wind three times and the waves twice—to create the sensation that the world keeps turning even after earth-shattering news.
In Medias Res
Hemingway begins his story in medias res—in the middle of the action. The wagon is already traveling home after a holiday spent in town, indicating that what Nick and the Garners did that day is not particularly important to the story Hemingway wants to tell. Rather than focus on details about Petoskey or the baseball game, the story opens with Mr. Garner dragging the Indigenous man out of the road. This spotlights the treatment of Indigenous people by white settlers as one of the story’s primary themes, with other American traits and past times considered secondary. The author extends the idea of “the middle of the action” to Nick’s life and American history more broadly by calling out this day as “one Fourth of July” (19). This asserts that this type of interaction and anti-Indigenous bias is not unusual—it has happened before and will happen again because it’s an integral aspect of westward expansion.
Ambiguity
Some parts of the story are left ambiguous, leaving the reader to decide who is speaking or what a situation may suggest. Such omissions are central to Hemingway’s “Iceberg Theory,” which insists that most of a story’s meaning can be found in its subtext rather than what is explicitly written. The speaker is not clarified for much of the dialogue in the wagon, which has the effect of unifying the Garners into a single voice. In some cases, this ambiguity marks out the inconsequential nature of the dialogue, like when the boys are arguing over where Mr. Garner ran over a skunk. In other cases, the lack of labels expands the speaker’s anti-Indigenous bias to a culture-wide sentiment. When the story says, “All Indians wear the same kind of pants,” or, “Well, they smell about the same” (19, 20), the ambiguous speaker emphasizes that these are stereotypes, not simply unkind things that one character says.
Related Titles
By Ernest Hemingway
