Hunters in the Snow Summary & Analysis

For an hour, Tub has been waiting on the side of the road in heavy snow. One driver nearly stops for him, but before Tub can “wave the man on,” the driver sees Tub’s rifle and speeds away.

Suddenly, a truck comes sliding around the corner, blaring its horn. Tub waves it down and the truck comes towards him but doesn’t slow down as it mounts the curb, forcing Tub to jump back so that two sandwiches and some cookies fall out of his pockets.

The truck comes to a halt and Tub picks up his sandwiches and approaches the driver’s window. The driver, later identified as Kenny, is laughing hysterically. “He looks just like a beach ball with a hat on,” Kenny says to Frank (the man in the passenger seat), and Frank smiles.

Telling the men that they could have killed him, Tub gets in the car, causing Frank to slide over to the middle seat. Frank reasons that Tub should be “mellow,” since Kenny was simply kidding around, but Tub continues, saying that the men are also an hour late in picking him up. Frank scolds Tub, telling him that he hasn’t “done anything but complain since we got here.” When Tub doesn’t protest, Kenny hits the road.

The truck is freezing because the heater doesn’t work and the windshield has been broken by “juvenile delinquents,” who hurled a brick through it. Keeping warm with blankets, the men head “deep into the country,” outside of Spokane, passing a desolate, motionless landscape. To warm up, they stop twice for coffee before they arrive at the woods in which Kenny wants to hunt—a location they’ve hunted twice before and come up empty handed, but which they’re trying again despite Tub’s desire to try a new spot.

When they arrive at the woods, Tub says that he’s cold and Frank tells him to “stop bitching” and “get centered.” Kenny mocks Frank for using the word “centered,” and Frank tells Kenny that he talks too much. “Okay,” Kenny responds, “I won’t say a word. Like I won’t say anything about a certain ‘babysitter.’” Tub asks who they’re talking about, but Frank looks at Kenny and says it’s “between us” and “confidential.” Kenny laughs, and Frank tells him, ominously, that he is “asking for it.”

The three of them set off towards the woods. Tub, who is less nimble than Kenny and Frank, finds it difficult to get through fences and the snow, but instead of helping him, they watch Tub struggle. By the time they’re ready to hunt, Tub is “puffing.”

After two hours and no sign of deer, they stop for lunch by a creek. Tub eats only an egg and a stick of celery because he is trying to lose weight. Kenny teases Tub for being on a diet, and Frank, much to Kenny’s glee, tells Tub that he so fat that he hasn’t “seen [his] own balls in ten years.” Tub replies that he can’t help being fat: “It’s my glands.”

After lunch, they leave the woods and start hunting along a creek, looking for tracks. They split up, Kenny and Frank on one bank and Tub alone on the other. In an effort to keep up with Frank and Kenny, Tub stops looking for tracks. Realizing that that he has lost sight of his friends altogether and hearing only Kenny’s distant laughter, Tub speeds up, fighting through the snow and breathing hard. Eventually, Tub catches up with them at a bend in the creek, where Frank and Kenny have stopped. Frank asks Tub if he has seen anything, and Tub shakes his head.

With daylight failing, they decide to head back, walking along Tub’s side of the creek. Almost immediately, Kenny spots some deer tracks leading from the creek into the woods, which Tub’s footprints clearly crossed. Kenny rebukes Tub for missing them. Tub tries to defend himself by saying he was “lost,” but Kenny dismisses his excuse: “You were lost. Big deal.”

They follow the tracks into the woods but come to a no hunting sign. Kenny wants to ignore the sign, but Frank insists that they ask the farmer who owns the land for permission to hunt on his land. Kenny isn’t convinced and thinks they are going to run out of daylight, but Frank tells Kenny to be patient—“You can’t hurry nature,” he says. “If we’re meant to get that deer, we’ll get it.”

They head back to the truck and Tub lags behind Kenny and Frank again—so far behind that he can’t even their voices anymore. Tired and dispirited, Tub sits down and eats the sandwiches and cookies he hadn’t eaten at lunch with the others, “taking his own sweet time.”

When Tub reaches the truck, Kenny has already started driving away, and Tub has to run to catch it. He jumps on just in time and lies in the back, “panting.” Kenny grins back at him, but Tub doesn’t find this prank funny, so he ignores Kenny and doesn’t turn around when one of his companions taps on the window to get his attention.

At the farmhouse, which is old and in need of repainting, Kenny goes in alone to get the farmer’s permission. Meanwhile, Tub tells Frank that Frank has “a short memory,” because he has evidently forgotten that Tub “used to stick up for” him. Frank, unrepentant, asks Tub: “What’s eating you?” When Tub reproaches Frank for leaving him behind in the truck, Frank tells Tub that he is a “grown-up” and “can take care of [himself].” He then hints that he has bigger problems to worry about than Tub’s hard feelings. Tub asks Frank if something is “bothering” him and what Kenny meant about the “babysitter.” Frank dismisses Tub’s question, saying that Kenny “talks too much” and telling Tub to “mind your own business.”

Kenny re-emerges from the farmhouse with his thumbs up. As they are starting off towards the woods, the farmer’s dog comes out of the barn, barking at them. With each bark, the dog slides backwards. Kenny responds by pretending to be a dog and snarling back, until the dog retreats in fear, “peeing a little as he went.” Frank says that the dog is “Fifteen years if he’s a day.” Kenny says it is “Too old.”

They pick up the deer tracks and follow them into the woods but in the falling darkness they eventually lose the tracks. Kenny swears in frustration and says that “This will be the first season since I was fifteen I haven’t got my deer.” Frank tells Kenny that he can’t blame the deer, but that “There are all these forces out here and you just have to go with them.” Exasperated by Frank’s go-with-the-flow fatalism, Kenny says he doesn’t want to listen to Frank’s “hippie bullshit.” Frank says, “That’s enough,” but Kenny, incensed, tells Frank that he’s too “busy thinking about that little jailbait of yours.” Frank tells him to “drop dead” and walks off.

Kenny and Tub follow. As they are approaching the farmhouse, Kenny starts saying he “hate[s]” things—a post, then a tree—and shooting them with his rifle. Frank tells him to “Knock it off,” but Kenny merely looks at Tub and smiles. Tub hurries to catch up with Frank who is still ahead. Suddenly, the farmer’s dog runs out again. Kenny says, “I hate that dog.” For the second time, Frank tells Kenny “That’s enough,” and he orders Kenny to put his gun down. Ignoring him, Kenny shoots the dog dead. Tub, in shock, asks Kenny what the dog ever did to deserve being shot. Kenny turns to Tub and says, “I hate you.” Thinking Kenny is about to shoot him too, Tub shoots Kenny in the stomach.

Kenny crumples onto the snow. Tub calls Frank’s name, but Frank doesn’t react. Kenny, rocking on the snow in pain, says it was only “a joke.” Finally, Frank comes to life and bends down to Kenny.

Frank, as if in disbelief, says to Tub, “You shot him.” Tub, weeping, attempts to exculpate himself, telling Frank that Kenny “made me.” Frank tells Kenny that he’s going to be okay—that he is “lucky,” even—because the bullet “missed your appendix.”

Tub suggests they call an ambulance, but Frank isn’t sure, asking, “What are we going to say?” Tub replies that they will say “what happened”: that he shot Kenny in self-defense. Kenny objects, but Frank tells him to calm down.

Leaving Kenny bleeding in the snow but taking his rifle in case Kenny “get[s] ideas,” Tub and Frank head towards the farmhouse. They have to knock twice before the farmer answers. He asks if they “g[o]t anything,” and Frank says “No.” The farmer says that’s what he predicted, and when Frank confesses that they’ve had “an accident,” the farmer predicts that Kenny has been shot, and, seeming unperturbed, predicts that they’ll want to “use the phone,” too.

In the farmhouse, there is a woman with a sleeping child. While Frank goes away to phone the ambulance, Tub confesses to the farmer that Kenny shot his dog. Much to Tub’s surprise, the farmer replies that he had asked Kenny to shoot it and that he “should have done it myself.” The woman says that the farmer “loved that dog so much.” The farmer explains that the dog was “old and sick” and “couldn’t chew his food any more.” He adds that he “would have done it myself” if he had a gun, but the woman says that he “couldn’t” have done it “in a million years.” The farmer merely shrugs.

Frank returns with the news that the nearest hospital is fifty miles away and there are no available ambulances. The woman gives them some directions for a shortcut, which Tub writes down. The farmer tells them where to find some boards to carry Kenny on and says he’ll turn on the porch light for them.

It is entirely dark outside now and the wind is up. Frank retrieves the boards while Tub looks for Kenny. Kenny is not where they left him, but rather lying on his stomach up the drive. Tub asks Kenny if it is okay and assures him that “Frank says it missed your appendix,” but Kenny responds that he “already had my appendix out.”

Frank returns with the boards and Kenny makes a joke about hoping that he doesn’t have a “male nurse” at the hospital. “That’s the spirit,” Frank says, as he and Tub hoist Kenny onto the boards. Kenny screams and kicks in pain at the movement. Frank and Tub start carrying Kenny towards the truck, but it is slippery and dark because the farmer has forgotten to turn on the porch light. Tub falls, dropping Kenny, who rolls down the drive, yelling. Frank calls Tub a “fat moron.” This is the last straw for Tub: he snaps and grabs Frank by the collar, shaking him and telling him “What do you know about fat,” “What do you know about me.” “No more laughing,” Tub demands and Frank, trying to placate Tub, says “All right,” promising to stop and apologizing.

Frank lifts Kenny back onto the boards and into the bed of the truck and covers him with blankets. Frank starts the truck and remarks that “you’ve got to hand it to the Japanese,” who, he says, “can make a hell of a truck.” Frank and Tub are alone up front together for the first time, and Frank apologizes to Tub again and says that Tub “should have said something” if he felt that way. Tub says that he did say something but that Frank doesn’t “pay attention very much.” Frank replies that he should have been more “sympathetic” and reassures Tub that he doesn’t blame him for shooting Kenny. Frank says that Kenny “was asking for it,” and Frank admits that he “would have done the same thing in your shoes.”

Snow and wind get into the car through the broken windshield, and soon Frank’s fingers are too cold to drive. They stop at a tavern where they see dead deer strapped to the hoods of parked vehicles. Kenny, still lying in the back but with his blankets having blown off, says he is cold. Frank tells him he’s not the only one, that it’s “worse inside” the truck, and that he can’t complain about the cold if he’s not even going to keep his blankets on. Kenny asks why they are stopping and Frank, explaining that they need to warm up, tells Kenny to “hold your horses.”

In the tavern, the waitress brings some coffee over, and Frank says, “Just what the doctor ordered.” Frank concedes to Tub that he doesn’t pay attention enough and explains that he’s been preoccupied. Then, Frank says he is thinking of leaving his wife, Nancy, and their children. Grabbing Tub’s arm, Frank asks him if he has even been in love with his “whole being,” and he declares that he has fallen in love with Roxanne Brewer—the babysitter.

Tub shakes his head and starts to guess how young the babysitter is, but Frank interrupts him, saying she’s “Fifteen.” Tub, shocked and disapproving, says that “she doesn’t have breasts.” Trying to defend himself, Frank tells Tub he is being close-minded and says that “this so-called babysitter, this so-called fifteen-year-old has more in her little finger than most of us have in our entire bodies.” Visibly upset at the thought of leaving his wife and kids, whom he hasn’t yet told of his plans, Frank fears that Tub will think him “a complete bastard.” Tub says that he doesn’t and offers his philosophy of friendship: “when you’ve got a friend it means you’ve always got someone on your side.” Frank is comforted: “You don’t know how good it feels to hear you say that.”

Upon returning to the car, they discover Kenny in a bad way. He is sweating, shivering and straddling the tailgate having tried to escape. They lift him back into the truck and he complains: “It hurts, Frank.” Frank says it wouldn’t hurt if he “stayed put,” and tells him to say the sentence “I’m going to the hospital,” which Kenny repeats obediently.

Back on the road again, Tub realizes that he has left the directions to the hospital at the tavern. Frank reassures him that he can remember the way.

Soon, Frank and Tub are too cold to continue again. They pull over at a roadhouse. While they are warming up using the dryers in the bathroom, Tub tells Frank he is touched that Frank trusted him with his secret. “The way I look at it,” Frank says, “no man is an island. You’ve got to trust someone.” Tub then confesses to Frank that he doesn’t really have any problems with his glands, but that he is overweight because he overeats compulsively when he is alone. Frank asks if Alice—presumably Tub’s partner—knows, but Tub says that “nobody knows,” which is the “worst” part: he isn’t bothered by his appearance, but what he can’t stand is “the lying” about being on a diet in public while he “shovel[s] it in” in private.

Tub asks Frank if he thinks he is “disgusting.” Frank responds by ordering Tub four plates of pancakes, slathering them with butter and syrup, commanding Tub to “[s]it down,” and watching Tub demolish them all—not even letting him stop to wipe his mouth. Frank eggs Tub on, telling him to “Weigh in” and to “Clean your plate.” Upon Tub finishing the pancakes, Frank says “Beautiful,” and asks if Tub is full. Tub responds that he has “never been so full.”

Back at the truck, Kenny’s blankets have blown off again. Frank says that they should use the blankets themselves. Kenny is still repeating “I’m going to the hospital.”

On the road again, Tub tells Frank what the farmer told him: that he had asked Kenny to shoot the dog. Rather than being horrified at the mistake, Frank is tickled by Kenny’s cheek: “That Kenny. What a card.” They both laugh together.

Meanwhile, Kenny is lying beneath the stars, saying to himself that he is going to the hospital. He isn’t, though; Frank accidentally took “a different turn a long way back.”