Topic/ Thesis Statement: Don't judge a book by its cover, some people are not who they say they are, or appearances can be deceiving. This story revolves around a character known as Miss Adela Strangeworth whose ancestral home is Pleasant Street, which also happens to be the location used to develop the story. However, from the initial stages of the story she is portrayed as a relatively calm and harmless old lady especially when it comes to the lives of her neighbors. She is portrayed in the story with the author as a proud woman who believes in owning her city, perhaps a factor highlighted by the way she interacts with members of her community. Her constant conversations with community members perhaps paint her as a relatively calm, loving and caring woman towards community members. The theme that has been linked to this story is directly relevant to it, as represented by the anonymous letters that the main character is busy secretly writing based on gossip and distributing them in different houses. Considering that people have the impression that she is a good woman, silent and peaceful, it becomes completely unseemly that she instead has very abnormal behavior. What makes it even more terrible is the fact that he uses gossip as a premise to propagate his hateful messages not only in a single family but in all the different families on the estate where he lives. Another factor that brings out the theme clearly is the fact that she states that the family rose order is her pride. However it may not necessarily be as tidy as described in the development of that story. The story's author Shirley Jackson uses the author and her ambiguous cha...... middle of paper...... anonymously and delivered in such a way that they cannot be traced back to her. If it wasn't for the unfortunate incident where she unknowingly dropped one of her letters, no one would ever be able to trace the funny incident back to her. Works Cited Michelson, D. The Historical Reception of Shirley Jackson's "Lottery." In: KURZBAN, Robert; PLATEK, Steve. 18th Annual Meeting of the Human Behavior and Evolution Society at the University of Pennsylvania and Drexel University. 2006.Miller, J. Chilling fiction… The Wall Street Journal. New York, October 29, 2009.Morgan, J. The Biology of Horror: Gothic Literature and Film. Carbondale, IL: Southern Illinois University Press, 2002.Murphy, B. and Shirley J. The Literary Encyclopedia. [nl], 31 August 2004. Available at: http://www.litencyc.com/php/speople.php?rec=true&UID=2326. Accessed on: August 22nd 2010.