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.
Symbols & Motifs
Americana (Fourth of July, Baseball, and Pie)
The Fourth of July celebrates the 1776 passage of the Declaration of Independence, which founded the United States as a land where “all men are created equal” and are endowed with “certain unalienable Rights,” including life and liberty. In “Ten Indians,” this date is ironic because all men are clearly not equal. The Garners barely see Indigenous people as human, and their conversation is peppered with racist stereotypes and slurs. As such, the story’s Fourth of July setting symbolizes the fact that such anti-Indigenous bias and violence is an integral part of the American identity. The American symbolism is deepened by the day’s baseball game—America’s pastime. By contrasting American mythology with the Garners’ treatment of Indigenous people, Ernest Hemingway critiques American anti-Indigenous bias.
Nick eats huckleberry pie when he gets home, which evokes the phrase “as American as apple pie.” Hemingway plays with this adage by changing the pie filling to huckleberry, a fruit native to North America. This change distinguishes between the Garners and the Adamses, who associate more with Indigenous people and don’t convey the same animosity in this story. Eating huckleberry pie rather than apple pie implies a willingness to adapt to the existing environment rather than impose European norms on the land.
Light and Darkness
The imagery of light and dark is both literal and symbolic in “Ten Indians.” Nick has spent a fun-filled day in town, and darkness descends as Nick and the Garners journey up the hill. In the late hours, after Nick reaches home, he discovers the devastating truth about Prudence. The light of his love is extinguished, but he awakens into a new day, having forgotten his heartbreak. This symbolizes his passage from the darkness of pain into the light of acceptance.
Along his journey home, Nick sees the distant lights of Petoskey and Harbor Springs, reflecting his movement upward and into the literal and symbolic darkness. When the party reaches the Garner farmhouse, Mrs. Garner comes out with “a lamp in her hand” and then builds a fire in the stove, both reflecting the warmth and comfort of home. Nick leaves this light to return to the darkness until he sees “the lights of the cottage” and his father “reading in the light from the big lamp” (22, 23). This sets out both homes as safe havens, places where Nick feels safe and welcome. At the same time, the descriptions of the dark forest are pleasant and sensory, subverting the American dichotomy between “civilized” settlers and “uncivilized” Indigenous people. This is reinforced by Nick seeing his father as “a big shadow on the kitchen wall” (23), creating a silhouette that can be seen as ominous and threatening.
Nature
Nature is a motif in this story, as it is in many of Hemingway’s other works. Judging by the undeveloped region where “Ten Indians” takes place, with details
like unpaved roads and wagons instead of cars, the story is likely set in the early 1900s. In contrast to the city lights Nick sees in Petoskey from afar, the wagon travels through rough terrain. While the Garners and their wagon represent white settler colonialism, they have not conquered nature; they struggle on sandy roads and must deal with wild animals like snakes and skunks. Hemingway elevates the natural in contrast to westward expansion and Western civilization, creating beautiful images that contrast with the Garners’ bigoted remarks about Indigenous people. When Nick leaves the wagon at the Garner home, he sets out on foot on a smooth path, which contrasts with the bumpy road the wagon traverses. He has not bothered to bring his shoes, suggesting they are part of the developing “civilized” world and not necessary in his natural surroundings.
After Nick learns the distressing news about Prudence’s betrayal, the sounds and sensuous feel of nature comfort him and guide him through his anguish. When he goes to bed, the wind in the trees lulls him to sleep. Waking in the night, he hears “the wind in the hemlock trees […] and the waves of the lake coming in on shore,” then falls back asleep (25). These sounds remain the next morning, keeping his heartbreak at bay and reflecting a consistency and loyalty that comforts him. Nick feels better the next morning, and the reliable wind and waves reflect that nature endures, even when people are unreliable.
Related Titles
By Ernest Hemingway
