The InterlopersThe Interlopers

By: Daniel Vanaman, Matt Thompson, and Chris Skinner

Table of Contents

• About the author

• Plot Summary

• Symbolism

• Conclusion

About the Author

• Hector Hugh Munro, or Saki was a satirist and author with a taste for the witty and outrageous. Saki wrote most of his best work for newspapers such as the Westminster Gazette, Daily Express, Bystander, Morning Post and Outlook. A master of the short story, Saki entertains like few other writers do at the first reading. It is on subsequent readings that one is made aware of the sheer beauty and ease of Saki's language.

About the Author

• Hector Hugh Munro was born in Akyab, Burma on the 18th of December 1870, and was killed by a sniper on the 16th of November 1916, near Beaumont-Hamel, France. He was a historian, political satirist and author of short stories, novels and plays. His pen-name Saki was taken from the Sufi poet Hafiz, who addressed several of his verses to a saki, or cupbearer.

About the Author

• The son of a Scottish military policeman, he was raised by his two aunts, Tom and Augusta. By all accounts, they were tyrannical in their upbringing of Hector, his sister Ethel and brother Charlie. Saki would later take his revenge on them in his poisonous fiction. He is persistently accused of misogyny in his writing, and it is true that there are few sympathetic female characters. However, to jaded modern tastes, characters such as the Baroness in the Clovis tales, and Matilda in The Boar-Pig are, if not exactly admirable, certainly refreshing and delightful.

About the Author

• He had an interest in natural history, and as a child in Burma raised a tiger cub. Animals play a strong part in his fiction. Something of the rural gothic influences many of his short stories - Gabriel-Ernest from Reginald In Russia is a key example. This story brings together two of Saki's favorite themes: the aforementioned rustic horror, and a fascination with the depraved innocence of young men. It is known that he was gay, and while in London and Burma kept a "houseboy". It was in London that he was to meet and befriend Siegfried Sassoon.

About the Author

• He enlisted in the 22nd Battalion, Royal Fusiliers at the start of the Great War. He refused a commission, claiming that he could not expect soldiers to follow him unless he had experience of battle. He was promoted to lance-sergeant two months before his death. Even at the front, he continued to write.

Plot Summary• As the story opens, it is

revealed to the reader that the heads of neighboring families, Ulrich von Gradwitz and Georg Znaeymn, strongly hate each other and are in a feud with each others family.

• The feud is over a disagreement over a plot of land. The land is an undesirable strip of woods that is virtually worthless.

Plot Summary

• The strip of woods has no value. The trees are stunted, there is no game for hunting, and the soil is horrible for agriculture.

• The want for the land is just over the principal of the thing.

• The initial solution for the dispute is the Von Gradwitz family takes the Znaeymns to court and the Von Gradwitz win the decision. Despite the decision, the feud doesn’t end.

Plot Summary

•The Znaeymns refuse the ruling and continue to hunt roebuck on the land.

•The roebuck is a European deer, smaller than the American White Tail deer.

Plot Summary

• The Znaeymns still trespassed on the Von Gradwitz property and poached the roebuck.

• The Von Gradwitz’s were aware of the trespassing so Ulrich strategically placed his men throughout the land in order to catch and kill Znaeymn. Znaeymn brought men with him too.

Plot Summary

•The two men round the bend of a tree and run right into each other. Neither shoots because it would not be civilized to kill the other out of cold blood.

Plot Summary• Suddenly a tree is struck by lightning and falls on both of them. It is freezing cold and very windy. There is a raging storm. After the two come to their senses, they start to survey the damage. Gradwitz has a gash over his eye and blood is flowing into it. Then the men, instead of helping each other, start arguing about who’s men will get there first and kill the other.

Plot Summary

•Znaeymn tries to settle this argument by getting out a wine flask and offering some of it to Gradwitz. This was a sincerely kind gesture, but Gradwitz refuses to accept it.

Plot Summary•Gradwitz tries to settle the

dispute once again by Znaeymn that once his men get here he will free Znaeymn first. This provokes them both to bury the hatchet and they become friends.

Plot Summary

• They began to talk and realize the feud was pointless because they had lost a good friendship and their whole lives had been consumed with hatred. They decide they are going to work together and shout for help. They see black spots heading their way and they try to decide who’s men it is.

Plot Summary

• Gradwitz suddenly laughs as he realizes that what he thought was their men has now turned out to be wolves.

Symbolism • Some symbolism is

used in “The Interlopers”.

• For instance, the raging storm that is happening when the tree falls on the men stands parallels the raging storm of the hatred between the two men.

Symbolism

• Another example of symbolism is when the two men are under the tree and Von Gradwitz offers the wine to Znaeymn.

• The wine symbolizes the new found peace between the two families.

Conclusion

•In conclusion, the actions displayed in this short story are best described with a quote by John Steinbeck.

“The best laid plans of mice and

men often go awry.”

-John Steinbeck