Miss Strangeworth In The Possibility Of Evil By Shirley Jackson

Words: 1169
Pages: 5

Every small town, like in the story “The Possibility of Evil” by Shirley Jackson has that one person who knows everybody in the town and everybody knows them. Miss Strangeworth is that person, for this little town. Her family house has stood there for almost a century, was glowing from the colours of her well-known roses on Pleasant Street. Those roses have been there since the house was built by her grandfather with her grandmother, who planted the roses. Since then, each generation has taken responsibility to care for them, each season as the years passed. Miss Strangeworth takes personal pride with her roses, never giving them away, only keeping them for herself. If there were any to be clipped, she would spread them throughout her house …show more content…
I see the first indication with Mr. Lewis, the grocery owner. Mr. Lewis left high school in order to work for his dad, at the grocery store, and was now the town's grocery owner. It is written that Tommy Lewis and Adele Strangeworth went to high school together, on picnics, to dances, and to basketball games insinuating they have had a high school relationship with each other. Over time, they start having more of a professional relationship addressing each as Mr. Lewis and Miss Strangeworth. While Mr. Lewis was putting Miss Strangeworth's grocery order together, Miss Strangeworth makes reference to herself that “Mr. Lewis looked worried, she thought, and for a minute she hesitated, but then she decided that he surely could not be worried over the strawberries. He looked very tired indeed. He was usually so chipper, Miss Strangeworth thought, and almost commented, but it was far too personal a subject to be introduced to Mr. Lewis, the grocer”. (Jackson 165-66). Miss Strangeworth clearly knowing that Mr. Lewis was upset about the anonymous letter he had received. This letter in regard to his grandson stealing money from the cash register, written and sent from Miss Strangeworth, just one of her many letters to the townsfolk. Miss Strangeworth shows Mr. Lewis, nothing but a lack of respect, zero integrity, and she has no morals towards