“The Possibility of Evil” a short story written by Shirley Jackson describes the protagonist, Miss Adela Strangeworth, as “knowing everyone in town.” On the other hand “A Worn Path” written by Eudora Welty explains a journey taken by an old Negro woman named Phoenix Jackson who was the story’s protagonist. In both these short stories the author purposefully uses a non-participating narrator to help the readers understand the story by developing a detailed setting and not allowing the readers to know what is going on inside the protagonist’s head.
In the short story “A Possibility of Evil” the first part is Miss Adela “stepping along Main Street to the grocery” and “the air was fresh and clear.” By giving a precise description of the setting the reader is able to picture exactly what is happening. If the narrator would have been the protagonist, which would have been Miss Adela, the reader would have only been able to know what she thought about the setting. Both authors …show more content…
The downfall to this is the readers are never able to observe what is happening inside each of the protagonists head and they are only able to accept what information the narrator is giving them. Miss Adela in “A Possibility of Evil” is seen throughout the story always in “thought” or “wondering” about something since the readers are being told this from a non-participating narrator. They never get the opportunity to find out what Miss Adela is in “thought” about. Then in “A Worn Path” Phoenix is found “talking loudly to herself” but the readers don’t find out what she was telling herself because the narrator didn’t believe it was important enough to tell the readers. The authors of both these stories intentionally use non-participating narrators so the readers will only know what the narrators tell
In the short story “A Possibility of Evil” the first part is Miss Adela “stepping along Main Street to the grocery” and “the air was fresh and clear.” By giving a precise description of the setting the reader is able to picture exactly what is happening. If the narrator would have been the protagonist, which would have been Miss Adela, the reader would have only been able to know what she thought about the setting. Both authors …show more content…
The downfall to this is the readers are never able to observe what is happening inside each of the protagonists head and they are only able to accept what information the narrator is giving them. Miss Adela in “A Possibility of Evil” is seen throughout the story always in “thought” or “wondering” about something since the readers are being told this from a non-participating narrator. They never get the opportunity to find out what Miss Adela is in “thought” about. Then in “A Worn Path” Phoenix is found “talking loudly to herself” but the readers don’t find out what she was telling herself because the narrator didn’t believe it was important enough to tell the readers. The authors of both these stories intentionally use non-participating narrators so the readers will only know what the narrators tell