Family Treasures, By Shirley Jackson 1916-1965

Emily Sullivan EN 104
Story: “Family Treasures,” 2015
Author: Shirley Jackson 1916-1965 (Shirley struggled to fit in her whole life, because she was overweight and did not meet the expectations of her family. This represents her life, because she did not fit in at her first college and she was unhappy.) Central character: Anne Waite is a shy, kept-to-herself, sophomore in college, whose mother passed away the previous semester and her father previously deceased. Everyone perceives her as innocent and shy and leaves her alone, but little do they know, she’s the one behind all the stolen belongings in the dormitory. Other characters: Miss McBride is the young, house mother, who wears a specific pair of jet earrings that Anne steals,
2) Then, she goes into Cheryl’s top drawer of her desk while she’s in class and stole a pen and pencil set that she had received at graduation with the engraved words, “Voted Most Likely to Succeed” and puts it in the trunk with Helena’s anklet. 3) Again, she steals Maggie’s stuffed bear and adds it to the collection of other stolen collectables in the trunk. 4) Of course many of the stolen items were being noticed and the potential perpetrator was a discussion (including many assumptions and rumors) amongst all the girls. 5) Eventually Anne formally and rather unpredictably brings it to Miss McBride’s attention that the thievery is worsening. 6) Miss McBride takes a stand and creates a dorm-wide search of every girls’ room for the missing items. 7) She searches all the girls’ room (without any suspicion of Anne or her room/trunk) and the girls likewise search her room. 8) After multiple days of the girls’ scarce amount of communication because of the leakage of their secrets, Anne decides to take all the stolen items and downright flee the campus and never