Hunters in the Snow

American author Tobias Wolff, known for memoirs like In Pharaoh's Army (1994) and short stories like “Bullet in the Brain” (1995), published “Hunters in the Snow” in 1981 in his first collection of short stories, In the Garden of North American Martyrs. The story is believed to be inspired by the painting Hunters in the Snow by Pieter Bruegel. The story, narrated from a third-person limited perspective, focuses on the relationship between three characters: Tub, Frank, and Kenny. This study guide cites the 2009 Bloomsbury Paperback edition of Wolff’s collected stories, Our Story Begins.

“Hunters in the Snow” begins with a man named Tub who “has been waiting for an hour in the falling snow” for his friends Kenny and Frank to arrive (20). When they arrive, Kenny begins to treat Tub cruelly. Kenny, who is driving the truck, deliberately mounts the curb and almost runs Tub over and then mocks Tub for being overweight, saying, “You look just like a beach ball with a hat on” (20). Tub is angry that Kenny and Frank are late, but Frank, who is in the passenger seat, is dismissive of Tub’s feelings, telling him to “be mellow” (20). Tub gets into the truck, and they drive toward the countryside to go hunting, stopping twice for coffee to warm up on the way because the windshield is broken due to “juvenile delinquents,” and the heater doesn’t work (21).

When they arrive at the woods, Tub complains about the cold, but Frank tells him to “stop bitching.” Kenny then threatens to tell Tub about Frank’s secret involving “a certain babysitter” (21-22). Tub struggles to get over fences and walk through the snow, but Kenny and Frank decline to help him. When they stop for lunch, Tub claims he is on a diet and blames being overweight on his “glands” (22). Frank again mocks Tub for being fat, which Kenny finds hilarious.

After lunch, they again look for animal tracks, with Tub on one bank of the creek and Kenny and Frank on the other. Tub struggles to keep pace, but Kenny and Frank don’t wait for him. Tub stops looking for tracks and tries to catch up. As the light fades, they still haven’t found deer tracks, so they start walking back to the truck on Tub’s side of the bank. Kenny gets angry at Tub because he sees tracks where Tub had been walking. They follow the tracks, which lead to a no-hunting area. They then go back to the truck to drive to the farmhouse to ask for permission to hunt on the land. Tub falls behind again, and Kenny and Frank reach the truck first and drive off without him. Kenny goes into the farmhouse to speak with the farmer. When Tub finally catches up with them, he scolds Frank for leaving him behind. Tub tells Frank, “I used to stick up for you,” but Frank’s response is dismissive (24). Tub asks Frank about the babysitter, but Frank doesn’t answer the question.

After getting the farmer’s permission to hunt on his land, they can’t find the deer tracks causing Kenny to get more frustrated. Kenny and Frank argue, and Kenny takes out his frustration by shooting a post and a tree. When the farmer’s dog starts barking at them, Kenny says he hates the dog and shoots it. Kenny turns to Tub and tells him he hates him too, so Tub shoots Kenny in the stomach in what he believes is self-defense. Kenny claims that he was only joking. With Kenny now powerless, Frank forms an alliance with Tub, and Kenny becomes the ostracized member of the group.

Tub and Frank walk to the farmhouse to ask the farmer if they can use his phone to call an ambulance. While Frank calls an ambulance, Tub confesses to the farmer that Kenny shot his dog. The farmer tells Tub that he had asked Kenny to shoot the dog because the dog was old and sick, and the farmer didn’t have the heart to do it himself. Tub is shocked. Frank returns with the news that no ambulances are available, so Tub and Frank decide to drive Kenny to the nearest hospital 50 miles away. A woman in the farmhouse gives Frank and Tub confusing shortcut directions.

Tub and Frank carry Kenny to the truck on boards, but Tub slips and drops Kenny, who yells out in pain. Frank calls Tub a “fat moron” and Tub, who is furious, grabs Frank by the collar, and warns him “no more talking to me like that” (29). Frank and Tub place Kenny in the truck, and Frank tells Tub that he would have shot Kenny too had he been in Tub’s position. Frank and Tub stop twice on the way to the hospital as they did on the way to the hunting ground. Frank explains to Kenny, “If me and Tub don’t get warmed up we’re going to freeze solid” (31). They leave Kenny in the truck, and he complains about the cold.

In the tavern, Frank apologizes to Tub for his behavior and tells him that he is having an affair and thinking of leaving his wife and children for a fifteen-year-old babysitter, Roxanne Brewer. Frank is worried about what Tub will think of him for this, but Tub supports Frank, telling him, “When you’ve got a friend it means you’ve always got someone on your side” (33). Tub then accidentally leaves the directions to the hospital in the tavern, but Frank claims he remembers the way. They stop for a second time, and Tub confesses to Frank that he doesn’t have problems with his glands and that he is fat because he eats too much. Frank gets Tub four orders of pancakes with butter and syrup and watches Tub eat them.

They go back to the truck and Tub tells Frank that the farmer asked Kenny to shoot the dog. They both laugh. Kenny thinks he is going to the hospital now, but they are driving in the wrong direction, Frank having taken a wrong turn a long way back.