Study Guide for Saki’s “The Interlopers”
Name_______________
Part I. Literary Terms: Be able to define each term and apply each term to the story.
1.-2. suspense________________________________________________________________________
3.- 4.conflict_________________________________________________________________________
4. Man vs. Nature --Explain: ________________________________
5. Man vs. Man--Explain:________________________________
6. Man vs. Self-- Explain: ________________________________
7. Who is the protagonist in the story? ___________________________
8. Who is the antagonist? ______________________________
9. Describe the mood of the story: ___________________________________________________
10. From what point of view is the story told? ________________________________
11. What is the theme of the story?__________________________________________________________
Part II Questions: Answer the following questions.
12. Why is Ulrich von Gradwitz out in the forest on a winter night?
13. How valuable is the disputed territory that Gradwitz guards so jealously?
14. When the story begins, how long has the feud lasted?
15. Find a sentence in the third paragraph that alerts the reader to the possibility that all is not well in the
forest.
16. Does Ulrich have any idea as to the cause of the disturbance?
17. What happens as the men stand facing one another?
18. After the tree falls on Georg and Ulrich, Georg says “So you’re not killed, as you ought to be, but
you’re caught anyway, caught fast… Ulrich von Gradwitz snared in his stolen forest. There’s real
justice for you!” What is ironic about Georg’s statement?
19. What does Ulrich offer to Georg? Why?
20. What thoughts on the part of both men show that even the villagers would find their reconciliation to be
dramatic?
21. Identify the changes that take place in Ulrich and Georg while they are trapped together underneath the
beech tree. Why do you think the changes occur in the two men?
22. Ulrich sees figures coming toward them. Whose men do the figures turn out to be?
23. What happens to them at the end?
24. Explain the irony at the end of the story.
25. What is the moral, or lesson, of “The Interlopers”?
Part III. Creative Writing: Newspaper Article. Write a newspaper article about the events that took place in
“The Interlopers.”
A. Use the following graphic organizer to jot down some notes that answer: Who? What? When? Where?
How? Why?
Who?
What?
When?
Where?
How?
Why?
B. Use the information from your graphic organizer to write, on a separate sheet of paper, either a
headline news story or a human interest story.