Gender Blog Post #1

Hunters in the Snow by Tobias Wolff

1. Which of the three principal characters do you find most sympathetic? The least sympathetic? Discuss your answers. Do the characters' names help us to form our impressions of them?

CHARACTERIZATION: the process by which the writer reveals the personality, values, and quality of a character

 The character I felt most sympathetic towards was Tub. I felt so bad for him because he was so tubby and fat and slow. I just felt like Frank and Kenny were jerks to him to for no reason. They bullied him and it made me feel sad for him. I felt least sympathetic for Kenny's character. I was glad he got shot because he was annoying. Tub was the butt of all his jokes and he did seem like he was going to shoot Tub next. I didn't know he was supposed to kill the dog, though. When he shot the dog I was like "oh no!" and then didn't feel sad anymore because Tub had shot him. The characters' names do help form an impression of them, especially Tub's. Frank seems older and Frank is sort of an older name. Kenny just sounds annoying and rude. It doesn't help that the only Kenny I know is someone who is very obnoxious. The characterization of the characters also comes through when they are resting and eating after two hours of hunting. The author says, "Kenny had several slices of pizza and a couple of candy bars; Frank had a sandwich, an apple, two carrots, and a square of chocolate; Tub had one hard-boiled egg and a stick of celery" (Wolff 189). This shows that Kenny is a jerk for eating all that food in front of Tub, who obviously loves food, and Frank is sort of in the middle eating healthier, but still a lot. Then there is Tub who is eating close to nothing in front of his friends. Kenny goes on to say that he thinks this is the only diet Tub's been on where he gained weight. This again, characterizes Kenny as a jerk and Tub as trying to hide the fact that he's fat and isn't doing anything about it because he's embarrassed. But in reality, we know that he eats a lot because cookies and two sandwiches fall out of his pockets, and he eats four plates of pancakes later on.