The Lottery vs The Possibility of Evil

The Lottery and the Possibility of Evil are both similar in their themes. In the Possibility of Evil you have this woman who is trying to protect her legacy and keep her town pure. While in The Lottery you have this tradition that people have been following for generations and now no one really knows why it's necessary anymore. People in the village are blindly following what they consider tradition even though they don't know why. In the Possibility of Evil Miss Strangeworth does everything she can to protect, "the tradition" so to speak, of the town that her family built, keeping alive the tradition of innocence that is in her town, or so she thinks. Both stories have a central theme that there is evil in all of us whether or not we realize it or not.

The Possibility of Evil Sequel

Miss Strangeworth held the green piece of paper in her hand shakily. How did this happen? A fire burned inside her. Those. Roses. Had. Been. In. Her. Family. For. Generations. This was low even for someone trying to get revenge. She paraded outside in her nightgown and slippers to find all of her roses chopped and strewn about her front walk. Everyone who was anyone on Pleasant Street saw this. Miss Strangeworth realized that people were staring. She quickly regained her composure. 

Mrs. Harper was walking down the street, but stopped when she saw the scene in front of Miss Strangeworth's house. "Oh my, what happened here, Miss Strangeworth?" she asked. 

Miss Strangeworth gave a weak smile. "I'm afraid it must've been those Gallagher boys from Unpleasant street. They just need the stability their mother couldn't provide from them. I don't blame them. It's not their fault their mother loves wine more than them." 

By mid-afternoon Miss Strangeworth had cleaned up all the remains of her beloved roses. All that was left were green flowerless bushes. Miss Strangeworth had sat inside all day. Children passed on the sidewalk looking cheerful. She hated it. Adults would walk by and stare at what used to be her roses. Miss Strangeworth closed her drapes to block out the happiness that seeped inside. For dinner she sat alone at her table and slowly slurped her soup. She did not have her afternoon tea that day. She didn't read her favorite poems before bed. She quietly slipped back into her unmade bed, still wearing the same nightgown from the evening before. Miss Strangeworth couldn't sleep. The shattered image of her roses lying on her front lawn, cut and torn, kept haunting her. It took a very real kind of evil to destroy someone's legacy. 

At 12:03am there was a quiet knock on her door. If she hadn't been awake she wouldn't have heard the nearly silent rapping. She threw on her bathrobe and quickly padded down the stairs. Who would be coming over at such an early hour? No one on Pleasant Street was ever up this late. When she opened the door, there stood Don Crane. He looked very unhappy. "Don, what are you doing out so late?" 

"Something has been bothering me. I just needed to get out," he said coldly. 

"Well, I don't know why you're here, Don." 

"Oh, I think you do, Miss Strangeworth." As he said those icy words she knew. She knew it was he who had discovered her note. She knew what godforsaken thing he had done to her roses. Rage boiled inside her and this frail, old woman wasn't so weak anymore. 

Miss Strangeworth grabbed her silver letter opener from the entryway table. She plunged the opener into Don's evil little heart. He clutched his chest in shock, pulling the letter opener out of his body. Blood poured out of him like a river that had just broken through a dam. His skin was a ghostly pale. Miss Strangeworth calmly went to the upstairs bathroom, removing the vinyl shower curtain from its hooks. She spread it across the living room floor and drug Don's limp body over it. Not a hint of remorse went through her as she rolled his body up into the curtain and dumped his body in the rose bushes. The blood had been cleaned from the floors, the letter opener was polished and no remnants of blood were anywhere.

Miss Strangeworth laid in her bed silently. She had protected her town. She was just doing what was right for her family's legacy. That evening, Miss Strangeworth slept soundly and when the whole town was looking for Don Crane she would act just as surprised as everyone else when they heard of his disappearance. 

The Possibility of Evil paragraph bout that

Students need to write a blog entry of an least 1 paragraph explaining the protagonists motivations for her action in “The Possibility of Evil”.  Students need to cite at least three pieces of evidence to support their analysis


In The Possibility of Evil, Miss Strangeworth has lived on Pleasant Street all her life. Her family started the town that everyone is living in. Her roses have been around for generations. She is still living in the family house. Everyone likes Miss Strangeworth. Everyone says hello to her in passing. They ask her about why their babies aren't doing something the way they should. She acts concerned about people's problems, but Miss Strangeworth has a secret. Every week she writes a few letters to people in town anonymously. She wants to keep the town pure and free from "the possibility of evil". She tells wives their husbands are cheating, even if it might not be true. She tells parents that their daughter's good friend has dirty thoughts and that the two might be more than friends. She never really knows if this is true or not, but if she thinks something bad could be true she takes care of it. She wants to keep her town free from evils, keep Pleasant Street pleasant. Miss Strangeworth does what she does all on this "possibility of evil" lingering, if something bad is in the air she takes care of it for the sake of the town that her family built. 

Voluble ans wizened sentences

"I swear I didn't do it. I am too smart for a crime like that. I'd never do that...I-" the man spoke volubly and the police knew that his rambling was a giveaway for his part in the crime.

The flowers sat in the heat for hours with no water before they wizened right before Carly's eyes.

Rudimentary and Savoring sentences

On Thanksgiving Day, Charles's mother made a turkey, a ham, mashed potatoes and pumpkin pie; he stuffed his face savoring each piece of pie.

The rudimentary knowledge of the doctors in Africa led to the deaths of many ill elders.

Commiserate and indomitable sentences

After his best friend's grandmother died, Carl commiserated her death by sending flowers and food to the her family.

On Monday, at the Atlanta Zoo, a great white shark broke its tank and was indomitable as zookeepers tried to recapture it.

Pg 339 Questions 1-4

1. The house creates a to-do list when you say aloud to remember something. The house would turn up the heat automatically at 6:15 because it knows how much time it takes to warm up. It would also begin the coffeemaker and start the shower when your alarm went off.

2. The elderly would benefit from living in these types of homes as well as people suffering from memory. This is because the house would create a to do list or fill up the groceries. The oven would prevent people from eating spoiled food. Elderly people would also have greater independence because the house would help them with things while still allowing them to live on their own.

3. In Ray Bradbury's stories the houses cook for the people, they automatically warm up the beds, and  remind you of birthdays, holidays, and what bills need to be paid. The houses currently being developed have audio notes where you just need to say aloud what you need to remember and the house adds it to the list. Researchers are imagining a smart house that turns the heat on automatically and turns on the coffee maker for you. Much like what Bradbury describes in his stories of the future.

4. The most useful innovation described in the article would be the floor that weighs you and creates a meal plan based on that. This would be helpful because America has an obesity problem and having something that created a better meal if you were a little heavier one day, might help the problem. This would also give people healthier meal choices and maybe they'd want to eat healthy on their own, too.

Daily Life of the Family in "There Will Come Soft Rains"

The house was silent. The two children were tucked away in their beds murmuring quietly in their sleep. Their parents slept soundly in their room, the only thing that could be heard were the father's soft snores. Everything was peaceful. Then at 7:00 am the house sang. "Tick tock, seven o'clock, time to get up!" Everyone emerged from their beds like robots, not even thinking about what they were doing. It was routine, branded in their minds. They would eat breakfast when the house told them it was ready.

"Seven-nine, breakfast time, seven-nine!" Breakfast waited patiently on the table. There were four plates filled generously with food. Two cups of fresh pressed coffee and two glasses of cold milk all sat, waiting to be drunk. The kids scrambled down the stairs first ready to eat. They sat at the table chugging their milk and eating their eggs. The parents came down shortly after, both dressed in their work attire, ready to start the day. The mother drank her coffee. The father bit into a slice of bacon listening to the house. "Today is the anniversary of Tilita's marriage. Tomorrow is Mr. Greene's birthday. The insurance is payable, as are the water, gas, and light bills." 

"It's eight-one o'clock, off to school, off to work, run, run, eight-one!" The children grabbed their backpacks and headed to the front door. The parents held their briefcases and walked out to the car. The weather box quietly sang out, "Rain, rain, go away; rubbers and raincoats for today!" The children listened and quickly put on their rain jackets and boots. They ran outside to wait for the bus to take them school. It arrived at the same time as always. Ready to take them away for a day of learning. The garage door opened. The car was waiting inside. The parents climbed in and drove off to work for the day.

After everyone was gone, the house had taken their dishes off the table and cleaned them in the sink. At nine-fifteen, the clock sang out that it was time to clean. Little metal mice came out of the wall sweeping up microscopic pieces of dust in the house.

At two thirty-five, the parents were home from work. They immediately went to the waiting bridge tables on the patio, sipping martinis and having sandwiches. They played a few rounds of card listening to the quiet music that hummed in the background. When four o'clock came around they were finished with the cards. The tables folded up into the paneled walls.

"Four-thirty, time to play, time to play, four-thirty!" The children were home from school. They ran to their nursery ready to see what adventure the walls would bring them. Today they were in a jungle. Lions purred, zebras raced, and the grass blew in a soft breeze. Eventually the image dissolved and playtime was over. Five o'clock sang through the house. The bathtub filled with warm water. Bubbles cascaded into the clear water. The children cleansed the dirt from the day off themselves, ready to eat dinner.

In the study a fire burned in the hearth. A lit cigar dangled from the father's lips as he took a puff. He quietly sat in front of the fire watching the flames slowly burn the log that rest in the center of the fire.

At nine o'clock it was time for the children to go to sleep. Their beds had been warmed from the hidden circuits, it was getting quite chilly where they lived. They would sleep soundly as they did every night.

"Nine-five, nine-five, which poem would you like to hear this evening, Mrs. McClellan?" the house asked.

She respond with her favorite and sat in the study beside her husband. They both listened intently to the poem. A soft hum of music lulled softly in the background of the voice as it read the poem.

At ten o'clock the mother and father went to their bedroom and went to sleep. The house was silent. until seven o'clock the next morning, when they began the same routine again.

Doctrine and Heritage sentences

Brittany came from a very religious family and she hated being forced to learn all the Church doctrines.

Noelle was excited Black History Month because she wanted to learn more about her heritage.

Pedestrian Sequel

Leonard stared at all the houses as the car drove him through the empty city streets. The faint flickering in the windows burned in his mind. How could this have happened? He had never seen anyone out in his 10 years of walking outside and on this fateful night there just happened to be someone out there and his life would change forever. He'd never be free to walk around again.

The car stopped abruptly in front of an immense white building. Harsh light escaped from the windows and almost blinded Leonard. "Get out!" the robotic voice hummed.

Leonard pushed himself out of the car and stood in front of it for a moment. Men in white lab coats emerged from the building. They grabbed Leonard's arms with great force. "Wait, stop! I just want to watch TV, I promise I'll never walk around again! Please stop!" The second man pulled a syringe filled with clear fluid out of his coat pocket. Leonard felt a stab of pain in his neck and a dull pain lingered even after the needle left his neck.

Hours later Leonard woke. He didn't even remember falling asleep. His body might as well have been paralyzed. Every inch of his body was strapped down to a cold metal table. A bright light shone above him. Wires were stuck all over his head. A monitor rhythmically beeped every few seconds. Green lines fell up and down on a screen that he could just barely see. A doctor came in and began writing things down on a chart. Leonard opened his mouth to speak but no words escaped. He couldn't speak. Whatever he had been given left him completely speechless. If he wanted to cry for help there would be no one who could hear him. No one. He had lived most his life with no one. No wife. No TV. No friends. Nothing. Leonard was used to nothing. Now he wasn't so sure how he felt about being alone.

Another doctor came through the doors at the end of the room. He was wearing scrubs and had white gloves plastered around his hands. More doctors piled in the room. The doctor in the scrubs grabbed a scalpel from a tray of tools. He slowly lowered it to Leonard's skull.

Leonard had a feeling that they were going to gut him like a fish and use his brain for testing. This wasn't how he wanted to die. There may have been people in this room, but he was all alone. He had lived alone so he might as well die alone. And he did.

After hours of operating the surgeons had removed his head and placed it in a medical cooler. They were going to need this to research regressive tendency's and Leonard's brain was the perfect one to test.

Vocab Words 09/09/15

Doctrine

SOmething that is taught

Noun

Heritage 

Noun

belongs to one by reason of birth

Commiserate

Verb

sympathize, express sorrow for

Indomitable

Adjective

cannot be overcome or subdued

Rudimentary

Adjective

primitive 

Savoring

Noun

power to excite or interest

Voluble

Adjective 

Fluent, talkative

Wizened

Adjective

withered and shriveled 

Fusillade

Noun

simultaneous discharge of firearms

Maladroit
Adjective
lacking in skill, awkward

Imagery and stuff for the Pedestrian

Imagery I find appealing

1. When Bradbury is describing the misty November evening, the "grassy seams" in the sidewalk and the "buckling concrete". 

2. "...sending patterns of frosty air before him like the smoke of a cigar." 

3. "There was a good crystal frost in the air; it cut the nose and made the lungs blaze like a Christmas tree inside; you could feel the cold light going on and off, all the branches filled with invisible snow." 

4. "During the day it was a thunderous surge of cars, the gas stations open, a great insect rustling and a ceaseless jockeying for position as the scarab-beetles a fain incense puttering from their exhausts, these highways, too, were like streams in a dry season, all stone and bed and moon radiance." 

5. "... this one particular house had all of it's electric lights brightly lit, every window a loud yellow illumination, a square and arm in the cool darkness." 

Figurative Language examples

Wait, what? Figurative is kinda like what i picked out?? Umm....

1. "Sudden grey phantoms seemed to manifest upon inner room walls where a curtain was still undrawn against the night, or there were whisperings and murmurs where a window in a tomb-like building was still open."

2. "...with only his shadow moving like the shadow of a hawk in mid-country." 

3. "...not unlike a night moth..."

4. "The moon was high and clear among the stars and the houses were grey and silent."

5. "The car moved down the empty river-bed streets and off away, leaving the empty streets with the empty sidewalks, and no sound and no motion all the rest of the chill November night." 

The use of figurative language in the story helps it move along because it paints a clear picture of things around the main character. It gives us a good idea of what this world is like, how everyone in their homes is basically dead and brainwashed by the TV's. 

Sublime, Paranoia, Silhouette, and Tremulous

The scientist spoke in a sublime manner and no one understood what he was talking about.

Thoughts of paranoia overtook John's mind and he went to the hospital to get help.

The ballerina's silhouette was so beautiful that the art museum took a picture and framed it.

After seeing her father die tremulous fears filled Caroline's mind every single day.

Manipulate and oblivious

The cunning thief manipulated the idiot into robbing a bank for him, but then he was shot and the thief got away with millions. 

The man was oblivious to the fact that the plumber who showed up randomly to fix his pipes was actually a serial killer. 

Vigilance and Wince

The paranoid scientist looked around with great vigilance, holding the secret formula close to himself, afraid that someone might steal it.

After being struck in the face in a fight, Kesha winced and Destiny punched her in the stomach.