White Power Writing And White Desire Writing

The Indian characters, primarily occurring in the short stories, never play a crucial role in Hemingway's works. They are never major characters, but serve as foils to increase the reader's understanding of the protagonist. However, Hemingway began his literary career with his characterization of the Indians in an early year. This thesis, by collecting Hemingway's all Indian works and dividing them into two categories to make an explicit analysis, introduces that Hemingway's characterization of the Indians experience a change, from an unconscious inheritance of the colonial narrative to a conscious cultural construction of the Indians. This thesis is aimed for exploring Hemingway's racial attitude toward the Indians by placing them in a context of the white's internal colonialism to the Indian.The Introduction discusses the previous critics' research on the Indians in Hemingway's works to exPlore the protagonist Nick's growing-up experience, or his relation with his fathers, or the Indian culture cultivate Hemingway a "tribal legacy." Although some critics mentioned race issue or racial identity, they have made little progress in exploring Hemingway's culture background and pointing out the Indian's marginalized situation. Therefore, it leaves room for my study to put the Indians in a subaltern position The Indians, being imagined by the white, are racial "other" in a context of postcolonialism.Chapter Two introduces two factors influencing Hemingway's characterization of the. Indians: Wild West Show and racial debates. This chapter firstly studies the Indian images in Wild West Show which is "the classic cliches about Native Americans." By tracing it back to the Indian images in puritan mind, the Wild West Show succeeds the empire narrative formed in European colonists' assimilation to the Indians. Therefore, the Indian is created by the white imagination. It is the white definitions and perceptions of Indians. In another aspect, this chapter also studies the Indian characters in Hemingway's life and his works. In Hemingway's works, the Indian males seem to be drunkard, savage, cold, and revengeful; while the female characters seems to be promiscuous and attractive in sex.Chapter Three focuses on analyzing the Indian males in Hemingway's works, including the suicide Indian husband in "Indian Camp" and the half breed in "The Doctor and the Doctor's Wife." The Indian husband seems to be impotent when he was confronted with his wife's labor. The Indian husband, in a subaltern position with the relation to the white, remains opaque by using Spivak's term. His suicide is attributed to the presence of white and their power. In "The Doctor and the Doctor's Wife," Hemingway portrays two Indian males: the half breed and the pure Indian. The half breed seems to be treacherous, lazy and aggressive being supposed as a ruffian. However, the other Indian, utterly no confrontation with the others, timid, is browbeated by the white world. In Hemingway's mind, the half breed is the heir with the worst traits of two cultures, to be trusted and accepted by neither.Chapter Four is mainly to analyze the Indian females in Hemingway's works, including Prudence and the Indian squaw. Prudence, serving as an enduring symbol of indulgent and gratifying female sexuality, occurs subsequently in "Ten Indians," "Fathers and Sons" and "The Last Good Country." She seems to be promiscuous and energetic but bringing her white lover infinite sexual pleasure. In The Torrents of Spring, the Indian woman, more attractive in sex and fertile than the white woman, serves as prescription to cure white man's sterility. When he characterized the Indian females, Hemingway habitually connects the white male with Indian female by sex. Hemingway's fantasy for the Indian female is an unconscious expression of colonial desire. The conclusion brings that Hemingway's characterization of the Indian could not surpass the impact of the white culture's construction of the Indian in history. His knowledge of biology and his inherent racial prejudice shadows his invention of the Indian characters. Meantime, his inconsistent treating the Indians as "other" or "self," reflects his contrary state. Through an investigation and detailed analysis of the different Indian images, the purpose of this thesis is to call the domestic critics' attention to Hemingway's Indian stories and his racial inclination. It is sincerely hoped that this thesis would open up a new perspective of the Indian images in Hemingway's works, and of the research on his view toward race.