Shirley Jackson's Evil Project
By Daniel Banh
What Is Evil?
Evil is to ruin opportunities for others. It is to hurt other people and yourself just for the pleasure of it. Jackson's stories all represent evil in many aspects. In "What a Thought" Margaret's mind depicts ways to kill her own husband. In "The Possibility Of Evil", Miss Strangeworth causes chaos via sending letters anonymously to her town's people of ideas that could corrupt the towns people. In return, her flowers are destroyed. In "The Lottery" the villagers all believe that killing will bring good harvest and in turn make evil the families of the one being killed are to take part in this.
"The Lottery"
In "The Lottery" the story starts off as a casual day with children playing in the fields, and families having fun together. A gathering seems to be held each year which no one want to miss. It fits Jackson's style because as the story progresses, more is hinted about the Lottery. At the end, Mrs. Hutchinson is killed via stones from being picked. This is due to the town believing that a sacrifice is needed for strong crop growth this year.
"What A Thought"
In "What A Thought" the story starts off with a generic husband sitting on a couch with a newspaper after eating a meal his wife made. However, as the story progresses the wife becomes insane, plotting on how she could kill her innocent husband. This is Jackson's style due to the story starting off as a regular scenario and gradually hinting to something darker.
"The Possibility Of Evil"
In "The Possibility Of Evil" the story starts off with Miss Strangeworth living in a beautiful estate. She has a gigantic garden and is respected by everyone in the town. We find out that she writes letters to "eliminate" evil in the town, but instead causes problems to become worse. She drops a letter by accident and someone picks it up, the person finds out and ruins the old woman's Roses and sends her back the letter.
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