Andrew Smock's 'The Sacrifice Of The Hunted'

In life, people tend to talk up a big game about many things, and sometimes they can be used to hide someone’s insecurity or fear. But what is a dog who is all bark and no bite? Just as in the short story “The Sacrifice of the Hunted,” by Andrew Smock, the main character Buck begins the story as rude and cocky towards the narrator about his hunting skills, but after a deer is actually killed, he gets a greater understanding of his true feelings about hunting. This is illustrated through out the short story in many instances. From the time Buck is addressed in the story to until the deer is shot he makes fun of the narrator for not knowing much about hunting. When the deer is shot, Buck seems to get a stronger understanding of how he truly

Just as in the short story, Buck goes hunting with his father all the time and has learned to love it. When he goes hunting with the narrator and not with his father he grows as a character by grasping a true understanding of about his true feeling towards hunting. The first sign of fear and insecurity shown by Buck in the story is after the narrator shot the deer when the author states, ““No you didn’t. Did you?” Buck was confused and scared. His voice trembled.” This quote is the first sign of fear in Buck. During the entire story so far Buck has held his head high on his shoulders because he is an expert in hunting and nothing would bring him down. But after the narrator shot the deer, his first idea to go to was denial. He did not want to believe it was true because he never thought it would happen and he certainly did not know how to deal with that today. He always has to stand tough for his father and not show how he truly feels. Truth is he is sad. He does not like the killing of animals, especially when the blame is on his own hands. The author conveys the truth especially when he says, “‘Let’s get out of here, man. I don’t like it.” He was really becoming hysterical.” (26). This is the moment when Buck lets his true feeling out. He does not try to hide it or even use his cockiness as a front anymore. Buck’s father’s strong opinions may have clouded his judgement about how he truly feels about hunting and killing animals. Buck may have believed that the narrator would never shoot the deer and so if he missed both times he could just blame it on something else. He never imagined that the narrator would shoot the deer and when he did Buck was in complete shock. Now he gets a greater understanding as the story progresses and in the end, he was only lying to