Eng
In Death in the Woods by Sherwood Anderson, the old woman that feeds the animals was a quite member of the community. She kept to herself and did her routine things such as visit the butcher and such. She loved the nature, and her biggest concern seemed to be feeing the animals. They were like children to her, and they probably treated her better than her real family did. In Robert Frost's An Old Man's Winter Night, the man in this story also kept to himself and was never associated with anyone or anything. He was also an old man, that didn't
seem to have much in his life to keep him occupied besides his old age.
The woman who died was one destined to feed animal life. Anyway, that is all she ever did. She was feeding animal life before she was born, as a child, as a young woman working on the farm of the German, after she married, when she grew old and when she died. She fed animal life in cows, in chickens, in pigs, in horses, in dogs, in men. Her daughter had died in childhood and with her one son she had no articulate relations. On the night when she died she was hurrying homeward, bearing on her body food for animal life.
In this passage, it is quite clear what kind of life the old woman lived. She was following her desity, and "even after her death continued feeding animal life". This may sound sad to some, that she was alone and with the animals, but really it is a beautiful tale of a woman who cared so much for these living creatures and took good care of them.
In An Old Man's Winter Night, the old man is in a houes by himself. He neither has anyone to talk to. All that is there for the old man is nature. He hears the the sounds of the branches and that is familiarity to him.
What kept him from remembering what is was That brought him to that creaking room was age. He stood with barrels round him- at a loss.
This is a man that has lived his whole life, and now in old age is left be himself to ponder...
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