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Week 5, Homework Assignment 1: Annotation of Theme
Below is what I did, I want you to annotate the sentences Bolded!! and explain why it relates to the theme
A Jury of Her Peers Martha Hale is baking bread one cold March morning when County Sheriff Peters comes by and asks her to assist his wife in gathering some personal belongings of Minnie Wright, a neighbor of Martha’s, whom Peters has jailed on suspicion of murdering her husband, John Wright. Martha reluctantly leaves her kitchen to join her husband Lewis, Sheriff and Mrs. Peters, and County Attorney George Henderson, who are on their way to the Wrights’ isolated farmhouse. After arriving at the Wrights, Martha pauses before crossing the threshold, oppressed by feelings of guilt because she had never visited Minnie, her girlhood friend, in the twenty years since Minnie married Wright.
When the county attorney asks Lewis Hale what he found at the Wright place the night before, Martha nervously listens to her husband describe his coming to the isolated farmhouse to see if he could convince John Wright to get a telephone and share the installation costs. Sometime before, Hale had unsuccessfully talked to Wright about getting a phone and thought now he’d try to talk to Mrs. Wright about it, at the same time recognizing that what Mrs. Wright wanted wouldn’t make much difference to her husband John. In this way, despite Martha’s hopes that her husband would not say anything incriminating about Minnie, his remarks manage to imply the Wrights were not happily married.
County Attorney Henderson takes notes as John Hale tells how Mrs. Wright sat unemotionally rocking in her chair and responded to his request to see her husband by calmly stating that although her husband was home, he would not be able to talk to Hale because he was dead. Pleating her apron, she said he died of a rope around his neck while he was sleeping in bed with her; she did not know who did it because she was sleeping on the inside and she slept soundly. That Minnie Wright murdered her husband seems clear to the county attorney, but without her confession, he knows that a jury will want to see definite evidence before convicting, especially when trying a woman for murder. Seeking evidence of a motive, the sheriff looks around at the kitchen things, while Mr. Hale comments with a tone of superiority that women are concerned with trifles. Reacting defensively to this condescension, Martha and Mrs. Peters instinctively move closer together and defend their neighbor as if she were a close friend. After Mr. Hale wonders out loud whether
Character: The story features a small cast of characters, including Minnie Foster Wright, her husband John Wright, and their neighbors, Mr. and Mrs. Hale, and the county attorney and sheriff. Through their interactions and dialogue, we learn about their personalities, motivations, and relationships with each other. For example, we see that Minnie is isolated and unhappy in her marriage, and we learn that John was a harsh and controlling husband who prevented her from having any joy in her life.
Setting: The story takes place in a rural farmhouse in the early 20th century. This setting is significant because it reflects the isolation and confinement experienced by women during this time period. The farmhouse is also a symbol of domesticity, and the story highlights the way women were expected to fulfill traditional gender roles and be responsible for maintaining the home.
Theme: This is a short story about The central theme of the story is the oppression of women in a patriarchal society. Through the character of Minnie, we see how women were expected to be subservient to their husbands and denied the opportunity to pursue their own interests and desires. The story highlights the way women were silenced and ignored, and it shows the importance of women supporting each other and fighting against gender inequality.
10 Key words about the oppression of woman, highlight
stitch
Setting:
Rural farmhouse
Early 20th century
Isolation
Confinement
Domesticity
Traditional gender roles
Home
Kitchen
Farmyard
Weather
Instruction’s:
In this homework assignment, you will analyze and annotate the short story that you will use as the basis for Paper 2. Please note that the story you choose should be from among the list from Week 2 but it should not be the same one you used for the Week 2 Annotation Homework assignment and Paper 1.
Applying close reading strategies, locate keywords that signal the literary element of theme, as you identify it, in your chosen short story. You should read closely and carefully, noting words or synonyms that repeatedly draw the reader’s attention to the theme. In a print/paper version of the story, you may have underlined or highlighted them. You may also have written notes to yourself in the margins. In a PDF text, you may be using the markup tools or comment features.
There is no exact, “right way” of annotating a particular story; like the writing process, the close reading process is yours to individualize. If you prefer to print out the story on paper, annotate it by hand, and then upload a picture or scan of the paper, that submission would be perfectly fine as well.
In short, by reading the story more than once and annotating it, you are engaging in critical reading, which will inform your literary analysis and writing about literature.
Directions:
Identify the theme of the story and explain how you identified it.
Annotate the sections of the story (e.g., keywords, phrases, and/or passages) that elucidate the theme.
