Savagery In Susan Glaspell's A Jury Of Her Peers

Savagery in Oppression

Writer, George R. R. Martin once said, “There is a savage beast in every man and when you hand that man a sword or spear and send him forth to war, the beast stirs.”. In every person there is a dark void in them where savageness resides and when oppression joins savagery in the void, the brutality in anyone comes out. Although oppression may cause different reactions from people, for most it can cause savagery to emerge from even the best people leading to their ultimate self- destruction by leading them to kill, lose control, and destruct. When a once happy young maiden suddenly kills her husband in his sleep, what is the source of this dramatic act of savagery? ? In Susan Glaspell's short story, “A Jury of Her Peers”,

It finds a way into each and every person no matter who they are and what they have been through. In “The Child by Tiger”, a short story by Thomas Wolfe, the author portrays a scorn man stuck in oppression finally snapping after holding it in for too long. The story takes place in a time of such extreme segregation that some people such children can’t even recognize the treatment. The story is centered around an African American man named Dick Prosser who was in the army and a great soldier. But his career could go nowhere because he was African American, he could not be a general no matter how great his aim was with a rifle. Instead after his discharge, Dick went and became the man servant in a prestigious white family, the Sheppertons in a small town. There he helped drive the around, cut wood, and anything else they needed. In the family, everyone loved him thinking he could do no wrong but outside, he was greeted with harsh treatment from even the most disrespected person in town, Lon Everett, the drunk who “swung viciously, clumsily, at the Negro, smashed him in the face” (p. 103) after crashing into Dick’s car. Lon Everett’s actions were followed by silence from everyone proving that even the most disgusting person in the town had a higher status than an African American in their society. The people were virtually completely ignorant to the way Dick was treated. The kids thought that Dick only “

Usually the thing possess what you once had, wish you had, or wanted to still have. In Graham Greene's short story, The Destructors, he projects how even the most innocent of people- children can become savage and and target to destruct because of oppression. The story centers around a young 12 year old boy named Trevor who was living in a post war depression. He wanted to fit in with the poor kids but "There was his name (and they substituted the initial because otherwise they had no excuse not to laugh at it), the fact that his father, a former architect and present clerk, had "come down in the world"." (pg. 1). Never could he truly fit in with them because of his background and this causes the oppression to rise in him. If it hadn’t been for the war, he wouldn't have to have been trying to get these boy to like him. He lost everything in the war and then it motivates him to try to get used to his new environment. One day he talks to the kids who are assembled together in the gang and say ""It's a beautiful house," and still watching the ground, meeting no one's eyes" (pg. 3). He plans to destroy the house until it no longer exists like his old life. As the gang sets out to completely eliminate the house, Trevor shows a different, dark side of him that states, "We are going to destroy this house. There won't be anything left when we're finished." (pg. 10). The