Hunters in the Snow

The overall structure and plot of the story plays a part in how Wolff viewed his own life within the characters. It opens with a simple yet intriguing statement: “Tub had been waiting for an hour in the falling snow” (Wolff 1). Immediately, this hook does its job drawing the reader into the story and making him wonder what is going on. In the same paragraph we find that Tub is walking down the street, carrying a rifle and seemingly, shooting the breeze. But then a car comes from nowhere, nearly killing Tub and forcing him to leap off the roadside. Inside the truck, Tub’s friends, Kenny and Frank, wait laughing at the apparent “joke” that they had just played. Tub doesn’t seem quite as amused, stating, “You could’ve killed me!” (Wolff 5). Then, the three friends begin to make their way towards the woods to go hunting for deer, which seems to be a normal habit for these three men (Bernardo 1). On the trip into the woods and while they are walking around searching for tracks, Kenny and Frank don’t seem to like Tub very much. Not only that, they seems to exclude him from walking with them in the forest. They make fun of him about his eating habits and even try driving off without him: “When Tub crossed the last fence into the toad the truck started moving. Tub had to run for it and just managed to grab hold of the tailgate and hoist himself into the bed. He lay there, panting. Kenny looked out the rear window and grinned” (Wolff 47). The qualities that these characters possess and their specific attitudes make you think that’s there’s an even deeper level to the writing- possibly stemming from Wolff’s personal experiences.

The story continues with the plot moving forward rather quickly and more evidence is found that may tie into Wolff’s preferences for how the story should be written. The friends make their way to a farmhouse to ask the property owner if they could hunt for a deer on his land because they had seen tracks leading up to his property. The farmer agrees but tells them they probably won’t find anything. But the three men head back out anyways. Hunting is an activity which Wolff’s father used to take him and his brothers out to do (Biography 2). It’s interesting to see how Wolff uses hunting as the basis for the story. Not long later Kenny appears to start going crazy. He states that he hates certain objects- then he shoots them “dead.” He shoots a tree. He shoots a dog. Then he says to Tub: “I hate you” (Wolff 78). But before Kenny could pull the trigger, Tub shoots off his rifle, hitting Kenny right in the stomach, knocking him over backwards. Frank just stood there stunned while Kenny started apologizing immediately, saying he was never going to shoot Tub. Meanwhile, Tub just