Compare And Contrast Nightmare In Napa And A Jury Of Her Peers

Why is it that people get a kick out of reading, watching or listening to something as gruesome as true crime stories? For decades, crime stories have caught the attention of readers with their combination of factual information and suspense. Both Nightmare in Napa and “A Jury of Her Peers” are two examples of real crime stories that have caught the interest of readers everywhere. Though these two texts differ in format, plot and language, they both serve the same purpose of informing the audience as well as entertaining them in the process. By comparing Nightmare in Napa and “A Jury of Her Peers”, the cultural purpose of “true crime” stories is to address crimes in a way that informs but also engages and thrills the audience by using facts

Though all crime stories tell gruesome events, not all present them in such a dark way, but these two pieces of texts do. In Nightmare in Napa, the whole report is based off of facts and quotes from people, yet it is presented to the audience in a way that is intended to provide an adrenaline rush and feelings of fear. Glaspell is also able to do this by setting the tone of the story through the language she uses. When Mrs. Hale is describing Mrs. Wright’s house, Glaspell writes, “I never liked this place. Maybe because it’s down in a hollow and you don’t see the road. I don’t know what it is, but it’s a lonesome place, and always was” (156). By doing this she is creating sad and almost dark scenery when using words such as “hollow” and “lonesome”. The wording and format of crime stories can have a big role in setting the mood for how the audience perceives these

Nightmare in Napa is formatted in a non-fiction news report, providing information about the murders strictly through facts and quotes. For example, in Schorn’s report, he writes that Detective Todd Schulman states, “The blood evidence really speaks volumes what happened there. You're able to start to get a picture in your mind of where these girls were and how they fought back the last moments of their life”. This is an excellent instance where Schorn is able to use factual evidence to inform as well as contribute to the suspenseful tone of his article. “A Jury of Her Peers”, on the other hand, is a fictional short story based on a real murder with detailed descriptions and dialogues between characters. Glaspell is able to throw in an informative message regarding gender stereotypes within her story while maintaining the fictional, storytelling aspect of it. When Mrs. Hale is once again vocal of her opinions, she states “Those towels get dirty awful quick. Men’s hands aren’t always as clean as they might be” (149). The author implies how men are not always as squeaky clean as their characters seem to be. Though both of these works serve the same purpose of informing and entertaining, it intrigues me how both can accomplish the same thing in such different