Comparing O. Henrys A Municipal Report and Susan Glaspells A Jury of

Comparing O. Henry's A Municipal Report and Susan Glaspell's A Jury of Her Peers In ?A Municipal Report? by O. Henry and ?A Jury of Her Peers? by Susan Glaspell, the authors provide a disappearance of evidence about a retaliatory murder, but only one is true to human life and shows characteristics about human life while the other falsifies it. In this case ?A Municipal Report? is most definitely the one that fixes the story to merely entertain the reader, and ?A Jury of Her peers? lets go the true character of mankind. In ?A Municipal Report? O. Henry tells the story in a first person perspective through a man who thinks he is detached from the world. In O. Henry?s story we see that certain characters stand out among the rest by the details that he gives us. The author?s tone in, ?I stepped off the train at 8 P.M.,? is meant to appear nonchalant to give a feel that the narrator is merely an observer in the story. The characterization in the story is also unrealistically portrayed. Azalea Adair is a poor woman who, despite how needy she is, tells the narrator, ?You must have a cup of tea.? She is depicted as a good character without a single bad bone in her body. That would only be meant for the story since O. Henry could have set her up more realistically than a helpless princess needing to be rescued. Another character that defies human reality is Ceasar. He is shown to be a good character as well, giving Azalea his money and helping her out when she needs him. There is nothing bad about Ceasar th at would make the reader dislike him. He is the classic knight in shining armor that could only be set up in a fantasy world. Next is the evil man Caswell. The narrator, who says, ?I have seen few men whom I have so instantaneous... ...he people had practical characteristics that did not make the story any less realistic. The styles of ?A Municipal Report? and ?A Jury of Her Peers? differed greatly in the sense of realism. While O. Henry?s story obviously served the entertaining purpose with the unpractical sense of characters and development, Glaspell?s story had a meaningful interpretation of life with pragmatic characters that could reflect human life. Works Cited Glaspell, Susan. ?A Jury of Her Peers.? Literature: Structures, Sound, and Sense. Eds Laurence Perrine and Thomas R. Arp. San Diego: HBJ, 1991. 324-41 O. Henry. ?A Municipal Report.? Perrine and Arp 312-24. Perrine, Laurence. Analysis of ?A Jury of Her Peers?. Instructors Manual to accompany Literature: Structure, Sound, and Sense. San Diego: HBJ, 1991. 41-43 ---. Analysis of ?A Municipal Report.? Instructors Manual 40-41.