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.