Analysis of Sherwood Anderson's A Death in the Woods
T H E
M A N ,
S H E R W O O D
T H E
M A R Y
THE
B O Y ,
AND
A N D E R S O N ' S
THE
M Y T H s
" D E A T H
IN
W O O D S "
R O H R B E R G E R
Sherwood Anderson's "Death in the Woods" is, as Irving Howe notes,
"bare as a winter t r e e , " but "marvelously rich in substance," 1 for beneath the surface level of narration and by means of a pattern of symbols Anderson ponders the ultimate reality of life and death. The narrator of the story is a man, but he recounts past experiences, some of which have taken place when he was a boy. The tale which he tells is on the surface level a simple one concerning an old woman who lives in poverty with her husband and son on a farm near the town in which the narrator lived. In her youth she is a servant girl, bound to a German farmer, whom Jake Grimes has to fight in order to carry her away. She bears Jake two children, a son and a daughter, but the daughter dies. Jake and the son treat her cruelly and make little effort to keep the farm in operation. The burden of feeding the inhabitants of the place falls on the woman.
How was she going to get everything fed?---that was her problem. The dogs had to be fed. There wasn't enough hay in the barn for the horses and the cow.
If she didn't feed the chickens how could they lay eggs ? Without eggs to sell how could she get things in town, things she had to have to keep the life of the farm going? 2
One day in the winter the woman, carrying a few eggs to trade, goes off to town. Her walk is difficult because the snow is heavy and for the past few days she has not been feeling well. She carries with her an old grain bag in which she plans to put the gains of her b a r t e r . Because she has a successful trade, her grain bag is heavy, and on the way home she stops to strap it to her back. When she comes to a clearing she sits down to rest and falls asleep.
The dogs which have accompanied her leave to hunt rabbits in the
M A N ,
S H E R W O O D
T H E
M A R Y
THE
B O Y ,
AND
A N D E R S O N ' S
THE
M Y T H s
" D E A T H
IN
W O O D S "
R O H R B E R G E R
Sherwood Anderson's "Death in the Woods" is, as Irving Howe notes,
"bare as a winter t r e e , " but "marvelously rich in substance," 1 for beneath the surface level of narration and by means of a pattern of symbols Anderson ponders the ultimate reality of life and death. The narrator of the story is a man, but he recounts past experiences, some of which have taken place when he was a boy. The tale which he tells is on the surface level a simple one concerning an old woman who lives in poverty with her husband and son on a farm near the town in which the narrator lived. In her youth she is a servant girl, bound to a German farmer, whom Jake Grimes has to fight in order to carry her away. She bears Jake two children, a son and a daughter, but the daughter dies. Jake and the son treat her cruelly and make little effort to keep the farm in operation. The burden of feeding the inhabitants of the place falls on the woman.
How was she going to get everything fed?---that was her problem. The dogs had to be fed. There wasn't enough hay in the barn for the horses and the cow.
If she didn't feed the chickens how could they lay eggs ? Without eggs to sell how could she get things in town, things she had to have to keep the life of the farm going? 2
One day in the winter the woman, carrying a few eggs to trade, goes off to town. Her walk is difficult because the snow is heavy and for the past few days she has not been feeling well. She carries with her an old grain bag in which she plans to put the gains of her b a r t e r . Because she has a successful trade, her grain bag is heavy, and on the way home she stops to strap it to her back. When she comes to a clearing she sits down to rest and falls asleep.
The dogs which have accompanied her leave to hunt rabbits in the