Structured Response on Saki’s “The Interlopers” “An eye for an eye will make us all blind” (Ghandi). In Saki’s “The Interlopers,” is written about two men at the turn of the century. His main characters, Ulrich Von Gradwitz, a wealthy landowner with legal rights and Georg Znaeym are perpetuating a vendetta over a worthless strip of land in the European forest land in the East Carpathian Mountains. Ulrich is determined to catch Georg trespassing, and both are motivated to eternalize an irrational dispute that has continued for generations. Both men hold the erroneous belief that a vendetta is valid, and that somehow they can dominate the use of this land. Both assumptions prove fatal. Humans have carried out vendettas throughout …show more content…
It is egotistical to assume that humans can control weather and wildlife to any great extent. Even now, humans understand that the best strategy to circumvent nature’s wrath is to pay attention to early warnings and withdrawal from the situation. In this case, wind, wildlife, and snowfall. In the time period of which this story takes place, humans had even less control over their natural world. There were no cell phones, 911, or high-tech surveillance equipment for search and rescue. Things worked out naturally regardless of human intention, or manipulation. The mistake these two men make is assuming that this land is theirs to dominate and own. Ulrich and Georg follow a code of civilization that includes laws of land ownership, a court system, and a code of ethics. For example, when they meet in the forest and do not shoot each other when given the chance, they are following a code of civilization. “But a man who had been brought up under the code of restraining civilization cannot easily nerve himself to shoot down his neighbour in cold blood and without a word spoken, except for an offence against his heart and honour” (Saki 1). The natural inhabitants of this land, such as the wolves, are indifferent to this human code of ethics. The wolves do not care who owned the land, or what the dispute was about. They follow no code of civilization, only a code of natural