Although there is a third person narrator who tells the story, the actions of the main characters in "Spunk" are interpreted mostly by the men who stand around commenting on what they see as they lounge about their village's one store. The narrator is detached, uninvolved in the action, but the men who speak have opinions about everything. As the story opens, a man and a woman walk arm-in-arm down the street of the village and into the brush. As the men watch the couple walk away, their gossiping makes it clear that the man is Spunk Banks, a "giant of a brown-skinned man" who is known in town and at the saw-mill for his bravery. The identity of the woman is not revealed until a small nervous man enters the store, and Elijah, one of the other men, begins to tease him. He is Joe...