A Not-So-Easy-Breezy Take of "The Interlopers" : the Wind Motif Abigail Yurie Zhang 10th Grade

In a forest of mixed growth somewhere on the eastern spurs of the Karpathians, a man stood one winter night watching and listening, as though he waited for some beast of the woods to come within the range of his vision, and, later, of his rifle. But the game for whose presence he kept so keen an outlook was none that figured in the sportsman's calendar as lawful and proper for the chase; Ulrich von Gradwitz patrolled the dark forest in quest of a human enemy.

So begins H. H. Munro’s short story, “The Interlopers”. Famous for its lack of inhibition when dealing with the macabre and the active reading experience it forces readers to experience, “The Interlopers” is an ageless classic full of hidden motifs, especially that of wind. Though dramatically external, wind, here, helps to explain the feelings and emotions of essential characters.

Wind is a common image of symbolism in writing, but in this setting, it serves to parallel the attitudes and emotions shared by Gradwitz and Znaeym. As the story progresses, the description of air rushing and not rushing, whispering and howling mirrors the growing danger of the forest situation.“This wind-scourged winter night Ulrich had banded together his foresters to watch the dark forest…...