"Ten Indians" is a short story by American writer
Ernest Hemingway
Ernest Miller Hemingway ( ; July 21, 1899 – July 2, 1961) was an American novelist, short-story writer and journalist. Known for an economical, understated style that influenced later 20th-century writers, he has been romanticized fo ...
, featuring protagonist
Nick Adams, Hemingway's autobiographical
alter ego
An alter ego (Latin for "other I") means an alternate Self (psychology), self, which is believed to be distinct from a person's normal or true original Personality psychology, personality. Finding one's alter ego will require finding one's other ...
. It was published in 1927 in the collection ''
Men Without Women''. The title is derived from a comment made by Mr. Garner - "That makes nine of them" - after moving an Indian (
Native American) who had passed out on the road. The title also alludes to the 1864 children's song,
Ten Little Indians
"Ten Little Indians" is an American children's Counting-out game, counting out rhyme. It has a Roud Folk Song Index number of 12976. In 1868, songwriter Septimus Winner adapted it as a song, then calledTen Little Injuns, for a minstrel show.
Lyr ...
.
Plot summary
Set in
North Michigan on the
Fourth of July
Independence Day, known colloquially as the Fourth of July, is a federal holiday in the United States which commemorates the ratification of the Declaration of Independence by the Second Continental Congress on July 4, 1776, establishing th ...
it features Nick Adams as he is travelling home with Joe Garner and their family in a large wagon. They pass several drunk Indians and then Joe Garner has to stop and pull a drunk Indian out of the road, which he says is the ninth. The Garners joke about the state of the Indians, and the two sons also disparage Nick's Indian girlfriend Pru and that she smells like a skunk. Nick feels uncomfortable and denies that she is his girlfriend.
When Nick returns home from the Garners his father says that today he saw Pru in the woods with a someone called Frank Washburn. His father said that they seemed happy and that they 'threshed about' in the woods. Nick starts to cry. That next morning Nick takes a while to remember the heartbreak.
Analysis
By depicting a large group of drunken Indians the story reinforces common racial prejudices against Native Americans. Nick feels unable to challenge the Garners views.
Ten Indians' and the pleasures of close reading..
The Free Library. 1996 Ernest Hemingway Foundation. Retrieved 28/9/2022. Nick's father is also unhappy about Nick's relationship with Pru, it is also implied that he lied to his son about Pru 'threshing about' with Frank.
References
External links
Full text of "Ten Indians" at HathiTrust Digital Library
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1927 short stories
Short stories by Ernest Hemingway
Michigan in fiction
Autobiographical short stories
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