The story Hunter’s in the Snow is a fiction published in the year 1982. The author Tobias Wolff tells the story of three men Tub, Frank and Kenny who decide to go on a trip to the woods for hunting. As I read on I find that as the story develops the character unveils. The presentation of the characters does not reveal much and I come to know about the characters only through their actions and I keep guessing about their real self. The three characters who appear to be good friends at the surface have hidden secrets which they
conceal from each other and these truths later on lead to their destruction. As the story develops I am surprised to know that they have bitterness for each other which are emphasized in the apt setting of the cold, drab winter time. Their arrogant conversations expose the inhuman complexities of the human nature which is as freezing and unemotional as the winter snow.There are a lot of autobiographical elements in the story and Wolff‘s life is seen within the characters. The opening seems fascinating to me, Tub had been waiting for an hour in the falling snow (Wolff 1) and this draws my curious mind into the story and I am eager to know what follows. The story also makes me reminiscent of my days of hunting with my father during the winter. The dialogues between the hunters remind me how we used to enjoy talking and making fun. I like everything until Kenny appears to be going crazy. He starts hating certain things and shoots at them. It’s pathetic to read when he tells Tub; I hate you (Wolff 78) and before Kenny could pull the trigger Tub shoots Kenny right in the stomach and knocks him over backwards. But the most scheming part to me seems the way in which Frank and Tub behave after the incident. They stop at a coffee shop; forget that they have lost their notes and map and that they are driving in an opposite direction to the hospital. It is strange that with the conservations between the two friends I also become oblivious of the fact that Kenny is bleeding in the car. The efficacy of writing by the writer in relating the conversations between Frank and Tub is so heartfelt and the things revealed so shocking and horrendous that I almost forget the dying Kenny and when at the end I come to know he’s dead it does not surprise me much. The weakness of the story is the narration which is very distant and the speaker just states fact. It’s the setting and dialogues that give insight into the characters.
The story is no doubt interesting but inhuman. I read the story Bullett in the Brain and this one attracted me too .The author presents his characters normal and sensible this moment and mad people the next moment. But the story instead of giving me answers to different life situations feels my mind with a lot of questions. It may appear normal that the men who are instinctively primeval are befitting with the primordial settings of the woods but I really cannot come to terms that how Frank and Tub stay so cool and talk on divorce, lust and such things while stuffing themselves with coffee and pancakes while Kenny bleeds to death. I really feel hatred towards them. May be to get rid of persecution they had to let him die. Therefore the story really does not end but it continues to develop in the hearts of readers like me who are eager to find the answers.
Works Cited
Wolff, Tobias. “The Hunters in The Snow” (1982)
This article was earlier published by me with the pen-name 'edumate' (http://www.writinghood.com/online-writing/hunters-in-the-snow/)