The Main Point of Trifles: Attention of Detail between Men and Women

NOTE: This journal was written before any grading took place. Read at your own risk!

A main point of a certain story or novel has tremendous effect on how the story or novel is perceived by the audience. Different kinds of points can be seen throughout a range of stories or novels. The main point serves as a bridge between the reader's perception and the actual story of the text. Every text has a main point. In Trifles, by Susan Glaspell, the main point of the story is that men and women have opposing views when it comes to determining and focusing on specific details.

Trifles, meaning to pay attention to the small details, is delineated by showing the contrasting views between attention of the men and the women to the 'trifles' when trying to solve a murder in the Wright household; the sheriff, his wife, the county attorney, and Mr. and Mrs. Hale are all investigating in the house. The views of the men can be seen when the sheriff, glancing into the kitchen, says, “Nothing here but kitchen things.” The sheriff obviously looks at the kitchen as a whole when saying nothing is wrong; it is almost as if the sheriff wants to just skip over the kitchen like nothing happened in the room. This event displays that men have very little attention to the minute detail; however, the women in the story have just the opposite view. The views of the women can be seen when Mrs. Peters, also glancing into the kitchen, says, “Oh, her fruit; it did freeze. She worried about that when it turned cold. She said the fire'd go out and her jars would break.” It is almost as if Mrs. Peters knows something is wrong in the kitchen; she notices that the Wright's fruit has frozen over which may have an impact on the investigation. This event of Mrs. Peter's intelligent attention to detail shows that women in the story clearly focus more on the little things in the investigation rather than the men. As seen in the story of Trifles, it can be comprehended that men and women have strikingly different views when paying attention to the small detail.

In conclusion, the story of Trifles successfully displays that men and women have opposing views when the attention to small detail comes into play. This delineation happens so frequently in Trifles that one of the main points of the story is indeed paying attention to small detail. The title of the story even directly corresponds to one of the main points of the story! The main point of Trifles helps move the story along by progressing the level of investigation between the men and the women which in turn motivates the plot.

JohnB0127

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