Examples of Direct and Indirect characterization in "Hunters in The Snow"

There are three named characters in Tobias Wolff's story "Hunters in the Snow": Tub, Frank, and Kenny. These three men are ostensibly friends, going out for a day of deer hunting in the land around Spokane, Washington. The direct characterization of each man is fairly sparse. We only know that:

Tub is fat, clumsy and ungainly.

Frank is a truck driver with hairy knuckles and a flashy gold ring.

Kenny has a mean sense of humor.
Most of the characterization is indirect, which contributes to the tense and uncomfortable tone of the story. Nobody's feelings are mentioned in the narrative; they must be gleaned from the context of their words and actions. We do not have a window into the mind of any character, so we can only assess them based on what they say about each other and themselves.

Tub is Frank's old friend, who feels he's been thrown over in favor of Kenny. The other men accuse him of "pissing and moaning," implying that Tub is a sensitive, neurotic sort of person. They mock his weight repeatedly, and Tub responds defensively, blaming his obesity on his "glands." It later transpires that Tub has a binge-eating disorder, which he describes as "pretty disgusting." He has a great deal of shame about his weight, shame which is complicated by his need for Frank's approval. When Frank calls him a "fat moron" and says, "You aren't good for diddly," Tub loses his temper and shakes Frank violently, demanding:

"No more talking to me like that. No more watching. No more laughing."

Tub values loyalty very highly. He and Frank used to be good friends, and he's hurt that Frank no longer seems to care for him:


"You've got a short memory," Tub said.
"What?" Frank said. He had been staring off.
"I used to stick up for you."

Later in the story, he tells Frank:

"Frank, when you've got a friend it means you've always got someone on your side, no matter what. That's the way I feel about it anyway."

He is willing to ignore any number of sins in the name of loyalty, which contributes to his indifference toward Kenny's plight at the end—Kenny is fundamentally less important than Frank, because Frank is Tub's friend, and Kenny is not.

Frank used to be Tub's friend but seems to have started pulling away from him in favor of Kenny. He is positioned quite literally between Tub and Kenny in the truck at the beginning of the story, and both of them look to him repeatedly for approbation. He has a wife and children, but he is in love with the children's 15-year-old babysitter. He knows his interest in the girl is morally dubious, and he tries to justify it to Tub, while at the same time admitting that he is a selfish person:

"I guess I've just been a little too interested in old number one . . . I guess you think I'm a complete bastard."

Frank is pragmatic and clearly the leader of the group. When Tub shoots Kenny, Frank stays calm, gets directions to the nearest hospital, and loads Kenny into the bed of the truck. He has no loyalty to either Kenny or Tub, however. At the beginning of the story, he is allied with Kenny, leaving Tub behind in the winter woods, mocking him for his weight, disparaging his intelligence, and accusing him repeatedly of "bitching." Once Tub shoots Kenny, Frank switches smoothly over to Tub as if he and Kenny had no relationship at all:

"Tub," Frank said. "what happened back there, I should have been more sympathetic. I realize that. You were going through a lot. I just want you to know it wasn't your fault. He was asking for it."


This might seem like genuine sympathy to a friend in a bad situation, but Frank complicates it by actively disregarding Kenny's health and safety while lavishing attention and affection on Tub. They stop not once, but twice, on their way to the hospital, and leave Kenny in the truck to bleed and freeze. Frank soothes Tub's self-loathing by inviting him to indulge his eating disorder, and it becomes evident that Frank does this to strengthen Tub's loyalty to him when he reveals that he has a sexual interest in his children's underage babysitter. Tub is initially very uncomfortable, and says the girl is too young, but Frank talks circles around him and Tub ends up believing that Frank's interest in the girl is justified, because Tub's loyalty comes before any other considerations. In fact, he feels privileged to have been told of Frank's illicit desire—exactly as Frank intended he should feel:


"You know," Tub said, "what you told me back there, I appreciate it. Trusting me."
Frank opened and closed his fingers in front of the nozzle. "The way I look at it, Tub, no man is an island. You've got to trust someone."

Frank's behavior is so calculating, it's disturbing, and the reader is left wondering if he cares about anyone.

Kenny is the odd man out of the three. He enters the story by pretending to drive his car into Tub, a cruel prank which frightens Tub and causes Kenny to double up with laughter. The stunt was apparently performed for Frank's enjoyment:

[Kenny] was bent against the steering wheel, slapping his knees and drumming his feet on the floorboards. He looked like a cartoon of a person laughing, except that his eyes watched the man on the seat beside him.

Kenny doesn't have Tub's sense of loyalty, though; everything is a joke to him. He threatens to reveal Frank's interest in the babysitter when Frank tells him to shut up:


"That's between us," Frank said, looking at Kenny. "That's confidential. You keep your mouth shut."
Kenny laughed.


He spends the day mocking Tub and occasionally Frank. He's angry that they're not having any luck hunting, and blames it on Tub for failing to notice deer tracks earlier in the day.

Kenny swore and threw down his hat. "This is the worst day of hunting I ever had, bar none." He picked up his hat and brushed off the snow. "This will be the first season since I was fifteen I haven't got my deer."

In a juvenile display of temper, he picks up his rifle and shoots a fence post and then the dog at the nearby farmhouse. He turns his gun on Tub last and says "I hate you," when Tub, in genuine fear, shoots him instead. Kenny is shocked: like most bullies, he never expected his victim to fight back.

"I was just kidding around," Kenny said. "It was a joke."

Tub and Frank load Kenny into the bed of the truck to drive him to the hospital, but they decide to renew their friendship in preference to getting Kenny medical care. He is freezing cold and bleeding to death for the latter half of the story, trusting that Tub and Frank will take him to get help. It turns out that shooting the fence post was a stupid act of aggression, but that shooting the dog was actually a favor Kenny agreed to do for the farmer at the farmhouse; he did not kill it in anger. Kenny is mean-spirited and immature, but not actually a dangerous person. Tub, who is a slave to his emotions and appetites, is more dangerous than Kenny, who did not shoot someone in a rage. And Frank, who is coldly detached from everything except what is best for himself, is far more dangerous than either of them, because Frank only does what Frank wants to do, very deliberately, and careless of the consequences to others.
All of this characterization is present in the story, but you must read between the lines to extract it. The text itself does not yield up any information without interrogation.