Comparison of Tobias Wolf's Hunter in the Snow and William Failkner's A Rose for Emily

Tobias Wolff’s “Hunters in the Snow” is a suspense type of story, with an unexpected turn in the end, while William Faulkner’s “A Rose for Emily” could far into the horror genre, because of the baffling atmosphere. These two short stories have similar focuses on symbolism, foreshadowing, settings, atmosphere, and themes; with this in mind they also have many differences such as the writer’s style.

The two stories start out with describing the settings, the shivering cold winter wonderland of “Hunters in the Snow”, and the old musty, gothic style house in “A Rose for Emily.” Wolff and Faulkner both used the settings as symbolizes, which also help set up their story’s atmospheres. For example, the snowy weather in “Hunters in the Snow” symbolizes the cold distance of the three men’s so-called “friendship” coming to an end, while, the changes of the Grierson’s house could symbolize how Emily had changed, since her father’s death. How Faulkner describes the way the house and Emily’s hair changed throughout the story symbolizes the way Emily became stubborn and careless after her father’s death.

Both of the story’s beginnings include foreshadowing of their unforeseen endings. For “Hunters in the Snow” one of this foreshadows was after Kenny mocks Frank about his crush on the babysitter that Frank threatened Kenny by saying,” You’re asking for it,” which foreshadowed Kenny’s unanticipated death. For “A Rose for Emily” the opening paragraph describing the house as a “fallen monument,” and the town going to Emily’s funeral was foreshadowing Emily’s digression.

Another, similarity these two stories have with each other is their themes. They shared powerful themes, such as how control can affect a person, and the insecurities one may have. ...

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...le Wolf’s ending had a good cliff hanger by writing ““I'm going to the hospital," Kenny said. But he was wrong. They had taken a different turn a long way back,” leaving the reader to ponder how Tub and Frank will finish Kenny; this ending doesn’t give the reader a good imagine of what’s going on in the scene and in the character’s mind.

Tobias Wolff’s “Hunters in the Snow” and William Faulkner’s “A Rose for Emily” have related elements, but also divergent styles. The two stories expose that their characters were desperately looking and needed a change in their lives; either a change to help get over the limitation of the character’s freedom or a change in domination. The way Wolf and Faulkner wrote their stories caught many different types of audience by how similar and different their stories share, even though the stories were written in different time periods.