Hunters in the Snow

While Realism uses simple language to explore everyday life rather than fantastical tales and adventures, Dirty Realism is a subcategory of Realism that explores the darker side of contemporary life and often focuses on the world of those in a lower socioeconomic group.

Editor and author Bill Buford, known for Among the Thugs (1990) and Heat (2006), coined the term in 1983, two years after Wolff published “Hunters in the Snow.” In Buford’s words, Dirty Realism explores “the belly-side of contemporary life […] informed by discomforting and sometimes elusive irony” and follows the boring lives of normal people, people who “hunt deer, and stay in cheap hotels,” people who “are often in trouble: for stealing a car, breaking a window, pickpocketing a wallet […] drifters in a world cluttered with junk food and the oppressive details of modern consumerism” (Buford, Bill. “Editorial.” Granta, 1 Jun. 1983). This description is directly applicable to “Hunters in the Snow,” from its irony to the hunting to Tub’s overeating.

The characterization of Kenny, Frank, and Tub as irresponsible, neglectful, and aggressive fits the notion that Dirty Realism often follows people who get into trouble. The unrepaired windshield and broken heater of the truck also hint at the lower socioeconomic status featured in many works of Dirty Realism. Tub and Frank having to stop the truck twice just to warm up while Kenny is left wounded and bleeding in the back is a direct result of their lower socioeconomic status.

Another perspective on the darker side of contemporary life is seen in the conversations Frank and Tub have about their lives. Frank talks about his affair with a teenager and, by implication, his discontent in his marriage, while Tub confesses to lying about the reason he is overweight. The story ends with Kenny being driven in the wrong direction, away from the hospital, as a direct result of his friends’ flaws.