Short Fiction · Chapter
The Headhunter explained
The narrator, a former war correspondent in the Philippines, becomes fascinated by the headhunting tribes of Mindanao and their simple, brutal philosophy of winning love by presenting severed heads.
What happens
The narrator, a former war correspondent in the Philippines, becomes fascinated by the headhunting tribes of Mindanao and their simple, brutal philosophy of winning love by presenting severed heads. Upon returning to the coastal village of Mojada, he courts Chloe Greene, who expresses a preference for men who show love through small, thoughtful gestures rather than grand heroic acts. In a surreal and violent climax, the narrator beheads his rival Louis Devoe and presents the head to Chloe, who initially praises him for remembering her 'little wishes' before the head transforms into a coconut, revealing the scene as a fantasy or dream.
Themes in this chapter
Love and Romance
The narrator's pursuit of Chloe Greene is framed through a bizarre, violent lens, contrasting her stated preference for small gestures with his extreme act of beheading his rival.
Humor and Irony
The story employs dark humor and irony, particularly in the absurdity of the narrator applying headhunting philosophy to win a woman who claims to value little things, culminating in the head transforming into a coconut.
Deception and Appearance vs. Reality
The narrator's violent fantasy is revealed as a dream or delusion when the severed head becomes a coconut, blurring the line between reality and imagination.
Characters to notice
- Unknown Narrator
The first-person narrator, a former war correspondent who becomes obsessed with headhunting philosophy and uses it to win Chloe Greene's affection.
- Chloe Greene
The object of the narrator's affection, who values small, thoughtful gestures over grand romantic acts and initially praises the narrator for presenting her with the head of his rival.
- Louis Devoe
The narrator's rival for Chloe's affection; a charming and accomplished man who is beheaded by the narrator in a symbolic act.
- Reverend Homer Greene
Chloe's father, a minister obsessed with writing a concordance to the Scriptures, who treats the narrator as a captive audience for his theological ramblings.
Key passages
“When the war between Spain and George Dewey was over, I went to the Philippine Islands.”
After the Spanish-American War ended, I traveled to the Philippines.
Sets the historical context for the narrator's journey.
“Those grim, flinty, relentless little men, never seen, but chilling the warmest noonday by the subtle terror of their concealed presence... they amused me greatly, those little fellows of one idea.”
The headhunters, though invisible, inspired fear with their constant threat, and I found their single-mindedness amusing.
Highlights the narrator's fascination with headhunting culture.
“To take your adversary’s head, to basket it at the portal of your castle, to see it lying there, a dead thing, with its cunning and stratagems and power gone—Is there a better way to foil his plots?”
Taking your enemy's head and displaying it is the ultimate way to defeat him.
Summarizes the headhunter's philosophy that the narrator adopts.
“The man for me must consider my little wishes, and make me happy in small ways. He must bring me little red peaches in December if I wish for them, and then I will love him till June.”
The man I love should fulfill my small desires, like bringing me out-of-season fruit, to win my affection.
Chloe's stated preference for small, thoughtful gestures over grand romantic acts.
“I stretched him out and got a foot on his chest, but he squirmed like a worm, although I appealed repeatedly to his sense of propriety and the duty he owed to himself as a gentleman not to make a row.”
I pinned him down and urged him to behave like a gentleman, but he kept struggling.
Darkly comic description of the narrator's beheading of Louis Devoe.
“She held the ensanguined head of Louis Devoe in her white apron. Tiny streams of red widened on her apron and dripped upon the floor. Her face was bright and tender.”
She cradled the bloody head in her apron, smiling warmly as blood stained the fabric.
Surreal moment where Chloe accepts the head as a token of love.
