Death in the Woods

After the hunter tells of his discovery of the old woman’s body in the woods, Sherwood Anderson describes the cause of his misunderstanding in what he found:

In a woods, in the late afternoon, when the trees are all bare and there is white snow on the ground, when all is silent, something creepy steals over the mind and body. If something strange or uncanny has happened in the neighborhood all you think about is getting away from there as fast as you can (Part 4, Paragraph 9).

Anderson’s description of the isolation of the woods lends an air of discomfort to the reader, made even more poignant by that fact that the trees are barren (without life-giving force) and snow dampens the sounds of life that might normally permeate the woods. The imagery of the woods mirrors Mrs. Grimes’s isolation and furthers the idea that the crone is a trope to be both feared and revered.

The tone is one of remembrance and reflection. The narrator recounts a defining moment of his life that is also a tragedy for the