Comparing O. Henry's A Municipal Report and Susan Glaspell's A Jury of Her Peers
In ?A Municipal Report? by O. Henry and ?A Jury of Her Peers? by Susan Glaspell, the authors provide a disappearance of evidence about a retaliatory murder, but only one is true to human life and shows characteristics about human life while the other falsifies it. In this case ?A Municipal Report? is most definitely the one that fixes the story to merely entertain the reader, and ?A Jury of Her peers? lets go the true character of mankind.
In ?A Municipal Report? O. Henry tells the story in a first person perspective through a man who thinks he is detached from the world. In O. Henry?s story we see that certain characters stand out among the rest by the details that he gives us. The author?s tone in, ?I stepped off the train at 8 P.M.,? is meant to appear nonchalant to give a feel that the narrator is merely an observer in the story. The characterization in the story is also unrealistically portrayed. Azalea Adair is a poor woman who, despite how needy she is, tells the narrator, ?You must have a cup of tea.? She is depicted as a good character without a single bad bone in her body. That would only be meant for the story since O. Henry could have set her up more realistically than a helpless princess needing to be rescued. Another character that defies human reality is Ceasar. He is shown to be a good character as well, giving Azalea his money and helping her out when she needs him. There is nothing bad about Ceasar that would make the reader dislike him. He is the classic knight in shining armor that could only be set up in a fantasy world. Next is the evil man Caswell. The narrator, who says, ?I have seen few men whom I have so instantaneous...
... middle of paper ...
...he people had practical characteristics that did not make the story any less realistic.
The styles of ?A Municipal Report? and ?A Jury of Her Peers? differed greatly in the sense of realism. While O. Henry?s story obviously served the entertaining purpose with the unpractical sense of characters and development, Glaspell?s story had a meaningful interpretation of life with pragmatic characters that could reflect human life.
Works Cited
Glaspell, Susan. ?A Jury of Her Peers.? Literature: Structures, Sound, and Sense. Eds Laurence Perrine and Thomas R. Arp. San Diego: HBJ, 1991. 324-41
O. Henry. ?A Municipal Report.? Perrine and Arp 312-24.
Perrine, Laurence. Analysis of ?A Jury of Her Peers?. Instructors Manual to accompany Literature: Structure, Sound, and Sense. San Diego: HBJ, 1991. 41-43
---. Analysis of ?A Municipal Report.? Instructors Manual 40-41.
Twentieth century society places few stereotypical roles on men and women. The men are not the sole breadwinners, as they once were, and the women are no longer the sole homemakers. The roles are often reversed, or, in the case of both parents working, the old roles are totally inconsequential. Many works of literature deal with gendered roles and their effect on society as a whole or on an individual as a person. "A Jury Of Her Peers" and Trifles, both written by Susan Glaspell, are works of literature that deal with socially gendered roles during the early nineteenth century. The two works are almost exactly alike in that the dialogue from "A Jury Of Her Peers" becomes the actor's lines in Trifles. The gendered roles in the early 1900s place the woman in the kitchen, serving meals, baking bread, and canning fruits and jellies. She was also expected to be a mother to her children and a caretaker to her husband. The man, on the other hand, was expected to take care of his family, providing the home and the food that the wife would prepare. Often when gender plays too much a part in a household, communication is lost. The husband can not see a person when he looks at his wife. This was the case in "A Jury Of Her Peers" and Trifles. The men totally ignored their wives' thoughts and roles, and, therefore, they missed the entire point of the real motive behind Mr. Wright's murder. The social gap between men and women in the early 1800s provided the basis for Glaspell's story, "A Jury Of her Peers" and her play, Trifles.
Glaspell, Susan. "A Jury of Her Peers." Literature and Its Writers. 6th ed. Boston, New York:
Susan Glaspell Trifles Susan Glaspell wrote many literary pieces in the early 1900s. Two, in particular, are very similar in theme, which is the play Trifles and the short story “A Jury of Her Peers”. The Trifles was written in 1920 and “A Jury of Her Peers” was written in 1921, a short story, adapted from the play. Susan Glaspell was born in Davenport, IA July 1, 1876 as a middle child and the only daughter. In college, she wrote for her school paper, The Drake, and after Glaspell graduated, she started working for the Des Moines News.
Heberle, Mark. "Contemporary Literary Criticism." O'Brien, Tim. The Things They Carried. Vol. 74. New York, 2001. 312.
Isaac Newton’s story of how an apple falling from a tree that hit his head inspired him to formulate a theory of gravitation is one that all school children grow up hearing about. Newton is arguably one of the most influential scientific minds in human history. He has published books such as Arithmetica Universalis, The Chronology of Ancient Kingdoms, Methods of Fluxions, Opticks, the Queries, and most famously, Philosophiæ Naturalis Principia MathematicaHe formulated the three laws of gravitation, discovered the generalized binomial theorem, developed infinitesimal calculus (sharing credit with Gottfried Wilhelm Von Leibniz, who developed the theory independently), and worked extensively on optics and refraction of light. Newton changed the way that people look at the world they live in and how the universe works.
The crowded courtroom was absolutely silent as the 12 all white and all men took their seats at the jury box. Chief Justice Albert Mason, one of the presiding judges in the murder case, asked Charles I. Richards, the foreman, to rise. Mr. Richards was asked to read the verdict. “Not guilty”, replied the foreman. Even though the circumstantial and physical evidence pointed to Lizzie Borden guilty of killing her step-mother and father, the all-male jury, men of some financial means, could not fathom that a woman who is well bred and a Sunday school teacher could possibly commit such a heinous crime (Linder 7).
Born on January 4, 1643, Isaac Newton is a renowned physicist and mathematician. As a child, he started off without his father, and when he was three years old, his mother remarried and left to live with her second husband. Newton was left in the hands of his grandmother. After getting a basic education at the local schools, he was sent to Grantham, England to attend the King’s School. He lived with a pharmacist named Clark. During his time at Clark’s home, he was interested in his chemical library and laboratory. He would amuse Clark’s daughter by creating mechanical devices such as sundials, floating lanterns, and a windmill run by a live mouse. Isaac Newton’s interest in science at an early age foreshadows how Isaac would be led into the
Currently, it is still unknown how different men and women really are, at least in the aspect regarding the brain and one’s thought processes. It is a controversial topic, just being discovered and many studies conflict with each other regarding the subject, which leaves for open questions and missing answers. Originally, there was a common understanding that at least cognitively, both genders were born similar. The way their environment affected them was what made them different, and the society surrounding them believably had the largest impact on the difference of an individual. In contrast however, studies in recent times conflict with these older beliefs revealing quite the opposite. Some of today's psychologists agree that a few differences exhibited by male and female brains are innate (Khazan). To be specific, each gender has been found to have correlations in the way they both navigate. Men are more likely in dealing with directions to go about it in a cardinal fashion, using an innate, spatial ability to guide themselves. They rely on specific directions and knowledge in order to correctly know exactly where they are or what they are looking for is in relation to their environment. While females typically navigate memorizing landmarks to travel (Navigational Differences). There are many different theories concerning as to why both genders may have this relation, and as of now they are still being looked into with highly successful studies. As time passes, more and more of these studies are revealing information about the brain, and innate differences among it and the genders. Evidence proves that since the day they are born men and women are different mentally, specifically in the way of navigating and following directi...
The central theme in “A Jury of Her Peers” is the place of women in society and especially the isolation this results in. We see this through the character, Minnie Foster and her isolation from love, happiness, companionship and from society as a whole. Not only does the story describe this isolation but it allows the reader to feel the impact of this isolation and recognize the tragedy of the situation.
and Trifles and 'A Jury of Her Peers,' by Susan Glaspell." Atlantis 24.1 (June 2002): 299-
Stillinger, Jack, Deidre Lynch, Stephen Greenblatt, and M H. Abrams. The Norton Anthology of English Literature: Volume D. New York, N.Y: W.W. Norton & Co, 2006. Print.
Fetterly, Judith. “Reading About Reading: ‘A Jury of Her Peers’, ‘The Murders in the Morgue,’ and ‘The
Roberts, Edgar V., Literature: An Introduction to Reading and Writing, 4th Compact Edition, Upper Saddle River: Prentice Hall, 2008, print
Harmon, William, and C. Hugh Holman. A Handbook to Literature. New Jersey: Prentice Hall, 1996.
Hey you, yeah you don’t eat me! Why because I got three reasons why. Number 1: I’m not healthy for you. Number 2: I can get overcooked. Last but not least, I got a family just like you.