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Jury Of Her Peers, By Susan Glaspell, Term Paper

¶ … Jury of Her Peers, by Susan Glaspell, and "A Municipal Report," by O. Henry. Specifically, it will evaluate the relative quality of the two stories. Glaspell's work is the more significant of the two, because of the abusive theme it explores, while showing how women stick together during times of duress. O. Henry's story is also compelling, but not as much so as Glaspell's. BETTER STORY

Henry's work and Susan Glaspell's work could not be further apart at first glance, yet they both make striking social commentary, one with humor, and one with horror. O. Henry's is laughable and sometimes shocking, (the depiction of the blacks in the story is so typical of the South, and so typically racist it is difficult to read). "What is that to you?' I asked, a little sharply. 'Nothin', suh, jus' nothin'. Only it's a lonesome kind of part of town and few folks ever has business out there. Step right in. The seats is clean -- jes' got back from a funeral, suh'" (Henry 158).

However, Glaspell's work is the more important and significant of the...

"A Jury of her Peers" is the story of a woman driven to the "end of her rope" by a spiteful, mean-spirited man, but it is also a story of women, and how they can come together in a crisis. The two women in the story know immediately what Mrs. Wright had to put up with, and immediately stand up for her when the men begin to criticize her housekeeping skills. "But I don't think a place would be any the cheerfuller for John Wright's bein' in it" (Glaspell).
The men look down their noses at the women throughout the story, but at the end, Glaspell depicts the women as the wise characters, far overshadowing the men. While the men are still fumbling around looking at "evidence" and speculating, the more introspective and sensitive women have solved the crime, and are on the way to saving Mrs. Wright from paying for the murder. "Well, Henry,' said the county attorney facetiously, 'at least we found out that she was not going to…

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References

Glaspell, Susan. "A Jury of Her Peers." Learner.org. 2002. 16 Dec. 2002. http://www.learner.org/exhibits/literature/story/fulltext.html

Henry, O. Strictly Business: More Stories of the Four Million. Garden City, NY: Doubleday, Page & Company, 1918.
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