The stories “The Scarlet Ibis” by James Hurst and “The Interlopers” by Saki share a developing theme of maturation. Through these short stories, each author uses his separate craft and lessons within it to convey the common theme. The characters of each piece face and overcome obstacles in different ways, however, they both learn and grow from these experiences. In “The Scarlet Ibis”, Hurst uses Brother’s self-realization to develop the theme, while in “The Interlopers”, Saki uses the isolation of Ulrich and Georg to do so. “The Scarlet Ibis” and “The Interlopers” both display a theme of maturation, but the authors of each short story, Hurst and Saki (respectively), utilize different means of conveying it. First, in “The Scarlet Ibis”, there is a developing theme of …show more content…
The story begins with Ulrich describing his extreme hatred for Georg Znaeym: “...if there was a man in the world whom he detested and wished ill to it was Georg Znaeym, the interior of the quarrel and tireless game-snatcher and raider of the disputed border forest,” and the feud their two families share over a small part of the woods (Saki 305). Not until the two are isolated by being trapped beneath a fallen tree do they realize how immature the quarrel is: “...lying here tonight, thinking, I’ve come to think we’ve been rather fools; there are better things in life than getting the better of a boundary dispute. Neighbor, if you help me to bury this quarrel I- I will ask you to be my friend” (Saki 308). Finally, they had matured enough to reason that it is foolish to kill someone over such an insignificant piece of land and relinquish the old fight. They continue by offering help first (should one of his men arrive prior to the other’s), as if they had never fought over the territory in the first place. The two matured very quickly because of the extreme adversity of their