Though many pieces of literature use different writing tools, plots, ideas and settings, these mechanics can create stories with a similar theme.  Flowers for Algernon and “The Possibility of Evil” are similar in the way the characters develop.  The books are also alike in their universal theme of intolerance.  However, the two pieces of literature can be contrasted in their examples of conflict.  The novel Flowers for Algernon, by Daniel Keyes, and the short story “The Possibility of Evil”, by Shirley Jackson are different in terms of conflict, but the theme and characters are similar.

“The Possibility of Evil” and Flowers for Algernon contain different types conflicts.  In “The Possibility of Evil”, the main character struggles with what she believes is “evil” or “wickedness”, which is an internal conflict.  She sends rude, anonymous letters to people experiencing personal problems.  These letters alert the victims to rumours or other information about the conflict. The letters are not always true as they often contain rumours and suspicion.  One such letter dealt with her friend’s husband’s cheating.  “… is the wife really always the last one to know?”(Jackson 4)  The letters are blunt; when Miss Strangeworth was told that the Crane baby had not begun to move around she wrote the Cranes a letter calling the baby an idiot.  “Haven’t you ever seen an idiot baby before?”(3) In Flowers for Algernon, Charlie Gordon has a conflict with the professors who performed an experiment on him.  This conflict is external, as it deals with other people and their actions toward Charlie.  After his operation he realised that Dr. Strauss and Dr. Nemur did not know all they claimed to before the experiment. Charlie said, “They were just ordinary men pretending to be able to bring light into the darkness” (Keyes 104).  As Charlie sees them for who they really are, he admits, “I was seeing them clearly for the first time – not as Gods, or even heroes…”(49).  The examples of conflict in “The Possibility of Evil” and in Flowers for Algernon are different.

However, the novel and short story are similar in their characterization.  Miss Strangeworth in “The Possibility of Evil” is an elderly woman who appears sweet but is actually rude and intolerant.  She sends letters that contain rude rumours to the people in her town. Miss Strangeworth justifies her actions saying, “…there were so many wicked people in the world and only one Miss Strangeworth…”(Jackson 4) Miss Strangeworth took it upon herself to remove “evil” from her town.  She is also very self centred and greedy. She treasures her roses and does not let any tourist have any of her roses. “The roses belonged on Pleasant Street, and it bothered Miss Strangeworth to think of people carrying them away…”(1).  Charlie from Flowers for Algernon was kind and sincere. He became rude, condescending, and snobbish.  After his intelligence gleaned from the operation began to diminish, he describes his way of thinking as, “The operation covered him with a veneer of education and culture…”(Keyes 136). Charlie realised that the operation had caused him to become different and had made him act the same way as those who harassed him when he was mentally challenged.  Charlie kept repeating to himself Plato’s words, “… the men of the cave would say of him that up he went, and down he came without eyes…”(199) He gained new intelligence, lost it, and with the intelligence he lost his happiness and motivation.  Both Miss Strangeworth and Charlie became intolerant, rude and condescending.  Daniel Keyes and Shirley Jackson’s main characters have similar traits.

As with the similarity in characterization, “The Possibility of Evil” and Flowers for Algernonconvey a similar theme.  Both stories deal heavily with intolerance.  Miss Strangeworth was intolerant to anyone or anything she felt was out of place in her town. An example of this was when she did not approve of how a neighbour’s baby did not develop as fast as other babies.  She wrote the neighbours an anonymous letter saying, “Didn’t you ever see an idiot child before?”(Jackson 3).  She felt she had the right to be blunt and outright rude because she had lived in her town for so long. “… she sometimes found herself thinking that the town belonged to her”(1).  Miss Strangeworth was under the impression she owned her town because of the time she lived in it.  Before Charlie’s operation, he was not tolerated either.  He knew that everyone wanted to be accepted. Charlie witnessed a mentally challenged boy break dishes in a diner.  The boy was laughed at and the boy joined in laughing at himself, though he had no idea why anyone was laughing.  Charlie notes, “Even the feeble minded man wants to be like other men”(Keyes 139).  The operation Charlie received made him feel above those who were mentally challenged.  The increased intelligence from the surgery did not help his relationships. “I feel I am just as far away from Alice with an I.Q. of 185 as I was when I had an I.Q. of 70.  And this time we both know it”(88). Flowers for Algernon and “The Possibility of Evil” portray the same theme of intolerance.

The novel Flowers for Algernon, by Daniel Keyes, and the short story “The Possibility of Evil”, by Shirley Jackson are similar in terms of theme and characterization but are different in terms of conflict.  The novel and the short story share a common theme.  They are also alike in their use of characterization.  The works differ in their examples of conflict.  Many literary masterpieces use different styles of characterization, plot, and settings to demonstrate an important theme.