The Possibility of Evil by Shirley Jackson

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The Possibility of Evil by Shirley Jackson

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The insight on life can be influenced greatly on past experiences and

those

experiences that one only dreams about. These perceptions are windows

into our

thoughts about life. In the story "The Possibility of Evil" by Shirley

Jackson, Jackson

develops the idea how one perceives the world can have a great impact

on her beliefs and

values. When acted upon these beliefs, they can determine how one may

choose their

destination in life. This has an impact not only on oneself but on

others as well.

Adela Strangeworth perceives the world and as her town full of evil.

She

believes it is her duty to protect her little town and her house on

Pleasant Street

where her ancestors have lived generations earlier. She is seen as an

advisor and

monument of the town because of the contribution her Strangeworth

relations contributed

to her society centuries before. She feels she needs to "create" her

mark, in order to give

her life acceptance, further than being the warden of the Strangeworth

heritage. In turn

Adella is not the only one who gets affected in the small town.

Since Adela holds the Strangeworth legacy, her family had done so much

for the town that she feels that she owns the small town, Pleasant

Street, her roses

and everyone who lives in it. " My Grandfather built the first house

on Pleasant

Street…she sometimes found herself thinking that the town belonged to

her."

(Jackson 211) Adela believes that it is her responsibility to her

citizens of the kind of

evil that exists in her modest town, and that she will help her

neighbors as her ancestors

have done. "The town where she lived had to be kept clean and sweet,

but people

everywhere were lustful and evil and degraded, and needed to be

watched; the world was

so large, and there was only one Strangeworth left in it.

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