Reading Response to “the Short Happy Life of Francis Macomber” and “a Jury of Her Peers”

In both stories each character is plagued by societal norms or status quos. Minnie Foster in “A Jury of Her Peers” and Francis Macomber in “The Short Happy Life of Francis Macomber” are both a part of a society that has told   them and the people in their lives how they should behave. One is placed into a role as a housewife, constantly cleaning and cooking and assumed to have minimal thoughts, while the other is a part of a society that judges a man by his “manliness” and determines how such a man should act based upon the spectrum of masculine professions. In the beginning of each story, the protagonist had not been happy with themselves or who they have become but by the end of each story, using other characters as a catalyst for change, Minnie and Francis have both begun a path to find themselves or rediscover their past selves. For instance, Minnie Foster, had been a happy, singing, pretty woman, comparable to a canary, but with her marriage came society’s doctrine of how a married woman should act. By marrying, Minnie had lost who she once was and only through her husband’s emotional abuse was she able to fight back and learn to rediscover it. On the other hand, Francis was a city man, able to provide for his wife in all aspects of life but the quality that his wife wanted most. He was a very patient and reasoned man but Mrs. Macomber wanted someone with more masculinity. She, like many women wanted a rugged man, able to utilize and hone in on his animal instinct to hunt, a quality that Francis lacked, and Wilson possessed. But after constant prodding and insults, at the very end Mr. Macomber was able to find his “manhood” with his final act of killing a   buffalo. Although each story has some similarities, a major difference between the two is who had the possession of power. In “A Jury of Her Peers” Minnie’s husband had the power in the relationship when he was alive but there is a power shift when the women hide the evidence to reveal her motive for murder,...