Edgar Lee Masters Spoon River Anthology: Life Is Hard

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Everyone faces situations in life that may not be easy. Sometimes there are obstacles that stand in a person’s way, but jumping through hoops is what makes life interesting. If everything in the world was easy to achieve, it would be boring and pointless. With hindrances, a person can learn how to be strong. In Edgar Lee Masters’ Spoon River Anthology, the idea that life is not always easy is clearly demonstrated in the epitaphs titled “Mrs. Charles Bliss,” “Mrs. George Reece,” and “Nellie Clark.”

In Spoon River Anthology, the poem titled “Mrs. Charles Bliss” indicates that her life was not easy whatsoever. In this poem, she explains how she and her husband did not get a divorce for the sake of their children, under the advisement …show more content…
George Reece.” Her husband was blamed for the fall of the bank, even though it was not his fault at all, and he was sent to prison. Mrs. Reece was left alone to care for the children, with no help at all. She says, “Yet my husband was sent to prison/And I was left with the children/To feed and clothe and school them,” (Masters, pg 66). Obviously it must’ve been difficult for her to raise them all by herself, but she says that her children became clean and strong, so she must have done a good job as a single mother. Clearly, she realized that she had to make do with the one life she had and do the best she could. While this poem ended well, it still demonstrated the difficulties Mrs. George Reece faced in …show more content…
When her husband found out that she had lied to him, she explains, “Then he considered himself cheated/And the village agreed that I was not really a virgin/Well, he deserted me, and I died/The following winter,” (Masters, pg 48). Undoubtedly, Nellie Clark had a very difficult life. She had to deal with the pain of remembering what had happened to her. Also, after her husband found out, she was devastated and alone for the rest of her life, causing the epitaph to end badly. It can be inferred that she regretted not telling her husband; this means that she probably wishes she had another chance at life. Although her life was not easy, she still dealt with the issues at hand in a very admirable
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