Analysis Of Edgar Lee Masters 'Poem Minerva Jones'

In the poem "Minerva Jones" by Edgar Lee Masters, we learn that the individual is treated very badly by the other villagers due to her "weird features", it has been revealed to me that people will tend to treat people, that aren't considered normal, very badly. The people that this person is talking about is the population of the village,and evidence that shows this is "the village poetess, Hooted at, jeered at by the Yahoos of the street". At the time, Masters may have seen that in small-town American culture and values was that "non-normal" people would be treated badly. Evidence that leads to this is " the village poetess, Hooted at, jeered at by the Yahoos of the street, For my heavy body, cock-eye, and rolling walk" and "Will some one …show more content…
The people that this person was talking about were the people he worked with in his job. Evidence for this would include "They gave me a job in the canning works". In this poem, Masters may have shown that his point of view on small-town American culture and values was that revenge may come back eventually for committing a crime. Evidence that supports this is "And I shot up as the tank exploded, And down I came with both legs broken... The Circuit Judge said whoever did it, Was a fellow-servant of mine". I believe that this may have happened due to …show more content…
As he said "And all the weak, the halt, the improvident,and those who could not pay flocked to me". Later on in the poem, he references the person "Minerva Jones", when he says " And then one night, Minerva, the poetess,came to me in her trouble, crying." He tries to help her, she still died. Due to this, everyone assumed that he killed her,and Dr.Meyers became seen as a bad person in the village, this is shown when he says "They indicted me, the newspapers disgraced me". The social values at the time was that a person could easily be seen really bad through one wrong action.

In the poem "Mrs.Meyers" by Edgar Lee Masters, what I know about the speaker is that she was the wife of Dr.Meyers. Her relationship to other Spoon River residents I read about would only include John M. Church, who had possibly help cause the lie of Dr.Meyers killing Minerva. Mrs.Meyers opinion of what her husband did was "That even trying to help her, as he called it, He had broken the law human and divine." What I can infer on society's values based on this is that it is not good to try and help someone that is not considered "normal" due to how other people see