"Hunters in the Snow" Tobias Wolff

Tub may be considered a stock character on the surface: a cartoon-like obese man who is the butt of other people's jokes, but details throughout the story help make Tub into a fully realized individual. First of all, I think that we start to see part of Tub's character when he is upset by his friends' jokes about his weight. Usually the stock character just takes the insults, but Tub gets mad and tells them to stop. Then, I would have never guessed that Tub would shoot Kenny when he has the fear that Kenny was going to shoot him. I would think that he would be too afraid to actually shoot his friend. This shows that he is a round character with feelings and emotions, because I think that he only shot Kenny out of fear. Later, we see Tub having a moment with Frank and finally admitting that he doesn't have a gland problem, but just likes to eat. I saw this as a resolution to Tub's problems; he just needed to be honest and have someone to trust and talk to. We also see Tub's compassion when he accepts Frank's secret of being in love with the town babysitter. Tub is actually a complex, round character when we pay attention to the details of the story.