Adella is not the only one who gets affected in the small town.
Since Adela holds the Strangeworth legacy, her family had done so much
for the town that she feels that she owns the small town, Pleasant Street, her roses
and everyone who lives in it. “ My Grandfather built the first house on Pleasant
Street…she sometimes found herself thinking that the town belonged to her.”
Lee 2
(Jackson 211) Adela believes that it is her responsibility to her citizens of the kind of
evil that exists in her modest town, and that she will help her neighbors as her ancestors
have done. “The town where she lived had to be kept clean and sweet, but people
everywhere were lustful and evil and degraded, and needed to be watched; the world was
so large, and there was only one Strangeworth left in it.” (212) She feels that she owes it
to her ancestors by continuing the tradition and in turn the town should be grateful to the
Strangeworth’s. “They wanted to put up a statue of Ethan Allen… but it should have been
a statue of my grandfather. There wouldn’t have been a town here at all if it hadn’t been
for my grandfather and the lumber mill.” (212). To carry on the Strangeworth tradition
of contributing to the town, she offers her advice to the townsfolk. “Most of the children
stood back respectfully as Miss Strangeworth passed…. it would have been most
reprehensible for their parents to permit their children to mock Miss Strangeworth of
Pleasant Street….no one in town would dare to disturb Miss Strangeworth during her
afternoon nap.” (219,218) She would give advice to her neighbors then go home and wrie
letters saying the totally opposite. Adela does not see the evil she is committing when she
writes the anonymous, nasty letters throughout the small town. She wrote a letter to the
Crane family stating: “After thinking for a minute, although she has been phrasing the
letter in the back of her mind all the way home, she wrote on a pink sheet: DIDN’T YOU
EVER SEE AN IDIOT CHILD BEFORE?” (216) She believes that she is warning
everyone of the evil that is lurking within her town and in turn is upholding her family
name; although she leaves no clue that she is writing them. “She never got any answers,
of course, because she never signed her name, Adela Strangeworth, a name honored in
Lee 3
the town for so many years, did not belong on such trash….when she felt like writing her
other letters she used a pad of various-colored paper…she used a dull stub of a
pencil…and she printed them in a childish block print.” (217,215,216)
Adela’s roses play a symbolic part; they symbolize how she cherishes her
family’s contribution to the society and in hope she wishes to keep the tradition and play
a significant role just like her ancestors have done. Although she is living in the fame of
the other Strangeworth’s without contributing and leaving her own “ mark” to be
remembered. “This house right here. My family has lived here for better than a hundred
years. My grandmother planted these roses, and my mother tended them, just as I
do…..Miss Strangeworth never gave away any of her roses…the roses belonged on
Pleasant Street, and it bothered Miss Strangeworth to think people wanted to carry them
away…into strange streets.” (212) Her roses were a part of the Strangeworth’s lifestyle.
They belonged only on Pleasant Street, as did her ancestors. “The town was proud of
Miss Strangeworth and her roses and her house. They had all grown together.” (215)
Adela’s thoughts and feelings about the evil in her town was conclusive
when she received an anonymous letter from a fellow citizen concluding that she was
caught red handed for writing the letters. “Look out at what used to be your roses.”
(221)When Adela finds out that her roses have been destroyed she realizes that
she can not destroy the evil in her town and that there is no good in people. “She began to
cry silently for the wickedness of the world.” (221) Her roses were very important to her
and with them destroyed she realized that people have no respect for the Strangeworth’s
contribution to the small town and her family’s legacy.
Lee 4
Adela felt that the town needed to be run by her authority and that she was always
right. She could not accept other people’s point of views or faults. She could not see how
her strange way of perceiving things were not always best for her town or the people. To
Adela her way of approaching and handling situations seemed normal but in turn she was
wrecking the town.
