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Tuesday, September 17, 2013

Death In the Woods


Recently in Melissa, TX, a 17 year old boy came home to find his mother dead. After coming home from school on Monday, September 9th, 2013, a teenage boy came home to find his mother deceased in the family home. Although much is not known about this death, how it happened or who was involved, I think that the mystery gives off more of a sense of a haunting and erie feeling. After reading the article, I immediately thought back to A Death In the Woods by Sherwood Anderson.

Teen Finds Mother Dead After Returning Home From School In Melissa


The two stories were similar in various ways. Both stories share a common theme: a woman was found dead. Although Grimes’ death was told and depicted to us in the short story, the people in the story do not know the real story. Both were similar in that the townspeople in the story and the general public of the Dallas area have no idea what happened to both women. In the short story, the townspeople each had their own idea of what happened to the women, and each person had their own recollection of the story. In the Dallas News article, the author states that “Authorities have yet to say how she died” (Peterson) meaning that perhaps it is unsure how the woman died. Under the article however, there were comments made speculating that the death was the cause of a murder. “A hunter out after rabbits found the old woman’s body and did not touch it.” (Anderson 171) As stated before, the woman in the Dallas News article was found by her son. Both women died leaving a child- more specifically, a son behind. In the story, a hunter stumbled upon Grimes’ body.

I believe that death is a sensitive and almost scary subject for most people to grasp. I think for that very reason, people are fascinated with it. They yearn to know more and find out the whole story. For example, Anderson’s story, each of the men who went out to “retrieve” the old woman’s body had their own version of what happened and their own version of what they believed to have happened to her. I believe that they were truly fascinated in the woman, a woman who they had not given a thought to figuring out that she had died. I think that they each found entertainment in sharing what they wanted to believe happened. For these people, the death was used as gossip. In the Dallas News story, readers were not given much information, but the basic outline that a woman had died. After reading it though, I wanted to allude to the notion that perhaps the woman had been murdered because most of the time, when a civilian dies, it is not usually written about. I think that the common denominator of death in both stories is what truly captured the attention of the readers. 

Teen Finds Mother Dead (Video)

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