Comparing A Jury Of Her Peers And Helen Reddy's Song I Am Woman

Bonds So Strong, Murder Can’t Break Them Intertextuality suggest that all works of literature are in some way connected and are telling the same story, but in different viewpoints. Whether the author is aware or not, they are influenced from other works. It could be from a song heard, a movie seen, or a book read, but the author will in some way intertwine other works within their writing consciously or not. In Susan Glaspell’s short story “A Jury of Her Peers” and Helen Reddy’s song “I Am Woman”, intertextuality is not necessary evident, however, you can derive the same meanings from the two. While Glaspell may be unaware of her message of the empowerment of women, especially being that the story was written in 1917, Reddy’s is quite clear.
Glaspell’s story is from the perspective of Martha Hale, who has been called to the home of Minnie Foster Wright, a neighbor, that has been accused of killing her husband. While you may focus on the storyline of the woman killing her husband as I did at first, once you reread the story you can grasp the message of women banning together to protect once another. Mrs. Hale responds to the county attorney of his comment on the state of Minnie’s home that, “There’s a great deal of work to be done on a farm…….Men’s hands aren’t always as clean as they might be.” (690). While the attorney is being scornful of the state of home, Mrs. Hale has a quick retort in the defense of her neighbor. Just as in Reddy’s song stating “I am woman, hear me roar/In numbers too big to ignore” (lines 1-2). In other words, women stick together and by doing so we have a strong voice. Both Glaspell and Reddy show how woman are always quick to defend our sex. It could be that we have a better understanding of each other and in that will extend our understanding to the most unlikely of