Naivete.

In this story Mrs. Wilson assumes things that are not true. She is defiantly an example of reverse racism. She also fits the category of naiveté. She has no experience of the boys life, and she is making assumptions that the boy is poor, and has no clothes. In one sentence she was telling Boyd to eat the stewed tomatoes, and he wouldn’t eat them, then she tried giving him all of their used clothes,  like Boyd and his family needed them. Pewaukee now a day’s doesn’t go up to people and ask them question, people here just think about what these kind of people are, and how their life would be. Not just Pewaukee, but almost everyone around the world does it.

Although that has happened in the story, Shirley Jackson teaches us all a lesson. He is literally telling us through the story, that stereotype people like Mrs. Wilson, should learn to think before talking. This is just like the quote, “Never judge a book by its cover.” We shouldn’t just assume people’s life’s are in critical conditions and they need help, or they are rich so they must be snotty and think they know everything. They need to know the story behind peoples life before judging them.