Skip to main content

How does Miss Strangeworth feel about the town?

Miss Strangeworth feels that she is the guardian of her town. Her self-righteous attitude towards her fellow townsfolk can be seen in the way she characterizes them. To Miss Strangeworth, everyone in her town is either in need of her good advice or her knowledge about some private information that concerns their well-being. In other words, Miss Strangeworth perceives her neighbors as helpless children who need her guidance and wisdom.


Miss Strangeworth is not above characterizing someone like Miss Chandler, the librarian, as a sloppy person, just because she fails to take adequate trouble with her hair one morning. As a self-styled arbiter of wisdom, Miss Strangeworth has no problems making superficial judgements about others. She writes anonymous letters to various people to warn them about unspecified moral dangers and to steer them away from what she considers unsavory choices. Sometimes, she divulges secrets about specific individuals, based solely on her suspicions.


For example, Miss Strangeworth feels happy to have warned Mr. Lewis about the possibility of "his grandson... lifting petty cash from the store register." Yet, there is no indication that she has any proof about this. In another letter, she warns an unsuspecting wife that her husband might be having an affair. In yet another letter, Miss Strangeworth weighs the limitations and perhaps even the morality of having an "idiot child." She is relentless in her mission to correct what she sees as perceived imperfections in her neighborhood; Miss Strangeworth is one of those individuals who insists that "as long as evil existed unchecked in the world," it is her duty to warn others about it.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

etymology - Origin of the greeting "Sweet dreams".

Does anybody know the etymology of the phrase "sweet dreams"? I tried googling but did not find anything satisfying. Is this a relatively new phrase of the modern world or has this been in use for some time? I think it's the latter one. Answer The OED has the interjection as "a farewell to someone going to bed" from the 20th century: 1908 Sears Roebuck Catal. 198/1 Tenor Solos..Good Bye, Sweet Dreams, Good Bye. But it goes back until at least the 19th and possibly 18th centuries. John Wolcot, writing under the pseudonym of Peter Pindar, used it in his poem "Orson and Ellen; A Legendary Tale" published in 1801: Also from 1801 in The infernal Quixote (Page 287) by Charles Lucas: In the March 1776 of The Universal Magazine was published "The Serenade. A Pastoral Tale. From the German of Gesner" , where the shepherd Daphnis watches over his beloved as she sleeps and sings: The same tale appears in 1776's as Idyl XI, " Daphnis ...
Post a Comment
Read more

Is there a word/phrase for "unperformant"?

As a software engineer, I need to sometimes describe a piece of code as something that lacks performance or was not written with performance in mind. Example: This kind of coding style leads to unmaintainable and unperformant code. Based on my Google searches, this isn't a real word. What is the correct way to describe this? EDIT My usage of "performance" here is in regard to speed and efficiency. For example, the better the performance of code the faster the application runs. My question and example target the negative definition, which is in reference to preventing inefficient coding practices. Answer This kind of coding style leads to unmaintainable and unperformant code. In my opinion, reads more easily as: This coding style leads to unmaintainable and poorly performing code. The key to well-written documentation and reports lies in ease of understanding. Adding poorly understood words such as performant decreases that ease. In addressing the use of such a poorly ...
Post a Comment
Read more

What are the similarities between the relationships of the characters in The Outsiders and Romeo and Juliet?

At first glance, it might appear as if the characters in  The Outsiders  by S. E. Hinton and  Romeo and Juliet  by William Shakespeare do not have much in common; however, when one isolates the core of the conflicts, it becomes clear that the relationships in both stories are rooted in rivalry and secrecy.  In both  The Outsiders  and  Romeo and Juliet , an overarching theme is rivalry. While   socioeconomic status separates the greasers from the Socs in The Outsiders , last names separates the Montagues from the Capulets, who appear to be relatively equal in terms of socioeconomic status. Due to these rivalries, there are instances of deadly interactions in both stories. In  The Outsiders , Johnny kills Bob (whether his actions were justified or not is debatable). In  Romeo and Juliet , Romeo kills Tybalt and Paris, and Tybalt kills Mercutio. These deaths have profound effects on the main characters. In Ponyboy's case, the Johnny's death and other events in the novel inspire h...
Post a Comment
Read more