The Irrepressible Individual in the Works of Shirley Jackson Throughout her life, Shirley Jackson struggled with a conflict between her dogged individuality and society's requirement that she adhere to its norms and standards. Jackson saw a second level of human nature, an inner identity lurking beneath the one which outwardly conforms with society's expectations. Society's repression of her individuality haunted Jackson in her personal life and expressed itself in her writing through the opposition of …showed first 75 words of 2457 total…

…showed last 75 words of 2457 total…repressive society. City and country, child and adult, magical and ordinary, individual and communal: all these dichotomies express Shirley Jackson's theme of a hidden reality beneath the surface of our everyday lives. "The identity is all-important," Shirley Jackson once said of her beliefs in writing (Oppenheimer 14). The many levels of human nature and the several faces of reality conflicted with society's demand for conformity and order in Jackson's life, and their clash drives her work.