In death of the woods, the old woman was a symbolic vampire. Before we discuss vampires, it might be helpful to know what vampires are. Foster talks about vampires in chapter 3 when he says, “It’s also about things other than literal vampirism: selfishness, exploitation, a refusal to respect the autonomy of other people, just for starters.” In this paragraph, I will show that the old woman did all three. First, the woman refused to respect the autonomy of another organism. When Jake went to get the girl, his horse tried to run away, but the woman stopped it. The narrator says, “...the girl got him stopped. Then she managed to tie him to a tree beside the road.” If the servant really had respect for other creatures, she wouldn’t have held the
