The Possibility Of Evil 'And Tell All The Truth'

Distorted Truth In The Possibility of Evil by Shirley Jackson, and the poem Tell All the Truth but Tell it Slant by the author, Emily Dickinson, the message of telling the truth is displayed. Both literary works suggest that you should tell the truth, but only highlight the beneficial parts of it. The works express this theme of a distorted truth in different forms by using literary techniques such as similes, irony, and symbolism.

Both works of literature use different forms to tell the theme of distorted truth. The Possibility of Evil by Shirley Jackson, is written in short story form. This form allows for the audience to connect with the main character and relate it to the readers lives. We see Miss Strangeworth battle with the truth. In the end of the story when Miss Strangeworth is delivering the letters the narrator says, “she had always made a point of maiming her letters very secretly”. She knows the letters are not trustworthy, so she subconsciously knows to mail them in secret. This helps the reader relate to the message because we too often battle

In the work by Emily Dickinson, she uses irony in the title. The title reads, Tell All the Truth but Tell it Slant. “Tell all the Truth” meaning tell the truth, but then contradicts itself by saying but “Tell it Slant”. This shows irony because the point of telling the truth is to not lie, however the whole poem encourages one to lie. In The Possibility of Evil the moral of the story is to tell the truth otherwise you will face the consequences, but the whole story, ironically, Miss Strangeworth lies and has no regard for the truth. Symbolism is also used in regards to the roses. Miss Strangeworth received a letter saying“Look out at what used to be your roses”. The roses symbolize her reputations of always being loyal, trustworthy, and truthful. When they get cut down it represents her reputation becoming tainted as the town finds out she has been writing her false