Mother Savage Essay

434 Words2 Pages
Being human, we will all experience death at some point during life. However, we all experience it differently. In connection with this short story, the way Mother Savage takes in the news of her son’s death is a way most mothers would feel about losing a child. Though one cannot feel the same pain as someone else, they share the same tragedy. This short story can be considered a tragedy for a few reasons. One reason being Mother Savage losing her son in the War. This is a tragedy for any parent. Remembering that this was set back in 1884, it took time for news of any sort to travel and get to its desired destination. In this case, it took three weeks for Mother Savage to learn of her son’s death. Then, adding to the dreary feel of the story, the author adds in the tragic event of Mother Savage’s husband being killed by the police, but made the point that he was returned back to her with a bullet wound in the middle of his head. It seems like that’s a little dig to get us to feel sorry for her before we read any further into the story and realize what she is truly capable of. The second reason that would make this a tragedy, would be the killing of the four men Mother Savage had sleeping in her barn. Even with these men being Prussian, the author still made them out to be helpful, kind, respectful gentlemen. As soon as Mother Savage got news of her son’s death, everything changed. It was eye for an eye to her. The Prussians killed her son in battle, so she was going to take the lives of each Prussian she had as revenge. Just like her son, they had mothers who were waiting for their return and worried for their safety. Now, they would know what it felt like to lose a child. This story allowed us to see how a tragedy such as death can affect a person. Even though we may all experience death, how it affects each of us it different. Some may go crazy and try to
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