An Ordinary Day with Peanuts - Thought - full English - …thought-full.weebly.com/.../an_ordinary_day_with_peanuts.pdfSummary of an Ordinary Day with Peanuts In “An Ordinary Day

An Ordinary Day with PeanutsBy: Shirley Jackson

Published in 1955 by Creative Education

Shirley Jackson● Born in 1916 in San Francisco as a student she attended

Rochester University for a year before withdrawing to focus on her writing.

● After focusing on her writing, she attended Syracuse University where she met her future husband and editor, Stanley Hyman.

● Shirley moved to Westport with her family and continued to write

● On August 8th 1965 Shirley died at her house in Vermont. She was 49 years old.

Other works by Shirley Jackson...- “The Lottery” (1948), Jackson’s most well-known story

- “My Life with R.H. Macy” is a semi-autobiographical

- “Life Among the Savages” (1953) was a humorous account of her experiences as a mother and wife, and Jackson’s other memoir is “Raising Demons” (1957)

- “The Haunting of Hill House” (1959), another one of Jackson’s most well known stories that has been adapted into a movie

- “We Have Always Lived in the Castle” (1962), Jackson’s last published work

A scene from the Lottery, a movie rendition of Shirley’s story

Setting

Set in the 1940’s- Post Depression era, before World War II

Placed in New York City-Brooklyn

Middle/Working to Upper class-Apartment building

The setting adds mood to the story as it is set in a very busy city, and many of the characters are busy as well.

The busy streets of Brooklyn during the 1940’s

Characters● Mr. Johnson: Pleasant, cheerful, genial, and generous, courteous, positive,

and amiable. He is flat and dynamic because he makes a change at the end of the story when he switches to a negative personality. Indirect characterization through his actions and words

● Mrs. Johnson: Disgruntled, belittling, and condescending. She is flat and static because she does not change in the story. Indirect characterizations through her speech

● The busy woman: Prompt, suspicious, and practical. Flat, dynamic in that she changes slightly when she agrees to go out with the man. Indirect characterization through her actions and words

● The busy man: Frazzled, blunt, and impatient. Flat, dynamic in that he changes when he agrees to be late and go out with the woman. Indirect characterization through his speech and action

Summary of an Ordinary Day with PeanutsIn “An Ordinary Day with Peanuts”, Mr. Johnson is an amiable and generous man

with a genuinely pleasant demeanor. He goes from person to person trying to brighten their day and giving them peanuts along the way. He first watches a little boy while his mother is supervising the movers. Next, he stops a frazzled young woman and man, then sets them up on a date, also giving them the money to do so. After that, he sees a young couple looking at ads in a newspaper for apartments and he gives them advice on where to look. Then, after he sees a beggar looking into a restaurant, he gives the beggar enough money to buy a lunch. Mr. Johnson’s last good deed of the day is giving a taxi driver money to bet on a horse. He comes back home to his wife who is the polar opposite of him. His wife is a bitter woman who makes it her mission to ruin people’s day. Later in the

story, we learn of an unexpected decision made by both Mr. and Mrs. Johnson.

No resolution

They decide to switch places

The climax is when Mr. Johnson talks to Mrs. Johnson and the reader figures out their personality is just an act.

paid the taxi driver

Setup boy and girl

Shares peanuts with everyone

watched the little boySetting New York City

1940’sadvanced/modern society. Upper/middle/working class

Characters: John Philip Johnson (Mr. Johnson)

Met Mrs. Johnson

A two faced person like Mr. Johnson

Plot Diagram

Point-of-ViewThe story is told in 3rd person point-of-view, where a narrator is describing all the happenings in the story to you. This was of writing enhances the story because you don’t know what Mr. Johnson’s thinking. Therefore, there’s no way of knowing about the switch until he talks about it with his wife, which adds a sense of suspense and irony!

Techniques-Suspense: It’s always a mystery what Mr. Johnson is going to do next. For example, you don’t know why he stopped the young lady and young man on the street until he comes out and tells them.

-Imagery: Narrator explains the setting thoroughly. Ex. “Mr. John Philip Johnson shut his front door behind him and came down his front steps into the bright morning with a feeling that all was well with the world on this best of all days, and wasn’t the sun warm and good…” (pg. 421) He also describes the characters’ appearances thoroughly. Ex. “She has obviously awakened late, because she has not spent any extra time in making herself look pretty, and her dress was plain and unadorned with collar or brooch, and her lipstick was noticeably crooked.” (pg. 423)

-Irony: The reader expects Mr. Johnson to keep being the cheerful person that he is and Mrs. Johnson to go on making the world a miserable place. It is not expected for the two to switch personalities, which makes the end of the story ironic!

Symbol A symbol represented in this short story is peanuts which represents Mr.Johnson, he as well as the peanut, have a “shell” that acts as a facade. It shows that although the outside looks pleasant and nice, there is something completely different on the inside. Showing that all together, the peanut as a symbol represents Mr.Johnson’s deceptive personality and character he shows throughout the short story.

ThemeA theme represented in this short story is that

you should never judge a book by it’s cover. Many people in our world today are deceptive, just like Mr.Johnson, and are not actually the person they appear to be on the outside. Therefore, one should never base their own opinions and thoughts on someone off of something they’ve only seen the surface of because underneath every shell is a different surprise.

Ratings for An Ordinary Day with Peanuts Our group voted the short story, “One Ordinary Day with Peanuts” four stars.

We chose this because though it was a well written and excellently told story, it missed key elements such as falling action and resolution or denouement. Aside from that, the story was engrossing from start to finish. Mr.Johnson captured our attention with his affection and gentleness towards everyone around him and the ending had a wonderful turn of events leaving everyone astonished. The details in the story were very thorough as well and kept you interested while knowing exactly what was going on in the story. All in all, this short story was very worthwhile but the missing falling action and resolution were two factors our group felt needed to be included instead of the hook ending.

Citations for ImagesLottery Image- http://i.ytimg.com/vi/PMhV3fwx5Sg/hqdefault.jpg

Shirley Jackson Image-http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_w7vLIfFC5ZA/TEDVDAllNnI/AAAAAAAAACw/iPMo83bX7XI/s320/15109_Jackson-Shirley.jpg

Two Faced Image-http://mrldavis.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/09/two-faced.jpg

Brooklyn Image- http://www.brooklyn-website.com/images/buses.jpg

THE ENDI love me some PEANUTS