In the fourth stanza, the speaker speculates that his enemy enlisted in the army casually because he was out of work and forced to sell his tools, just as he was. To illustrate, the speaker states, “He thought he’d ‘list, perhaps, off-hand like—just as I—was out of work…”. In addition, the speaker of the poem expected to hate his enemy, but ironically, he realizes that he and his enemy could have been friends. In fact, the speaker emphasizes the detail that if they had met in times of tranquility, he would have bought his enemy a drink, or even loaned him some …show more content…
In the process of fulfilling her plan, Old Mother Savage allows the soldiers to sleep in the attic, and provides them with plenty of hay so that they will be warm. Ironically, she then removes the ladder to the attic, locks the door, and sets the house on fire. As she stands outside with her shotgun, she tells the German officer that she was the one that set the fire and takes out a piece of paper with the names and addresses of the Prussian soldiers. From this, it is evident that Old Mother Savage wanted the mothers of the soldiers to feel the same pain that she felt. At the conclusion of the story, Old Mother Savage is executed by a firing squad. Through the short story, it is apparent that war turned Old Mother Savage into a vicious