A Summary and Analysis of ‘Got a Letter from Jimmy’

‘Got a Letter from Jimmy' is a short story by the American writer Shirley Jackson (1916-65). The story, which runs to just a few pages, involves just two characters: an unnamed husband and wife. The husband has received a letter from an associate simply identified as Jimmy; the wife seeks to know what the contents of the letter are, but the husband hasn't opened it. Summary ‘Got a Letter from Jimmy' is told by a third-person narrator but the story is heavily focalised through the character of the wife, so we have access to her thoughts in reaction to the events of this brief narrative. The husband tells his wife that he received a letter from ‘Jimmy' that day, but he hasn't opened it and plans on sending it back to Jimmy unopened. The wife thinks that she wouldn't have been able to keep the letter for five minutes without tearing it up. The husband then changes the subject and says he had lunch with Tom today. His wife is shocked that he is trying to change the subject. But she's having none of it. She tells him he should open Jimmy's letter. When he asks her why she wants him to, she tells him she's curious to know what's in it. She also tells him that it's silly not to open a letter just because he holds a grudge against the man who wrote it. The husband counters that he isn't interested in anything Jimmy has to say. He challenges her to open it instead, and she refuses to rise to the bait, knowing he'd break her arm if she did try to open it. So she decides to try to get him off the subject again. When he mentions his lunch with Tom again, the wife wonders to herself whether her husband is merely feigning a lack of interest in the contents of Jimmy's letter or whether he genuinely doesn't care what it says. She even goes so far as to say to herself that she would kill her husband if he really did just throw the […]