Sarah Orne Jewett's "War Debt" Analytical Essay by Peter Pen

This paper explains that Sarah Orne Jewett's "A War Debt" is about the journey of the story's main character Tom, who was instructed by his grandmother to return a stolen cup, which his grandfather had recovered during the American civil war , back to its owners in Virginia. The author points out that there is no real climatic event in the story, which makes it very flat; however, the style of the writing, which splits the story between simplistic dialog and extremely descriptive narration, adds a great deal of interest to the text. The paper relates that, like any war, the psychological affects after the American civil war were devastating: Individuals were faced with many hardships and obstacles that came about from their known world crumbling down around them.