A Hunting Trip with Friends in "Hunters in the Snow" by Tobias Wolff

The character of Tub was presented in the opening scene as someone who would not stand up for himself and was willing to be ridiculed and made fun of to be part of a group. He allowed his friends to take advantage of him by making him wait over an hour in the cold and snow, accepting this behavior without even an apology. Tub was a character with low self esteem and was embarrassed of his weight, which allows him to make excuses and lie to everyone. The assessment of Tub did not change at the end of the story. He was

The first chapter of Braving the Wilderness is Everywhere and Nowhere. This chapter is about her family and her life as a teenager. The main topic is that we do numerous things with torment to not feel it. We numb or deliver it on others, we deny it or pass it onto friends and family, or we discover empathy for ourselves and claim the agony. In chapter 2 of Braving the Wilderness, she talks about the political atmosphere and how it is like a battle zone. She also defines belonging on page 31. It says belonging is the innate human desire to be part of something larger than us. I can relate to wanting to belong especially in high school. She also tells us to learn how to be brave and to experience the discomfort of standing alone is a skill we need to learn. In High Lonesome a

Frank acts as the connection between Tub and Kenny. He is able to be an effective middleman because while not as yielding as Tub, he is much less antagonistic than Kenny. While the men have an annual hunting tradition, Frank and Tub are the ones that appear to have a longer history together. In the beginning of the story, Frank is in the center of the pecking order, above Tub but below Kenny. Despite Frank and Tub being the closer of the three, Frank tends to go along with Kenny’s pranks and insults towards Tub because of Kenny knowledge of Frank’s secret.

The three characters distinguish “Hunter’s in the Snow” as literary fiction through the author’s attempt on to make a statement about the human condition. “Hunters in the Snow” does not aim at simple entertainment, but rather tries to get us to see deeper into the three men's personal characters. Many devices used in literary fiction are present in "Hunters". The story does not end in a way that is either "good" or

The short story Hunters in the Snow by Tobias Wolff depicts three men that go on a hunting trip that changes the course of their lives. Each character lies to himself to accept his actions in his life. Kenny, Frank, and Tub need to successfully fool themselves before they can deceive anyone else. Each of the men are immature and selfish. They don't realize how their decisions impact other people's lives. They justify their lies with their own insecurities about their lifestyles. Their lies impact the situations they encounter and change their lives forever.

That’s the way I feel about it’” (39). Despite how manly Tub is supposed to be as a man, the two men have this special bond together and they show it. Tub then tells Frank, ‘”When I said that about my glands, that wasn’t true. The truth is I just shovel it in’” (40). Regardless being made fun of or picked on about Tub’s weight and clumsiness, Tub is yet a good listener and a great friend.

As I read the short story Hunters in the Snow, I was very intrigued in finding out what was going to happen next. One thing I didn’t understand was why Tobias Wolff did not provide information as to how the three men met. It kind of throws off the story in the beginning because we don’t know any information about any of the men. I was very disappointed in the ending of the story because the author didn’t let readers know whether or not Kenny made it to the hospital. Tobias Wolff’s Hunters in the Snow was surprisingly a very compelling story, I also love the outdoors and hunting is one of my hobbies so it kept me on the edge of my seat.

Kenny at the start of the story drives recklessly in his truck on his way to pick up Tub. This could have been an attempt to impress Frank and to continue to mess with tub. Tubs distance from the other two friends is shown immediately when he has to ride in the bed of the truck, while Frank and Kenny are in the cab of the truck. The separation between tub and his friend’s continues to show throughout the story. An example of this is when “Kenny and Frank pulled ahead of him [Tub], to where he couldn’t even hear their voices anymore” (169). Tub continues to be separated from the group because he is the weakest of the three. Tub is the only one who continues to complain about the trip and is the worst hunter out of the other men. This only causes him to be the target for Franks and Kenny’s jokes. Tub’s experience on the trip was not what he had expected. For Frank he follows in Kenny’s path rather than tub because he would rather be like Kenny more than Tub. So when Kenny continues to follow a trail faster than Tub can keep up with he chooses to keep up with Kenny and leave Tub behind. “Cruelty a result of a lack of empathy, is apparent throughout” (Constantakis). Franks choice provokes Kenny to act out more and continue to be violent and makes Tub feel like more of an outcast.

With the hopes that it wouldn't snow, I traveled to Silverton Colorado with my dad in October. My dad and I had six elk tags for the very first rifle season. We pulled our camp trailer down to a nice wooded area about five miles before you get into town. The camp sight was about a quarter mile off of the highway. There were trees all around the camping spot; the only break in the trees was where the road came through.

While Kenny removes resistance, Frank vanquishes peace as the horseman of War. First, Frank destroys Tub’s internal peace by criticizing Tub’s weight. Frank ceaselessly pesters Tub, accusing his fat as the reason he has not “seen [his] own balls in ten years” (Wolff 88). Through this offensive approach, Tub is forced on the defensive. This maltreatment dismantles the once healthy relationship, ultimately leading to the destruction of a healthy relationship between the two characters. However, Frank also terminates his own peace by falling for a girl decades younger, destroying his current marriage. This internal war between morality and lust, manifests in his consideration to divorce his wife who has “been damned good to me all these years” (Wolff 97). This leads him to lose all hopes for maintaining his own family. Family is considered a symbol of stability, yet the war waged makes Frank lose this. After the horsemen of War, Famine streaks through. Famine is considered the result of war. Tub represents famine through his many

While true friendship can weather the storm, superficial friendships can change with the seasons. In the short story “Hunters in the Snow” by Tobias Wolff, a trio of men go on a hunting trip in the snow that ends abruptly when Tub shoots Kenny and they have to drive to the hospital. On their way there, Frank and Tub stop a few times, and they begin to talk and learn more about each other, all the time becoming less concerned with Kenny. These talks bring them closer while the snow outside dies away. The snowy setting is a symbol for being cold and distant to one another, drawing attention to the message that superficial relationships are not as strong as real ones.

This quotation comes from a conversation that Frank and Tub have after Kenny’s left to ask the farmer permission to his on his land. Frank gives Tub this statement after Tub asks Kenny why he doesn’t stand up for him anymore. Frank digs into Tub’s insecurity and his weakness while also hinting at his own issues, yet to be revealed by Kenny. However, it’s also in this statement that Frank and Tub are connected, because they both do have personal problems, both tangentially involving Kenny. So when Tub shoots Kenny, both Frank and Tub reap the rewards of having a portion of their problem “solved”. For Frank, it’s Kenny’s volatility with his secret and for Tub, it’s Kenny’s picking on him. Though neither of their issues are actually fixed, (in fact, they’re exaggerated) Frank and Tub aren’t self-aware enough to realize that their problems run much deeper than Kenny.

This is hinted at when Tub scarfs down two sandwiches and cookies when they were hunting. Through the story, Tub gained confidence to confront his friends and the courage to reveal his secret (86-99).

Everyone kills, and everyone eats. Not everyone eats what they kill, but these remain two of the most intimate forms of communing with our environment, whether we recognize them as such, or not. Almost 40 000 Americans are killed each year as the result of homicidal, accidental, and suicidal uses of guns; in all, Americans wielding guns intimidate, wound, and kill hundreds of thousands every year. These were the kinds of ideas impressed upon me as I grew up in my urban home: Guns were beasts, as were knives, arrows, spears, indeed anything could become a weapon if held in a particular way. We sprayed each other with the hose instead of water guns, and spent many long hours as a family "communing with nature" through long walks on the

“Hunters in the Snow” is about three men who go deer hunting on a very