Part 1 

'Funny,' Jim Donell said, ' them getting the house fixed up and all, and planning to move away all the time.' 'Mary Katherine,' Stella said , coming down inside the counter to where I was sitting ,' you go along home. Just get up off that stool and go along home. There won't be any peace around here until you go.'
'Now, that's the truth,' Jim Donell said. Stella looked at him and he moved his legs and let me pass. 'You just say the word, Miss Mary Katherine, and we'll all come out and help you pack. Just say the word, Merricat.' 'And you can tell your sister from me-' Dunham started to say, but I hurried, and by the time I got outside all I could hear was the laughter, the two men and Stella.

Merricat is in the coffee shop and it really shows that the town hates her and her family. The two men are making fun of her and being mean. I was shocked when I read that Stella too was laughing when she walked out, the two men weren't a surprise but I was disappointed about Stella. I thought in the beginning she was some sort of friend. Not a good one but at least someone who is nice to Mary Katherine. This passage really shows that the Blackwoods aren't welcome in the town, but the reader doesn't know yet why. It really struck to me because I was confused. Mostly because we do not know yet what happened and why the people are acting like this, and also because of Stella. She seemed sweet and I was getting my hopes up for something joyful in this story and someone who isn't strange or mean, but I was wrong. Stella isn't any better than the rest, she just acts kind to her.

Assignment A:
She is introverted and an outcast. When she describes what she would like to do to the people that are mocking her, I was surprised and confused because that's not normal. My thought was when I first read that was: she is a psychopath. But I understand her, I think. The people in the town are so mean to her and her family and then maybe, I would think so too. But I find the details she gives with a few of these passages concerning. What I found interesting when I was reading, is that she may not do some basic stuff like pouring the tea for example. For her it feels like something normal, but she is eighteen years old. I want to know why and get to know more about her and how she thinks and feels. Maybe she gets overtime an evolution maybe not, I'm curious about what will happen because we, as readers, know almost nothing and it is all very vague.

Part 2

"On the moon we have everything. Lettuce, and pumpkin pie and Amanita phalloides. We have cat-furred plants and horses dancing with their wings. All the locks are solid and tight and there are no ghosts. On the moon Uncle Julian would be well and the sun would shine every day. You would wear our mother's pearls and sing and the sun would shine all the time."

Merricat says this to Constance. I think it is weird that she thinks like this, about a moon where everything is beautiful and peaceful. It is like she has the mind of a child, but she is already 18 years old. It gives me a strange feeling because a 'normal' 18 year old is more mature in comparison with her. I think it is because she has been isolated for to long and doesn't know anything about the world. They also treat her still like she is child, through out the book you can read how she is not allowed to do simple things like pouring tea. She is also really scared of going out or her sister going out. In this fragment she talks again about locks. On her moon they are solid and tight, it shows to me that she is afraid of going out, also because she checks once a week that all the locks on the gates are closed and that they still work like they should.

I think it is a gothic novel. It takes place in a big mansion and there is an atmosphere of mystery. Everything is weird or suspicious about this family. There is a woman in distress, Constance feels trapped in the house I think and wants to go out again. She isn't really in distress but it feels like she is needed to be rescued or something like that and cousin Charles is there to help her it seems. Merricat is an unreliable narrator, the book is written from her perspective but her emotions are also very present so that can give us a wrong view of the situation. Merricats thoughts are sometimes dark and macabre, also an element of gothic fiction. She thinks about the death of people around her, very bloody deaths. Normally in gothic fiction the women have no active role but that's different in this story. Here the protagonist is a girl and the second most important personage also. 

Part 3

'I am going to put death in all their food and watch them die.' Constance stirred, and the leaves rustled. 'The way you did before?' she asked. It had never been spoken of between us, not once in six years. 'Yes,' I said after a minute,' the way I did before.'

This is the first time and also the last time Constance and Merricat talk about who killed the family and the reader now knows for sure who did it. It struck to me because throughout the whole book the writer let us believe Constance killed them, but in reality it was Merricat. I think this is an important moment in the book because now it all makes sense. Why Merricat has these weird thoughts about killing everybody and why they are so isolated. Why she did it isn't mentioned but I think it is because she is so obsessed with her sister that she just wanted her for herself, that's also very clear when Charles is present. She doesn't want him getting closer to Constance or taking her outside.
They also act so normal about it like it is casual that she killed her whole family, there is something really weird about them which sets the mood through the whole story and because of this moment you can really see the craziness about all of this.

Assignment A:

For me it is Merricat, she is just crazy and it really shows. How she thinks about murdering the people around her or how she just set the room on fire where Charles slept. She has, in my eyes, some serious problems in her head. Also how she is so obsessed with Constance, at some point I really thought that she was in love with her. She would do anything for her, such as murdering someone, for her it isn't a problem. Also her obsession with locks and keeping Constance and herself away from anything outside the house. She gives me a weird vibe, which sets the perfect tone to create the vibe Shirley Jackson wanted, I think. However she isn't allowed to do normal stuff like pouring tea but then, in some situations, it is like she is the one that is taking care of Constance which I find also really weird about her, we don't exactly know what is going on and if I would live with Merricat like Charles did, I think I would react the same. I would be scared of her.