Tuesday, September 23, 2014

Are the characters in "Hunters in The Snow" flat or round?

Most of the characters in "Hunters in the Snow" are flat characters because they do not change or grow during the story. If they were round characters, they would undergo character development and conclude the story changed in some way. Tub, in contrast to Kenny and Frank, is a bit of a round character because he does change after he shoots Kenny.
Frank is selfish from the beginning of the story until the end. He is planning to leave his wife and children to be with a teenage babysitter; he thinks it is true love. He is still intending to leave her at the end. He does not act differently or grow in any way. When Tub confesses that he does not have a gland issue and just likes to eat in secret, Frank orders him pancakes and lets him gorge in front of him—but it is not a change in his character. He does it because Tub has accepted his infidelity and intention to leave his wife. It is still selfishness.
Kenny is cruel at the beginning of the story and does not change before the end. He shoots a post and a dog for no reason and then turns to Tub and seems like he is going to shoot his friend. Once he has been shot, he does not change or regret the joke that led to his friend believing Kenny would shoot him. While he is incoherent in the back of the truck on the way to the hospital, he does not change. He is affected by the injury and unable to even get out of the truck.
Tub begins the story as a person who is unable to stand up for himself and ends it as someone who is more assertive. At the beginning, his friends mock his weight, and he does not really stand up for himself beyond saying that he has been on a diet. After he shoots Kenny, Frank calls him a fat moron, and Tub grabs him and holds him against a fence, shaking him. He tells him, "No more talking to me like that. No more watching. No more laughing." Frank agrees.
In contrast to the other characters, Tub experiences a change in his character. He is able to stand up for himself and is honest with Frank about his lack of a gland issue by the end of the story. For these reasons, he is a round character. The events of the story have changed him.
Two of the main characters begin and end the story as the same people without any character development. If Frank had realized the selfishness of his decision to leave his family or if Kenny had stopped being cruel in the wake of the shooting, they would be round characters. Since they do not change, they are flat characters. Tub, on the other hand, does become more assertive and becomes willing to stand up for himself after he shoots Kenny. Because he experiences change and grows as a character, he is a round character, while Kenny and Frank remain flat.

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