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

feels about hunting animals.
Although the narrator had never gone hunting before, and came from a background that despised hunting, he thought it would be a nice activity to do with his friend. Little did he know when he signed up for it that his friend would rip on him the entire time. In the story, Buck uses cockiness and cruelness to cover up his insecurity about shooting an animal. The author shows this when he says, “I’m gonna teach you how to be a man, like me! Now shut up.” (25). This quote showcases two import growth points for Buck. It shows how he continues to tell the narrator how poor of a hunter he is which makes Buck feel better about himself. By telling the narrator that he’s gonna teach him, this is Buck’s way of saying that he is more superior to the narrator. This quote also gives off the idea that he is cocky because he is referring to himself as a man. Secondly, the author illustrates Buck’s attitude by saying, ““Now remember, we’ve only got three three shells. So, I get two, and you get one. I’ll tell you when to shoot.” Buck placed the shells rapidly in the barrels. He handed me a rifle. I took it and fumbled over its weight. He laughed, called me names, and commented on my ability to resemble a female all the time.” (25). This quotes describes how Buck sees himself as a strong, skillful hunter. He thinks that he is superior to the narrator by giving himself twice the amount of shells, which is twice as many shots. As stated before, Buck had referred to himself as a man and in this quote he refers to the narrator as the opposite, a boy. This shows how Buck can boost himself up by making others feel poorly.
From the minute a child is born it begins to learn and pick up on things from its parents.

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

himself.
One of the worst parts of lying is lying to oneself, and sometimes by masking only brings more misery. Buck uses his cockiness and cruel behavior towards the narrator to hide the fact that he cannot stand the death of animals. He may not of even know this is how he felt, but because his father was not there when it happened, he had the possibility to react in anyway he felt. His father was a big reason why he liked hunting so much that he did not have the ability to realize that he did not like when they would actually die because his father’s opinions may have clouded his judgement. Even the very first sentence in the story is Buck telling the narrator about what his father says about hunting. This displays how important of a role model his father was to him in the hunting aspect of life. Overall in the short story, Buck starts off cocky and rude and gets a bigger understanding of himself and comes to terms with the idea that he doesn’t have to enjoy killing animals if he does not want to. Maybe from now on when he goes hunting with his father he will only shoot them and not have to go up and look into the eyes of the animal that was just killed. There could always be an underlying reason for why Buck felt sympathy and sadness for the deer that was not shared.