Ten Indians

After reading through the Nick Adams stories that we have this semester, the reader almost “grows up” with Nick by observing from the outside.  Out of all the stories that we have read, “Ten Indians” really stuck out to me because of the impact it had on Nick.

          Throughout the story, Nick’s feelings take a relentless beating.  It starts when his friends, the Garner sons began making fun of him about Prudence.  The father even indulges a little with his sons, although not as bad.  Mrs. Garner does try to stop her family, but she even makes a joke to her husband.  Nick can do nothing but just listen to the comments. 

As if this verbal abuse wasn’t hard enough, he arrives home to meet his father for dinner.  His father mentions that he saw Prudence with another boy today at the camp.  The father seems to almost be toying with Nick’s emotions as if it were a game for him.  He completely disregards his son’s feelings because he had to have known about Nick and Prudence.  Nevertheless, Nick cries himself to sleep but forgets about it in the morning.

Nick cannot escape the remarks since they are coming from both his friends and his family.  The only person that actually tries to console Nick or restrain in any way is Mrs. Garner, who is clearly prejudiced by the way she acknowledges the Indians.  Although she may try to seem sincere in her words, upon further examination she is clearly a hypocrite. 

By analyzing everything that Nick went through in this story alone, it is clear that Nick didn’t have an ideal upbringing.  This is touched on more in the story “Fathers and Sons,” when he speaks of his father.