The Interlopers

What effect does the authors choice of resolution have in the passages overall meaning?

The Interlopers

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A theme that is common in many of Saki’s short stories and appears again here is the dominance of nature. Saki greatly respected Darwin and continually positions wild animals as dominant over socially respectable human beings in his works. In this story, the wolves, classically wild, and natural forces generally prevail over the landowning men. The wolves’ appearance upends both the men’s and the readers’ expectations and prompts a violent end. This interruption (or correction) occurs precisely when Saki offers peace by having the two men reconcile.

This dominance of nature also relates back to Saki’s choice of title for this short story. “The Interlopers” as a title is ambiguous because it does not signal who the true interlopers are. Are the men the interlopers to one another? Are the wolves interlopers to the men? Ultimately, given Saki’s respect of the wild over the aristocratic, as well as the ending of this story, it appears most likely that the humans are interlopers on a natural order that would remain undisturbed but for their meddling (Byrne 184-5). Particularly, the men here attempt to impose a set of aristocratic norms and values, namely landownership, on a landscape that is resistant to control and containment. Saki cautions against such attempts by having the men meet such a violent and fatal end.

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The Interlopers