Tobias Wolff’s Hunters in the Snow

In Tobias Wolff’s Hunters in the Snow, the three characters—Frank, Kenny, and Tub—together go to hunt in the heavy snow. Each character has distinct characteristics. Frank is just as his name suggests—frank. Kenny is extremely sarcastic toward other characters. Tub is marked by his overweightness. Although the three characters are seemingly partners during the hunt, the reality is that everyone is fighting for his own interest and none of them cares about the others. Indeed, the theme of the story is that human by nature is selfish.

The story starts off with the setting of the three men hunting in the woods in the heavy snow. During the hunting, Tub is struggling to keep pace with Frank and Kenny because of his fat body. In fact, he grows panic when he lost Frank and Kenny in the woods due to his slowness. However, instead of tolerating Tub’s disadvantage in the snow, Frank and Kenny do not care at all about his condition and keep hunting as usual. They even tease Tub of not seeing the footprints of the deer when they join after losing him, completely disregarding his difficulty, where Tub confided: “I was lost”, but Kenny relied mockingly: “You were lost. Big deal”. Therefore, Wolff reveals the truth that human by nature does not care about others’ feelings. Furthermore, it should be noted that at the beginning of the story, Tub is anxious about the cold weather in the snow as he says, “I’m cold”. Yet, the response he received from Frank and Kenny was cold as well: “Stop bitching, Tub. Get centered.” This is ironic because at the end of the

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story, Kenny also complains: “I’m cold”, and this time, even though he is undergoing extreme pain and hardship, no one cares about him either, just like no one cares about Tub being cold during the hunt. This again accentuates the central theme of the story that humanity is selfish.