Aim. A writer's aim is his or her purpose, or goal. People may write with the following aims: to inform (expository/informational writing); to entertain, enrich, enlighten, and/or use an artistic medium, such as fiction or poetry, to share a perspective (imaginative writing); to tell a story about an event (narrative writing); to reflect (personal/expressive writing); to persuade readers or listeners to respond in some way, such as to agree with a position, change a view on an issue, reach an agreement, or perform an action (persuasive/argumentative writing). As you read, determine Saki's principal aim in writing this story.

Plot and Conflict. A plot is a series of events related to a central conflict, or struggle. A typical plot involves the introduction of a conflict, its development, and its eventual resolution. Sometimes a catastrophe, an event marked by the fall of a central character, occurs in a plot.

"The Interlopers" revolves on a conflict, a struggle between opposing forces. Common types of conflicts in fiction are person versus nature, person versus person, person versus society, person versus self, person versus machine, and person versus the supernatural. "The Interlopers" presents the first kind of conflict, one between the characters Ulrich von Gradwitz and Georg Znaeym. Their conflict over the border between their lands has been burning between their families for three generations. By the end of the story each man realizes that he has more to fear than his neighbor's hatred.

As you read, make a plot pyramid like the one below. Identify the exposition, inciting incident, rising action, climax, falling action, resolution, and catastrophe. One example, for exposition, is "Ulrich von Gradwitz patrols the forest. Family's feud is introduced."

How have you resolved conflict in a relationship or put an end to a grudge?

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Clearing in the Forest, 1825. Caspar-David Friedrich.

The German Romantic painter Caspar-David Friedrich (1774–1840) used landscape as a symbolic language for expressing abstract ideas about life, death and salvation. A fallen tree evokes death while evergreens are symbols of hope and life. The distant mountain peaks rising above the misty clouds suggest the power of faith. The distant light of the moon symbolizes the afterlife.