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Essay / Death in the Woods, by Sherwood Anderson - 504
The story “Death in the Woods”, written by Sherwood Anderson, is a story told by a man who has told it one or more times. As a young boy in a small town, he notices an older woman named Grimes, whose story he will tell us. He was the kind of person no one noticed in town. She led a quiet life and never really spoke to anyone other than the butcher. The narrator then goes on to describe how she met her husband Jack Grimes. He was a tough guy she met while working for an abusive German farmer. The narrator tells you a long story about how he helps him escape the abusive German. They became friends after a few incidents and then got married. They had a few boys and started their own farm where, as before, she fed the animals, as she did for the Germans. Her husband tried to socialize with people in town, but it didn't work. He then rebelled by stealing their horses. He even threatened to fight them because they refused to talk to him. Perhaps this is a good reason why one of his sons has already been put in prison, thus setting a very good example. Their family, the Grimes, owned a sawmill but it went bankrupt in recent years and all their money disappeared, forcing them to work hard. The young man who is narrating then tells us about his encounter. with the elderly woman. On a cold winter day, she drove into town to go to the store. She went to the butcher, ironically she and the butcher were socializing and he gave her extra food. On the way back through the woods, she stopped for a minute to rest because of the heavy bag. She fell asleep and didn't wake up. She died of cold. Her dogs found here and ate their food from her bag. It's very ironic because all she did was feed animals her whole life. She did it on the German farm, on her farm/family and with the dogs and now she is dead because of it. In the story, the young man describes how he arrived with the other men of the town when they found her. He saw her frozen and dead.