The Possibility Of Evil Analysis

In the story, Miss Strangeworth writes to others, talking bad about people behind their back. “Didn’t you ever see an idiot child before? Some people just shouldn’t have children should they?” She uses these letters to talk to other people without anyone else knowing. These letters are also used to symbolize gossip, or behind the back talking. “Have you found out yet what they were all laughing about after you left the bridge club on thursday? Or is the wife really always the last one to know?” This shows how Miss Strangeworth is talking about others without them knowing, using letters as a secretive form of communication. These pieces of evidence show how letters are a form of symbolism throughout the

Miss Strangeworth’s character can be analyzed by what she does. Miss Strangeworth is selfish. She is selfish because she won’t give away a few of her roses. For example, “Miss Strangeworth never gave away any of her roses, although the tourists asked her.” Another way she is selfish is that she believes the town is hers. In addition, “She was seventy-one, Miss Strangeworth told the tourists, with a pretty little dimple showing on her lip, and she sometimes found herself thinking that the town belonged to her.” As a result, Miss strangeworth can be analyzed as selfish.

The Story, The Possibility of Evil is a truly interesting story that demonstrates the evil of a community that seems almost perfect. This story demonstrates how there is probably no place on Earth that evil has not reached. The story bases itself on a small suburban town and the people that live there. The reader meets Miss Strangeworth who is a sweet little lady that smiles to everyone during the day and starts conversations, but by the time she gets home she starts writing letters revealing secrets and unpleasant facts of her neighbours and fellow townspeople and

Miss Strangeworth family has loved there for better than a hundred years. Miss Strangeworth grandmother planted the roses and her mother tended them. She’s watched her town grow, and remembered when the river flooded out the shanties on the low road.

Although the story begins with Miss Strangeworth as a sweet old lady, the reader learns that Miss Strangeworth has delusions about trying to save her town from evil. At first, we learn about her pride in her town, her family home, and her roses. Miss Strangeworth goes as far as bragging that she has “never spent more than a day outside this town in her long life.” (Jackson,249). Partway through the story, we learn that Miss Strangeworth secretly feels she is on a mission to save her town from evil. She believed that “There were so many wicked people in the world and only one Strangeworth in town.” (Jackson,253). Miss Strangeworth felt is was her duty to keep the town, “clean and sweet”.(Jackson,253).

One of the oldest dilemmas in philosophy is also one of the greatest threats to Christian theology. The problem of evil simultaneously perplexes the world’s greatest minds and yet remains palpably close to the hearts of the most common people. If God is good, then why is there evil? The following essay describes the problem of evil in relation to God, examines Christian responses to the problem, and concludes the existence of God and the existence of evil are fully compatible.

Throughout the story, some community members realize Miss Strangeworth is a bitter and insensitive old woman, whose intentions to rid of evil backfire and end up creating more trouble for her. Firstly, Miss Strangeworth writes insensitive and harsh letters to community members, writing letters to her neighbors with her unwanted opinions. Miss Strangeworth writes a letter to the same young couple that asks for her guidance, “DIDN’T YOU EVER SEE AN IDIOT CHILD BEFORE? SOME PEOPLE JUST SHOULDN’T HAVE CHILDREN, SHOULD THEY?”(3). Here, Miss Strangeworth expresses her harsh words to the young couple about their child. She feels like she is giving them the right advice to raise a child and rid evil from her community, but her harsh words are hurting her neighbors and creating more trouble for them. Secondly, Miss Strangeworth feels like she is ridding her town of evil and is the only saviour for the community. Miss Strangeworth thinks it’s her “duty to keep her town alert…there were so many wicked people in the world” (3). Miss Strangeworth thinks of herself as the only one attempting to prevent evil as there is too much evil in the world now days. She feels as if she is doing her job and there is nothing wrong with what she is doing. Lastly, as Miss Strangeworth thinks very highly of her

Shirley Jackson states “I suppose you’ve got Don upset about that his daughter is already six months and hasn’t yet begun to learn to dance.Well apologize to her right now….she is prbley worried why you keep jumping around.”The way this quote supports the topic sentence is this shows the different side of Miss.Strangeworth. In shorter words the quotation means she is starting to get into other peoples buisness showing her different. Shirley Jackson says “STRANGEWORTH HOUSE engraved on the cheap news paper shop paper...it’s almost like a joke and Miss.Strangeworth writes on the letter SOME PEOPLE SHOULDN’T HAVE CHILDREN SHOULD THEY, then she goes to the post office just at sundown when it’s starting to get dark to deliver the letters and in the process she drops a letter and a little kid comes up and says this may be good news i’m going to take it to her.” Then once the town figured out who it was they sent her a letter saying,” LOOK AT WHAT USED TO BE YOUR ROSES.” These last two quotations show the other side of Miss.Strangeworth. The way these last two quotations show the topic sentence is true is that this shows the real Miss.Strangeworth. This paragraph shows the not innocent side of Miss.Strangeworth and what the town did because of

Shirley Jackson’s short story “ The Possibility of Evil” is, in summary, an old lady named Mrs. Strangeworth is in her town and everything is perfect. She finds that people seem bothered and she wants to know what is happening . When she gets home, she writes insulting & very bothering letters to some other people in her town, she says, to protect them from the evil in the world. She is the leader of her town, a sweet, curious lady and suddenly we get to see her dark side, the evilness that she tries to protect her people from ( very ironic ) . The theme of this short story is that everyone has a possibility to be evil, and people don’t always appears as they are; by example Mrs. Strangeworth,

Above all, in “The Possibility of Evil,” Jackson’s use of symbolism and irony allows her to unveil the dishonesty possessed by many people. Like Miss Strangeworth, her roses serve as a trademark of the town. And, similarly to the roses, although Miss Strangeworth seems pleasant, she possesses hidden thorns. When a dropped letter reveals Miss Strangeworth’s actions, her neighbors destroy her roses. “[Miss Strangeworth] began to cry silently . . . when she read the words: LOOK OUT AT WHAT USED TO BE YOUR ROSES”(Jackson 7). The destroyed roses represent Miss Strangeworth being exposed; there is no longer any pride or joy in the roses or Miss Strangeworth. Jackson’s use of symbolism throughout the story allows her to divulge the insincerity of everyday people. Throughout the story, Jackson also employs irony. Often, Miss Strangeworth engages in small talk with her neighbors while ironically consuming her time with cynical thoughts of the very

with some evil in it. Better? Why would God being so good and concerned about

When we hear the word “evil” we associate it with villainous people throughout history and their actions, including people such as Adolf Hitler, Osama bin Laden, and Charles Manson. Evil may also be associated with the “bad guys” in stories, the ones who want to destroy the world or the main character but evil isn't just found in extremes as many people think; the nature of evil is that is found in people around us everyday. The definition of evil according the Oxford dictionary is “profoundly immoral and wicked” and “harmful or tending to harm.” Following that definition, wickedness can be found in everyone to some degree, we just have to recognize it. Evi s found within the aunt and uncle Teddy in “The fall of a city” through his uncles

There are many people in this world, whether Christian or non-Christian, that are confused regarding the problem of evil. They wonder why God can allow the atrocities that happen. In order to understand why there is confusion, we must go back to the beginning. When God created the Garden of Eden and man and woman, he gave specific instructions to them. God warned man of the consequences of disobeying Him (Genesis 2). This is where the beginning of evil took place.

The message of treating people kindly, or being polite, is one that students need to hear on a daily basis. Lulu had to take responsibility for her actions, knowing that her attitude had to change because it was not helping her situation. Students can understand that they can change and grow, even with setbacks. In the closing chapters the author lets us know that even though Lulu changed “But she mainly wasn’t a pain..”. There are no absolutes here, the students can see that just like Lulu, they might have slipped up, but “mainly” can change. Another theme, this book teaches is that even when we don’t get our way (Lulu not getting Mr. B, or Mr. B not getting to keep Lulu), it it sometimes for the best. Lulu may have never stopped pitching a fit if her parents had decided to let her have a brontosaurus instead of her packing up and going into the jungle. As she went on her journey through the forest, she was very unkind to animals along the way as mentioned earlier. However, as she tried to escape, she ran into those animals once again. She was kind to them, even bearing gifts of honey, a scarf, and a rug. She learned that kindness might get her what she wanted, in this case for the animals to get out of her way so she could home. She was able to escape the forest, and when she ran into Mr. B, who was waiting on her, she responded to him kindly. He understood that she could not be his pet, and she also

The concepts of good and evil exist within every society therefore there must exist some method of instruction about the path to goodness. Lao Tzu, the author of the Tao Te Ching, who defines good as having faith in the Tao to better the world and oneself, and Dante, who wrote The Divine Comedy and defines good as faith the way of heaven and hell and in the punishments of sinners, take very different approaches to defining the path to virtuousness. Lao Tzu defines what is good and focuses on the reward of achieving that goodness, while Dante defines the good by exemplifying the bad to inspire fear through the prospect of punishment. In the model of good versus evil one can focus on achieving good or avoiding evil by setting an example that appeals to peoples’ interest in bettering their own lives or in bettering their society. The good as defined by Lao Tzu can be more effectively and universally achieved through a system of reward that defines the good such as is done in the Tao Te Ching rather than using a system of punishment that defines good by exemplifying the bad through the sinners as Dante does.