A Possibility Of Evil Questions (Yay. -_-)

1. Miss Strangeworth is known as the sweet old woman whose family has lived in town for ages. She is known for her repetition: buying tea on the same day each week, sleeping at the same time, walking to the same places at the same time every day. Miss Strangeworth is also very proud and protective of her roses.

2. She sends people letters about the wrongdoings of others.

3. When she goes to put a letter in the mailbox, it falls out. A teenager sees the letter drop and delivers the letter to the person it was addressed to. The teenager told the person who it was from, and they figured out that Miss Strangeworth was the hater.

4. She believed that there was a large amount of evil in the world. To fix that, she started sending her letters.

5. Several times throughout the book, she noticed how miserable people in the community looked. Because her mind was wrapped around the thought of her letters helping the community, she couldn’t tell that it was her letters causing the pain.

6. Miss Strangeworth is insistent on living graciously, so it is ironic that she would stoop so low as to send hate mail to people.

7.

Text: Shirley Jackson wrote "...wickedness was never easily banished, and a clean heart was a scoured heart.” It shows that Miss Strangeworth thought that honesty was important. She felt it was necessary to tell people the wrongdoings/secrets of other in order to keep the heart light.

Knowledge: I am a firm believer in the saying “honesty is the best policy,” but I think some things are best left unsaid. I think it’s up to the secret-keepers to tell the truth, not their friends.

The winter rumor storm!!!

Conclusion: Miss Strangeworth thought that it was her duty to banish all evil in the world.

8. I think that it was perfect punishment. Throughout the story, it is told that her roses are her pride and joy. Hacking them down would hurt her more than anything else, so it was the perfect revenge.

9. I think that she will be shunned. Everyone will know that she was the letter sender, and most people have been blackmailed by then.

10. I don’t think that Miss Strangeworth is evil, but I know she’s not a saint either. She thought that she was helping the community, but in fact she was ruining it. I think that evil people purposely hurt people, and she was just trying to help.

11. People set themselves up as morally higher than others and they tell people what they are doing is wrong. Mrs. Strangeworth thinks she’s a moral guardian, but she’s actually sinning just as much as the other people are.