The Story Archive

The Road Through the Wall

Shirley Jackson · 1948 CE · Novel · Modern / American · Contemporary

Pepper Street is a respectable block in a California suburb in 1936, closed at one end by a wall the city is about to break through for a new road. The families grade each other by money, church and who is seen talking to whom, and the children run a harsher version of the same system out on the pavement. Jackson's first novel, and the first full outing for the small-town cruelty that became her subject.

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Attributes

Genre
PsychologicalSatire
Theme
Class & InequalityIndividual vs SocietyLoss of InnocenceAppearance vs Reality
Archetype (Jung / Campbell)
ScapegoatEveryman
Plot structure
Ironic ReversalPolyphonic
Symbol / motif
The ThresholdThe House
Conflict
vs Society
Mode / tone
IronicRealist
Culture / tradition
Modern / American

Closest analogues