The Possibility of Evil
In your personal opinion, is Adela Strangeworth inherently evil or was evil something that was socially constructed within her as a person? Explain.
In the short story “The Possibility of Evil,” Adela Strangeworth is made out to be a sweet innocent old lady living a perfect life. Everyone in her town seems to think that Adela is just some old lady who is really friendly and who cares for her neighbors. In reality, she walks around town acting like she is perfect and then goes home and writes nasty anonymous letters, gossiping about her fellow town members. Adela Strangeworth is a hypocrite. The Harris boy delivered one of the anonymous letters that he saw Adela drop to Don Crane, the addressee. The letter was especially nasty because it targeted Don Cranes child and was written based on some concern that Helen Crane had entrusted her with earlier that day. “Didn’t you ever see an idiot child before? Some people just shouldn’t have children should they?” (Page 169) When Adela herself received a letter the next day saying watch out for her precious roses, she cried because she could not believe how evil the person who sent the letter was being. She was being a hypocrite because she herself was being evil and sending out nasty letter herself the whole time. There are a lot of people who are like that in this world.
I do not believe that people are born this way. Everyone is born with not much of a personality and then their personality and who they become to be are developed as they grow older. Adela may have been a really nice person growing up but the way she was brought up and the way she was treated affected who she was to be in the future. I personally know a lot of people like Adela in this world. I am friends with people like Adela in the world. Even I, myself, have acted like her. She may be a hypocrite, but most of the time, so is everybody else. I have a friend who always judges people based on what they do but then when they judge her, she gets mad.
In the short story “The Possibility of Evil,” Adela Strangeworth is made out to be a sweet innocent old lady living a perfect life. Everyone in her town seems to think that Adela is just some old lady who is really friendly and who cares for her neighbors. In reality, she walks around town acting like she is perfect and then goes home and writes nasty anonymous letters, gossiping about her fellow town members. Adela Strangeworth is a hypocrite. The Harris boy delivered one of the anonymous letters that he saw Adela drop to Don Crane, the addressee. The letter was especially nasty because it targeted Don Cranes child and was written based on some concern that Helen Crane had entrusted her with earlier that day. “Didn’t you ever see an idiot child before? Some people just shouldn’t have children should they?” (Page 169) When Adela herself received a letter the next day saying watch out for her precious roses, she cried because she could not believe how evil the person who sent the letter was being. She was being a hypocrite because she herself was being evil and sending out nasty letter herself the whole time. There are a lot of people who are like that in this world.
I do not believe that people are born this way. Everyone is born with not much of a personality and then their personality and who they become to be are developed as they grow older. Adela may have been a really nice person growing up but the way she was brought up and the way she was treated affected who she was to be in the future. I personally know a lot of people like Adela in this world. I am friends with people like Adela in the world. Even I, myself, have acted like her. She may be a hypocrite, but most of the time, so is everybody else. I have a friend who always judges people based on what they do but then when they judge her, she gets mad.