"Story and Structure" by Thomas R. Arp and Greg Johnson.

This is a story taken from the book, "Story and Structure" by Thomas R. Arp and Greg Johnson, tenth edition. This is a Critical Analysis of the story for my English 102 Class

Adam Foster

English 102

August 8th 2003

Essay Number Two(2)

Essay number Two(2)

Critical Analysis of "A jury of her peers."

This story is about a farmer, John Wright, who is murdered; his wife is arrested for the murder. The next day, the sheriff, the county attorney, the sheriff's wife, and a neighbor couple go to the Wrights'house. The women are there to pick out some clothes for the accused wife to wear; the men are there to find the motive to the murder.

The main theme in this story is about gender discrimination and the way the men treat and stereotype the women. Early in the story one can begin to see the gender discrimination

and how the men view the women and women in general.

English: Suzanne Perry touches every member of her...

Modern kitchen

Mrs. Bill Stagg with state quilt, Pie Town, New Me...

The men refer to the women as Mrs. Wright, Mrs. Hale, and Mrs. Peters. To the men, the women have no separate identities but are known only through the husbands to whom they are married.

At the start of the story, the sheriff runs into Mrs. Hales home asking her is she would come with them all the while grinning because he believed that his wife was getting "scared" and wanted another woman along to comfort her (358).

Once they arrive at the murder scene, the investigators pretty much ignore the kitchen. In one part The Sheriff says, "Nothing here but kitchen things" (364) all the while he laughs about the insignificance of kitchen things. This shows the total lack of respect on the part of a woman's duties or a woman's things. Mr. Hales goes on to say, "Oh,