The setting of The Interlopers was deep in the forest on a cold winter night and I think this relates to the story perfectly because when an author wants to set the tone for a book, he usually uses the weather to help set that tone. He uses words like "winter night", "wind scourged",and "naked branches" to help describe the setting. I could tell when I started the book that it wasn't going to be a happy story because if it was going to be then he probably would have made the setting on a hot beautiful day with 2 guys relaxing on the beach or something. The setting was very appropriate for the ending of this story.
All throughout the story Saki made us think that the title of the story was about the two men, so that was a distraction making the end of the story more of a surprise. I think the author named the story after the two men invading on the wolves space and not so much each others. The only time he mentioned anything about animals was when he said the forest's were packed with game, and so that also made the ending more of a surprise. The author eluded to the fact that the forest's were packed with animals but yet no animals appeared until the very end of the story.
This story was very ironic in two ways. First, these men had been enemies their entire lives and they finally sit next to each other trapped and agree on becoming friends. Even though they didn't plan on becoming friends, it had to work out that way because they were both in fear that the other person's party would come first. After the fear of that was eliminated and neither of them had to worry about being killed by the other person's party, it's ironic that they both die, and not by a human party, but by a party of raging wolves.
