Symbolism In The Possibility Of Evil By Shirley Jackson

‘The Possibility of Evil’ by Shirley Jackson is about an old woman named Miss Strangeworth who is trying to cleanse the evil out of her town. She writes offensive letters to people in her town to help them change, only to find out, she’s really the evil one. In the short story ‘The Possibility of Evil’ , Shirley Jackson focuses on multiple craft moves to show the characters motivation. She uses symbolism and inner thinking to show show it. She lastly uses flashbacks to show the characters motivation.
In the story, the author uses symbolism to show the characters motivation. Symbolism is shown in the story as Miss Strangeworth’s roses. “My grandmother planted these roses and my mother tended to them, just as I do. ”This is important because it shows how long Miss Strangeworth’s family has been in the town. It also shows how she wants her town to stay how it was when her mother and grandmother lived in the town. “She began to cry silently for the wickedness of the world when she red the words: Look out at what used to be your roses.” This explains how her valued roses were destroyed, when the townspeople found out that she wrote all the letters. This is relevant to the theme, because again, it shows how important the roses were to Miss Strangeworth.

The author also uses inner thinking to show the character motivation.

This is shown when Strangeworth writes the offensive letters to the other townspeople. “Didn’t you ever see an idiot child before? Some people just shouldn’t have children, should they?” This is what she writes to Mrs. Harper because she believes that she is helping her town remove the evil. This shows her motivation because she wants the evil in her town to go away, and that’s why she writes the letters. Inner thinking shows when she is at her desk, writing her letters. This is important because she looks like a sweet,old lady. But when she writes her letters, evil is

revealed.
The last craft that was used was flashbacks to show Strangeworth's motivation. Flashback were shown when she flashbacks to her grandfather who was one of the first person on Pleasant Street.. “My grandfather built the first house on Pleasant Street,” This explains how Strangeworth wants her town to stay exactly how it was before, this is also shown when she talks about how her Grandfather should’ve had a statue on Pleasant Street.
In ‘The Possibility of Evil’, the author uses craft moves to show the characters motivation. She does this using symbolism, which is shown in Miss Strangeworth’s roses. She also used inner thinking to show her motivation in her letters. And then lastly she uses flashback to show how long her family has lived on Pleasant Street. These examples showed Miss Strangeworth’s motivation to protect the town from evil, until you find out that she’s really the evil one.