1. The Possibility of Evil
Study Guide Questions

2. 1. Describe Miss Adela Strangeworth with specific details
71 years old
Old-fashioned, traditional
Loves her roses
Dainty/frail
Polite
Respected in the town

3. 2.Why is miss strangeworth’s Grandfather Important?
She claims that he founded the town.

4. She lives in “smalltown” America. Everybody knows everybody’s business
Describe the town that miss strangeworth lives in using specific details.
She lives in “smalltown” America.
Everybody knows everybody’s business
It’s an old-fashioned town; traditional

5. Describe the Conversation between mr. Lewis and Miss Strangeworth
Describe the Conversation between mr. Lewis and Miss Strangeworth. Describe her interactions with other people in town.
Her conversation with him is very non-specific and could happen with any other customer. She is very formal with him and does not ask anything specific; nor him to her. The conversation is a polite one.
Her interactions with others in town are also very similar. She’s not friends with anyone, but she is being friendly.

6. Informal, anonymous letters
5. What types of letters does miss strangeworth write on her colored paper?
Informal, anonymous letters
This differs from her fancy stationary. She wants to be associated with the higher class things rather than the informal things.

7. What did her first letter say? Her second?
Haven’t you ever seen an idiot child before? Some people just shouldn’t have children, should they?
Have you figured out yet what they were all laughing about after Bridge club – or is the wife really the last one to know?

8. What is miss strangeworth’s purpose for sending these letters?
She wants to make people aware of the problems in her town.
She feels the need to “clean her town” and rid the town of sin and
evil.

9. When would she send the letters? Why?
She would send them on her evening walks
She didn’t want anyone to associate her with the letters.

10. It fell out of the mailbox and onto the ground.
What happened to one of MisS Strangeworth’s letters as she was mailing them?
It fell out of the mailbox and onto the ground.
The Harris boy picked it up.

11. What did the Harris Boy do with the letter?
He hand delivered it to Don Crane

12. What did the letter in the green envelope say?
LOOK OUT AT WHAT USED TO BE YOUR ROSES.

13. Did the narrator foreshadow what Miss Strangeworth’s real personality might be like early in the story?
No. She seems nice and polite and disassociates her with anything that seems out of place.
She begins to seem sinister when she sits down to write the first letter.
The narrator does foreshadow negative events to come because they discuss the strange behaviors of all the townspeople.

14. Why is miss strangeworth’s name oddly symbolic?
She has an odd sense of self confidence and approval.
She thinks her birth-given right allows her to pass judgment on others and that it is her responsibility to run the town.

15. Answers will vary. Consider:
In your opinion, do you think that Miss Strangeworth believes that she has done anything wrong.
Answers will vary.
Consider:
WHY she was writing the letters in the first place
WHAT she used as information to send the letters
HOW she lives her life
WHO she sends the letters to