Similarities Between The Excavation And The Interlopers

In the stories “The Excavation” and “The Interlopers,” the hope that the characters possess is empty and leads to their demise. “The Excavation” is about a prisoner who is digging a hole in the ground to try to escape from the prison. He is crushed by the debris, but he has an otherworldly epiphany and imagines himself getting to the other side and surviving. He says that he “climbed from the erupting crater into the blue, metallic, clamorous night” (294). Unfortunately, the man does not survive or get to the other side. His hope of surviving is in vain and this misguided fantasy leads him to continue digging instead of climbing back up. In “The Interlopers”, two mortal enemies are crushed under the same tree. They are expecting help to come,