What effect does the anonymity have on the people who receive Miss Strangeworth's letters?

Miss Strangeworth's anonymous letters seem intended to create the impression in the recipients' minds that the matter is common knowledge and that one member of the community has decided to take the initiative in bringing it to the recipients' attention out of kindness. A good example of such a letter is the one she sends to Mrs.Harper.

After thinking for a minute, she decided that she would like to write another letter, perhaps to go to Mrs. Harper, to follow up the ones she had already mailed. She selected a green sheet this time and wrote quickly: Have you found out yet what they were all laughing about after you left the bridge club on Thursday? Or is the wife really the last one to know?

This letter suggests that Mrs. Harper's husband is having an adulterous relationship with some woman in the community. It is ingenious because it can make Mrs. Harper suspicious of her husband and also of many women, including her own friends, who might be involved with him. The above extract shows that Miss Strangeworth is probably sending multiple letters to the same individual or to the same household. This could enhance the fears and suspicions, because the recipients would be living in dread of receiving future letters containing more bad news.

Miss Strangeworth does not think she is tormenting people but warning them of the possibility of evil in their lives. However, she is probably secretly enjoying being able to create painful feelings while remaining completely anonymous and invisible. In other words, she is concerned about evil in other people but is evil herself. The theme of the story might be found in a familiar passage from the New Testament.

3 And why beholdest thou the mote that is in thy brother's eye, but considerest not the beam that is in thine own eye?

4 Or how wilt thou say to thy brother, Let me pull out the mote out of thine eye; and, behold, a beam is in thine own eye?

5 Thou hypocrite, first cast out the beam out of thine own eye; and then shalt thou see clearly to cast out the mote out of thy brother's eye.

                                                   Matthew 7:3-5 (King James Version)

Judging from the violent retribution teken by Don Crane in destroying all of Miss Strangeworth's prize roses, she has sent either him or his wife more than one letter. They may have made him and his young wife feel anxious before, but when he receives another one and accidentally finds out who wrote it, he becomes enraged. That is why Miss Strangeworth's letters have to be anonymous. Everybody thinks she is a nice, sweet old lady, but they would all hate her if they knew what she was doing.

The effect of Miss Strangeworth's letters is that they come from a public-spirited person speaking for the community as a whole about subjects well known to the community. This has a ring of truth because Miss Strangeworth thinks of herself as representing her community for the dommunity's best interests.