And I did not know what to do then. Though it is true that what I wanted to do was to hit him, hit him as hard in the face as I could, and see him on the ground bleeding and crying and pleading for me to stop…I felt sorry for him, as though he was already a dead man. And I did not end up hitting him at all” (232).
I feel that, in this scene, the narrator is fighting with the part of him that has the motto “When you see your chance, fly on him and hit him till he falls” (226). Les ends up realizing that one can’t just fist fight any obstacle that comes their way. I believe Glen is a character placed strategically in the story to test Les and change how he views life. Glen is portrayed as a forceful man who does what he wants when he wants. He seems to not care about Les’s mother as if she is just another animal to hunt. The turning point of the story is when he shoves the gun at Les and tells him to end his life. This is a parallel to Les’s deceased father, showing the primal inclination of these men to defeat or be defeated. This can even be interpreted as Glen not being happy with his life. Hunting the geese may be a cry for help; as if he’s killing the part of himself he doesn’t like.
As they shot the geese, Les notices how they sound eerily like humans as their bodies hit the ground. After shooting one and watching it struggle in the lake, Glen says, “Maybe there’s nothing else to do with them…Maybe this is exactly what they’re put on earth for” (228-229). In these sentences, he is reflecting upon himself and his actions. It is possible that he is conflicted about the life he has been living so far.