The Interlopers Analysis

Every couple ever to date, get engaged, and to get married have had arguments throughout their relationship. It is something that defines a good relationship. What makes it a good quality in a relationship is that in the end hopefully there is an agreement. And if an agreement is not made or if it is broken the entire relationship goes down the drain with it. Couples need to find solutions before damage they cannot fix is done. Through characterization and point of view in “The Interlopers” Saki conveys a theme that can be applied anywhere: people with differences must find solutions before irreversible damage is done. Through the use of third person omniscient point of view Saki enhances the theme. Third person omniscient is the all-seeing

Without this point of view the theme wouldn’t be as clear. For example on page 1, “The two enemies stood glaring at one another for a long silent moment. Each had a rifle in his hand, each had hate in his heart and murder uppermost in his mind” (Saki 1). We know how both characters are thinking and what each character feels. This would be completely different if this was in first person perspective of Ulrich von Gradwitz. There would be confusion on if Georg Znaeym was fighting because he was angry, or if he was just defending his land. Did he have any motives to kill Ulrich? These questions would’ve gone unanswered if written in a first person point of view. We would not know of the mutual hate the two men had for each other, and without this mutual hate, the theme would not be clear. There wouldn’t be any reason for the two men to even come to a solution before damage is done. Also with an omniscient point of view there are details everywhere throughout the story that would not be even mentioned in a first person point of view of Georg Znaeym. An example of this can be found on page 3, “Ulrich limited his

With the use of indirect characterization we are forced to really think about the characters actions, and what they really mean in terms of his personality and qualities. Remember, indirect characterization means we are not told about the characters qualities, but we just have to pick them up from reading and analyzing the text. In the beginning we learn that both Ulrich von Gradwitz and Georg Znaeym have a deep hate for each other. Like on page 1, “Ulrich von Gradwitz patrolled...in quest of a human enemy” (Saki 1). We are not told that they hate each other, but that he is hunting him down, which you can imply that they dislike each other. And again later in the page, “Each had a rifle in his hand...” (Saki 1). Again, we are not told they hate each other so much that they want to kill, but we are told of their actions. This shows that they hate each other, the first part of the theme. We can see Ulrich start to shine light onto the situation when he says, “‘Could you reach this flask if I threw it over to you?’...” (Saki 3). We can indirectly see that Ulrich is a nice man at heart, and that he realizes this whole family fued is not worth the time. This is key to the middle part of the theme about finding solutions. Georg eventually agrees to be friends later in the page: “‘...I will be your friend” (Saki 3). Sadly this friendship is short lived when we learn that after working hard together to get their friends