My Thoughts on A Jury of Her Peers

     I think the main focus in A Jury of Her Peers is the conflict between morals and laws. And there are two characters that lean towards each side. Mrs Peters leans more toward the law side because she is "married to the law" and Mrs Hale leans more towards the moral side because she has known Minnie since they were young girls. In the end, morality won out but was that what should of happened? I mean John might of suppressed Minnie's complete personality and destroyed everything she loved but does that justify murder? I don't think it does, she should of ran. Now she has to live with a guilty conscience and if she gets found out life in prison or worse. One part of the story that caught my attention was how Mrs Hale blamed herself for Minnie's mistakes. I think they must of been closer friends in their younger years than the story tells. Although if the story was continued I think the sherifs wife would fold and tell about the bird resulting in all of the women getting arrested.

Justice

     A strong theme in "A Jury of Her Peers" is justice. Although the law requires punishment to the murderer, the story makes you wonder whether or not Minnie should be punished for her actions. The women in the story feel that what she did was a matter of self-defense and therefore, try to protect her. The men on the other hand see the situation from a different point of view. They see a murder case that needs to be solved, and a murderer that needs to be punished. So in Minnie's case, what really is just? Judging by the way the story ended, the author appears to feel that maybe she wasn't wrong. As far as what I think, I find the answer hard to come to. I don't think that anyone should be wrongly punished. But, no matter how you look at it, murder is still murder.

A Theme in A Jury of Her Peers

     One of the themes in "A Jury of Her Peers" is right versus wrong.  After finding the canary, the women try to determine what to do.  Should they expose the new found evidence and send Minnie to face her punishment?  Should they hide the bird, saving their friend and understanding that John Wright was hard on her?  What it all comes down to is should murder go unpunished if it were a case like Minnie's.  In my opinion, murder is murder.  No excuses.  The Bible says , "You must not murder" (Deuteronomy 5:17).  Other things could have been done instead of killing John Wright.  One example is that she could have asked a friend to stay with her as a witness to his harsh behavior.  Later, Minnie and that friend can go to the police confirm Minnie's beliefs that her husband was cruel to her.  I don't think murder should happen in a case like Minnie's unless you were in a situation where he was going to kill you and that was your only escape.

Not a Fan.

In A Jury of Her Peers, there seems to be multiple themes, but only one shouts the loudest. The overarching theme in this story is the role of males dominating females, which I disagree with. I understand and fully accept the fact that men should lead and be over women, as the Bible calls them to do, but not in a scrutinizing or degrading manner. The author portrays this negative action in A Jury of Her Peers numerous times. Recalling one instance in particular that says, "women are used to be worrying over trifles" (112). Implying that women seem to only spend their life in the kitchen, or doing ridiculously simplistic tasks that utter no importance. That statement really fired myself up. Not only did the belittlement of women do so, but also Glaspell's view of murder. One simply cannot overlook murder as a means of self-defense, unless the person is an unbeliever. The Bible clearly states murder as being sin and that man should flee from committing such an act. Being the follower of Christ that I am, I found myself in strong contradiction to the entirety of A Jury of Her Peers.

A Journal Of her Queers.

I think the Theme in "A Jury Of Her Peers" is the emphasis of Gender roles. The men all desperately  go to great lengths to solve the crime/case and the women do so almost effortlessly, making this story very postmodern on account of the switching of the roles  of man  and of woman to where the men are rather useless as women were thought to be. Yes, the story could happen today, however, the woman would get off rather than be prosecuted. I do not personally agree with the author's standpoints about murder in the case of self defense or trading murder for twenty years of beating and what not.God says the law is the law and Murder is murder so in the case of Biblical standpoint this story is askew. On a personal note  I thought this story was dreadful. It doesn't even slightly intrigue me.

Who is the Real Scumbag?

              The message from A Jury of Her Peers is simply; some situations are complicated. The story hints at much but doesn’t explain anything. Minnie Foster's husband may have been beating her every night and she feared for her life or he could have one night been angry for her having an affair or something significant. For the sake of a blog let me continue with the idea of him beating her every night and her acting out of self defense. First let us step into her shoes. The facts we are accepting contain her being beaten, her fearing for her life, and her killing her husband. In that time women were looked down upon and not respected. Minnie may have not had anyone to go to and ask for help. She may be killed if her husband found out she tried to tell someone about her situation. She was stuck. Now, lets look at the man. He beats his wife and gets away with it for possibly years. Then she kills him. Was she justified to kill someone to get out of a situation that may not end? A situation that could take her life? Is there ever a time where it is right to kill someone? This situation appears in courts today all the time. They often decide between jail for life or setting her free, with a plea of self defense . I honestly think this is the hardest assignment for me. What if the woman is lying about being beaten? What if she could have told someone and, depending on the situation, she could have escaped without killing him? The situations change and get more and more complicated. In the end this is complicated and I may never know. Sorry for putting a shadow on your day.

Liam Searcy 

Homework This Week

Blog post
-Follow the assignment instructions for the "journal" in chapter 9. Post it as your blog and don't forget to comment:)

- Read and do all the work in Chapter 10 of your textbook.

- be thinking of the poet that you'd like to research

:)

have a great week!