Indian Camp by Ernest Hemingway

This piece was beautifully paced, every sentence a slow build to the final revelation. While subtly built and seemly simple, a second or third read reveals some of the strategies used to create the main conflict of the piece-- the realization of mortality and the struggle of a parent trying to protect their child from this harsh reality.

When we were asked to write a dialogue for this class, my first thought was of a child grappling with this exact issue, asking seemingly endless inquiries to try to understand death. But it is a difficult enough thing to try to process ourselves, without trying to explain to someone else. Sure, we all know that at some point, we will all die. But how many of us, especially as college students who, statistically, have more than half our lives ahead of us, have really thought about and processed this fact? In trying to grapple with this issue myself, I found it impossible to try to explain it through the eyes of a parent to their child, not only dealing with issue of their own demise but that of their child, something no parent would want to contemplate. In reading Hemingway's dialogue, however, I saw that problem of trying to protect and comfort, yet still address the issue at hand, and found it much more compelling than anything I had managed to think of. That moment, and the thoughts of the child afterwards, were my favorite parts of the piece, both for the struggle and the realism of the struggle.