Lesson 2 Close Reading: The Interlopers

• Engels
• Middelbare school
• vwo
• Leerjaar 4

Close Reading

Texts are a piece of evidence to help us better understand culture. Various tools are necessary to analyse texts more carefully. Detective work or forensic work.

You need to develop skills of close reading.

In the next two years you are going to be shown a multitude of texts in many different forms and contexts.

Practicing close reading will help you to understand your own environment and cultures of the Anglophone world.

Analytical tools

The big five models helps you to analyse texts. It is very useful for Paper one, written tasks and individual oral commentary. This is the lens in which you look at texts and reveal the levels of understanding.

Audience and purpose – who wrote the text, who was it written for, why did the writer write it

Content and Theme – what is the text about, the overall message.

Tone and Mood – what is the writer’s tone how does the text make the reader feel.

Stylistic analysis – what devices does the writer use.

Structure – what kind of text is it, what structural conventions are used.

Serious arguments can begin over trivial matters.

AGREE

DISAGREE

Which factors are in play? 

The sensitivity of the "trivial" matters?

The characters of the people involved?

People who quarrel for a long time often forget why they started fighting in the first place.

AGREE

DISAGREE

What does this say about the "trivial" matter?

The hate and dislike become deep rooted... What can you say about this? Can you come up with an example?

Arguments always weaken as time goes by.

AGREE

DISAGREE

Does time heal all wounds?

When the arguments weakens, does the hate and dislike also weaken?

What is conflict?

Conflict – A struggle between two opposing forces. In literature, there are two types of conflict.

External Conflict – a struggle between a literary character and outside force (other character/nature).

Internal Conflict – a psychological struggle within the literary character’s mind.

The opposing force created, the conflict within the story generally comes in four basic types: Conflict with the self, Conflict with others, Conflict with the environment and Conflict with the supernatural.

Conflict & Struggle

Conflict – A struggle between two opposing forces. In literature, there are two types of conflict.

• External Conflict – a struggle between a literary character and outside force (other character/nature).

• Internal Conflict – a psychological struggle within the literary character’s mind.

Examples:

External conflict: Superman vs General Zod

Internal conflict: to kill or to not kill; the question Superman struggles with

Looking at these pictures, and thinking about the questions you've just answered, can you guess what the short story might be about? 

Quickly summarise the story, then watch video that details the action:

"The Interlopers" is a story based on two men, Georg Znaeym and Ulrich von Gradwitz, whose families have fought over a forest in the eastern Carpathian Mountains for generations.

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Read the summary of the short story to the class

"The Interlopers" is a story based on two men, Georg Znaeym and Ulrich von Gradwitz, whose families have fought over a forest in the eastern Carpathian Mountains for generations.

The Interlopers by Saki

Summary

On a stormy, winter night, Ulrich von Gradwitz, holding his rifle, roams a narrow patch of forest on the outskirts of his property. He searches for Georg Zneaym, who hunts in this narrow strip of forest because he also considers it his. Ulrich’s grandfather took legal ownership of the land from Georg’s family many years ago, but Georg’s family never accepted the Court’s decision. Georg continues to hunt on the land, and Ulrich watches it closer than any of his other property, even though it isn’t the best place to find animals to shoot. He watches for Georg instead of animals.

Ulrich leaves behind the group of men he has brought with him to help look for Georg. As his men wait on the hill, ready to ambush Georg and his party, Ulrich descends deeper into the windy wilderness, hoping to find Georg when there is no one else present to witness the encounter.

After stepping around a huge tree, Ulrich meets Georg face to face. Also alone and holding a rifle, Georg, like Ulrich, feels intense hatred for his enemy, and wishes to murder him. However, neither man has the nerve to shoot the other immediately. As they hesitate, a burst from the winter storm topples the tree that the men stepped around. A mass of branches traps them both on the ground.

Injured and relieved to be alive, Ulrich and Georg taunt each other. Ulrich claims Georg is a poacher. Georg calls Ulrich a thief. Each says that if his men are the first to arrive, they will roll the tree’s trunk over the other man, killing him. Georg says he is glad that they have the chance to end their feud with death, with “no cursed interlopers” to come between them.

While exchanging insults, Ulrich and Georg give up on struggling to get out from under the tree. Ulrich uses his remaining strength to pull a wine-flask from his pocket, and drink from it. Warmed by the wine, he looks at the wounded Georg with pity. He offers Georg his flask. Georg refuses the offering, but Ulrich feels his hatred for Georg “dying down.” He announces that he no longer cares about the disputed forest and that if his men are the first to come, he will ask them to free Georg first.

Georg doesn’t respond at first, but eventually he imagines out loud what would happen if he and Ulrich made peace. He says that if they choose to end their feud there will be “no interlopers from outside” to interfere. He imagines that they can feast together at Ulrich’s castle, and that he and Ulrich can go hunting together in the marshes. George announces that he has also changed his mind from hate, and that he will be Ulrich’s friend.

Georg and Ulrich reflect quietly, thrilled by the reconciliation. Each man prays that his party will be the first to arrive, so that his men can be the ones to lift the tree from the other.

The wind from the storm eases, and the men decide to use their voices together to shout for help, “in a prolonged hunting call.” Only the wind answers them, but then Ulrich sees figures coming down from the hill, where he left his party. The pair yells again and the figures run toward them. Georg urgently asks Ulrich if they are his men. Ulrich begins to laugh a terrified laugh. Georg asks him again who the men are. Ulrich answers, “Wolves.”

 

What is the setting? Historical period? Country or local? Season of the year? Weather? Time of day? What are the sights? Sounds? Smells? What other details establish a sense of place?

Forest in Europe 1900s, Night, Winter, storm, wolves, tree crashes,

Pain from injuries, taste of wine and blood

Are the characters in conflict with the setting? What do the characters want? Does the setting keep them from getting what they want?

External conflict 

Yes. They are trapped beneath a tree. The characters want revenge. Yes, the setting stops the men from killing each other.

Passage One

What is the internal conflict and what is the external conflict? Explain in full PEE form. 

"Good,” snarled Georg, “good. We fight this quarrel out to the death, you and I and our foresters, with no cursed interlopers to come between us. Death and damnation to you, Ulrich von Gradwitz.”

“The same to you, Georg Znaeym, forest thief, game snatcher.”

 Both men spoke with the bitterness of possible defeat before them, for each knew that it might be long before his men would seek him out or find him; it was a bare matter of chance which party would arrive first on the scene.

Student reads paragraph

Students will have all passages on paper to annotate and read along. Students at home will have the document too. 

First three lines external with the men fighting each other

Last lines internal. they each knew that their men would eventually save them and no the other

Passage Two

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. The chance had come to give full play to the passions of a lifetime. But a man who has been brought up under the code of a restraining civilization cannot easily nerve himself to shoot down his neighbor in cold blood and without a word spoken, except for an offense against his hearth and honor. And before the moment of hesitation had given way to action, a deed of Nature’s own violence overwhelmed them both. A fierce shriek of the storm had been answered by a splitting crash over their heads, and ere they could leap aside, a mass of falling beech tree had thundered down on them. Ulrich von Gradwitz found himself stretched on the ground, one arm numb beneath him and the other held almost as helplessly in a tight tangle of forked branches, while both legs were pinned beneath the fallen mass. His heavy shooting boots had saved his feet from being crushed to pieces, but if his fractures were not as serious as they might have been, at least it was evident that he could not move from his present position till someone came to release him. The descending twigs had slashed the skin of his face, and he had to wink away some drops of blood from his eyelashes before he could take in a general view of the disaster. At his side, so near that under ordinary circumstances he could almost have touched him, lay Georg Znaeym, alive and struggling, but obviously as helplessly pinioned down as himself. All round them lay a thick-strewn wreckage of splintered branches and broken twigs.

Assignment: Write down 4 four quotes that depict conflict. Also, note what kind of conflict the quote depicts and explain it. 

fallen twigs slashing the skin of his face external - man vs nature is personification  

two enemies glaring - man vs man 

brought up restraining himself - man vs himself. 

mass of fallling beech tree man vs nature

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Closely read and take notes (annotate) on the passages from Saki’s short story, “The Interlopers.” You can annotate by highlighting, bolding, and underlining the text. As you read, look for examples from the text that demonstrate conflict. On the following slides write a quote for each type of conflict in the passage, and explain how the quote represents the conflict.

Tone & Mood

How does the text make you feel? ** Do not focus on content **

How does the author use diction to put the reader in a certain mood?

As you now know what the text is about regarding the characters and action. You can also have a look at the attitude (tone) of the author regarding the character and action. 

How would you describe the author's tone? 

Back to Mood, feelings of the readers/students

Quick look at feelings. They have to keep it in mind for the following close reading exercise.

What is diction?

How would you describe the atmosphere or mood created by the setting? Underline words that depict certain attitudes and feelings and write a short explanatory passage.

Another look at passage 2, now with a different pair of "glasses/lenses"

Underline words that depict certain attitudes and feelings and write a short explanatory passage. 

Is it gloomy? Cheerful? Mysterious? Threatening? Other descriptions?

Creates suspense

Scary

Gloomy

Threatening

Fear

Passage 3

“I heard nothing but the pestilential wind,” said Georg hoarsely. There was silence again for some minutes, and then Ulrich gave a joyful cry.

“I can see figures coming through the wood. They are following in the way I came down the hillside.”

Both men raised their voices in as loud a shout as they could muster.

“They hear us! They’ve stopped. Now they see us. They’re running down the hill towards us,” cried Ulrich.

“How many of them are there?” asked Georg.

“I can’t see distinctly,” said Ulrich; “nine or ten,”

“Then they are yours,” said Georg; “I had only seven out with me.”

“They are making all the speed they can, brave lads,” said Ulrich gladly.

“Are they your men?” asked Georg. “Are they your men?” he repeated impatiently as Ulrich did not answer.

“No,” said Ulrich with a laugh, the idiotic chattering laugh of a man unstrung with hideous fear.

“Who are they?” asked Georg quickly, straining his eyes to see what the other

would gladly not have seen.

“Wolves.”

Student reads passage.

Explain irony and how it is depicted in the story.

Students have to write down the definition of irony (what they think it means), and then link it to the passage.

 “The Interlopers” is an excellent example of situational irony: The men have made peace with each other and are ready to be rescued. When they hear sounds they expect to see men, but instead they see wolves coming toward them.

The irony, of course, is that if they had worked together, they probably could have lifted the log off together, since they were both trapped under it.  They could have freed themselves and left, and fought off the wolves together.  Instead, they died—together. The irony here is that instead of being saved, it is implied that the men will be eaten by wolves. These two men achieve reconciliation only to be killed by natural forces. 

At the beginning of the story, they wished to kill each other—to face one another man-to-man. In the end, a wolf presumably does the job for them. When they remove their conflict and are no longer a threat to one another, that is precisely when nature enters and presents a new threat.

Situational Irony: literary technique

Situational irony - 

A literary technique in which an expected outcome does not happen, or its opposite happens instead. Situational irony requires one's expectations to be thwarted and is also sometimes called an irony of events. 

The outcome can be tragic or humorous, but it is always unexpected.

The irony, of course, is that if they had worked together, they probably could have lifted the log off together, since they were both trapped under it. They could have freed themselves and left, and fought off the wolves together. 

 Instead, they died—together. The irony here is that instead of being saved, it is implied that the men will be eaten by wolves. These two men achieve reconciliation only to be killed by natural forces. 

At the beginning of the story, they wished to kill each other—to face one another man-to-man. In the end, a wolf presumably does the job for them. When they remove their conflict and are no longer a threat to one another, that is precisely when nature enters and presents a new threat.

Did you like the story?

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