Oh, My God, You Killed Kenny / Q 1 - Short Story Blog 2 (Hunters in the Snow)

"Nobody knows. That's the worst of it, Frank. Not the being fat, I never got any big kick out of being thin, but the lying. Having to lead a double life like a spy or hit man. This sounds strange but I feel sorry for those guys, I really do. I know what they go through. Always having to think about what you say and do. Always feeling like people are watching you, trying to catch you at something. Never able to just be yourself."

~ Tobias Wolff, Hunters in the Snow


I wasn't sure what to do for this blog so it would count for a "Lit Terms" entry, so I am going to answer question 1 after the story in the book.

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


(And by "the most sympathetic" I am going to interpret that as "evokes the most sympathy")

It was a close race, but here is the order I would put for which character I felt the most sorry.

1) Tub
2) Kenny
3) Frank

I felt the most sorry for Tub because I think he is a good guy at heart. No, I don't care if he is a little slow and a lot fat - that's no reason to throw all sympathy out the window. He is an underdog, and even if he doesn't necessarily overcome anything throughout the story, that makes him likable. He takes Frank's creepy problems to heart and tries to comfort him, even though Frank was being a tool earlier in the story. Tub is definitely insecure about himself and his eating problem - we can all relate to having insecurities. Tub is just nice and he cares about his "friends" even though they are mean to him.

Next, I felt the most sorry for Kenny. Given these three conditions I was under prior to reading the story

1) his name is Kenny
2) there are guns involved in this story
3) I am familiar with South Park

I knew something was gonna go down. And it did. Kenny is number two on the sympathy list only because he was shot accidentally by Tub. First of all, they just throw him in the bed of the truck - I have a truck. Whenever I throw things in the bed, I can hear it slamming around in there - ouch. Then, they stop and say, "Oh, Kenny, we are getting a little chilly, so we are going to let you freeze/bleed to death while we go to a gas station or diner or whatever and practice gluttony with pancakes." And then it almost suggests that he dies at the end when they went the wrong way to go to the hospital. That sucks.

Third was Frank. I didn't really feel sorry for him at all. He isn't just a jerk to both Tub and Kenny, but he is a creep. What kind of man lets his wife go out while he stays home and rocks the cradle? That's disgusting.

As for the second part of the question, yes. The names have significance. I've already touched on one (Kenny, guns, South Park), and Tub is the next. I guess he is just as big as a tub, so that gives us the image of a very, very large man. President William Howard Taft also comes to mind. But unless "Frank" means "pedophile" in a language I don't know, I don't think his name has much significance.