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The young white hunter exudes confidence and a paternalistic sense of knowing what’s right and necessary. Throughout their brief encounter, the hunter makes a series of assumptions about Phoenix based on her race, class, and age. He assumes that she is making the arduous journey through the woods to go see Santa Claus (an infantilizing assumption), based on Phoenix’s race. He also repeatedly tells Phoenix to turn around and go home, despite having no knowledge of why she’s truly making her journey or what she needs. He kindly helps her out of the ditch but makes no further attempt to understand or help her. 

Phoenix shows a deeper understanding of the hunter than he does of her, which makes sense, given that Phoenix’s survival throughout her life depended on understanding white men. She uses his sense of confidence and ownership of the situation to get him to chase after the black dog that put her in the ditch, and while he’s away, she slowly puts the nickel he dropped in her apron. When the hunter comes back, he becomes casually menacing, pointing the gun in Phoenix’s face and making it clear that if he wanted to, he could kill her without a second thought. The hunter is representative of the Jim Crow South, and the ways in which Black men and women were subject to the capricious kindness of white people, which could turn violent at any moment.

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