While Nick’s father takes him to the Indian camp to impart an important life lesson and kickstart his son’s maturation process, the experience seems to have the opposite effect, making it an example of situational irony.
Rather than leaving the experience with a clear understanding of birth, Nick leaves his time at the Indian Camp with a muddled understanding of death. This comes across in the following passage, as Nick asks his father about death and then comes to his own conclusions about mortality:
“Why did he kill himself, Daddy?”
“I don’t know, Nick. He couldn’t stand things, I guess.”
[…]
“Is dying hard, Daddy?”
“No, I think it’s pretty easy, Nick. It all depends.”
They were seated in the boat, Nick in the stern, his father rowing. The sun was coming up over the hills. […]
In the early morning on the lake sitting in the stern of the boat with his father rowing, he felt quite sure that he would never die.
Here Nick asks his father about why the Indian man killed himself and he responds, “He couldn’t stand things, I guess,” implying that suicide is the result of weakness. Nick then asks if dying is hard and he responds, “No, I think it’s pretty easy,” again implying that death is a good option for people who want an easy way out.
That Nick ultimately concludes that “he would never die” communicates two things. First, it makes it clear that Nick has internalized the idea that death is for the weak and he wants to be a strong man, like his father. Second, it shows how he has left this experience with an incorrect takeaway about how death works. In this way, his father’s intention at the start of the story—to help his son learn something about life—ends up backfiring.
After successfully delivering the Indian woman’s baby, Nick’s father discovers that her husband has committed suicide inside the room with them during the delivery. The Indian man’s death is an example of situational irony for a few different reasons. First, given that his wife has been in labor for two days and undergoes a spontaneous cesarean surgery with a jackknife, readers are primarily concerned that she is the one who might die.
The moment in which the people in the shanty realize the man is dead adds another layer of irony, as seen in the following passage:
“Ought to have a look at the proud father. They’re usually the worst sufferers in these little affairs,” the doctor said. “I must say he took it all pretty quietly.”
He pulled back the blanket from the Indian’s head. His hand came away wet. He mounted on the edge of the lower bunk with the lamp in one hand and looked in. The Indian lay with his face toward the wall. His throat had been cut from ear to ear.
This irony comes from the fact that Nick’s father goes to wake the Indian man in order to “look at the proud father” who “took it all pretty quietly.” It is ironic because the man is anything but proud. He likely committed suicide due to the shame and grief he was experiencing due to not being able to help his wife through her immense pain (or possibly because white men were cutting his wife open without any regard for her well-being). Furthering the irony, the reason the husband “took it all pretty quietly” is, of course, that he was dead. This moment highlights the underlying tension in this cross-cultural encounter, as well as the incomprehensible nature of death—no one will ever know exactly why he decided he had to die in this moment.
After Nick’s father successfully delivers the Indian woman’s baby via an unplanned and risky surgery, Uncle George refers to him as “a great man.” This is an example of situational irony since Nick’s father has proven to be quite the opposite in the way he has treated the Indian woman.
For example, upon entering the shanty where the woman has been in labor for two full days, Nick and his father hear the woman scream. Desperate, Nick asks his father to give her something to "make her stop screaming,” and his father replies that he doesn’t have an anesthetic but that it doesn’t matter anyway because “her screams are not important.”
Later, after completing the delivery, Nick’s father pays closer attention to Uncle George—who the Indian woman bit during the agonizing surgery—than to the woman herself, as seen in the following passage:
“I’ll put some peroxide on that, George,” the doctor said. He bent over the Indian woman. She was quiet now and her eyes were closed. She looked very pale. She did not know what had become of the baby or anything.
“I’ll be back in the morning,” the doctor said, standing up.
Here Nick’s father notices that Uncle Gorge is looking at the wound on his arm and, as a result, says that he’ll “put some peroxide on that.” Then, he looks at the Indian woman—who is “quiet” and “very pale” (implying major blood loss)—and simply says, “I’ll be back in the morning.” His clinical and emotionless response to the woman’s suffering is evidence that he is not the “great man” that Uncle George believes him to be, or at least establishes that their conception of masculine decency does not include treating (Native) women as equals.
