Southern Gothic
Literary Tradition
Gothic literature is fiction in which strange, gloomy settings and mysterious, violent, often supernatural events create suspense and terror. Southern gothic literature uses gothic motifs to explore social issues and reveal the cultural character of the American South.
Following are a few characteristics of gothic and southern gothic literature:
- The gothic novel tries to evoke chilling terror and gloom by exploiting mystery and horror. Gothic is about haunting and possession. We are supposed to feel a chill at some point in the story, and this emotional response is in part the point of the gothic experience. Paradoxically, this fear is a source of pleasure. "Tis so appalling--it exhilarates," Emily Dickinson says in a poem.
- In a Gothic work, there is usually confusion about good and evil. What does ‘good’ actually mean? What about ‘evil’? And how can we tell the difference?
- Gothic reveals a fear of institutions, such as religion, education, or marriage.
- Gothic shows the dark and hidden side of things. It rips open the lies and shows a world of cruelty, lust, perversion, and crime hidden beneath society’s rules and customs.
- Gothic tears through censorship and explodes hypocrisies. It exposes the world as a corrupt, reeking place.
- Gothic is a reaction to the conventional, common sense, and enlightened world. If society is supposed to be orderly and sensible, gothic shows how it really isn’t.
- Southern gothic tips stereotypes on their side and kicks them in the gut. Sweet Southern belles are crafty and greedy, chivalrous gentlemen are sneaky and perverse, and righteous preachers are manipulative and evil.
Your task: We've tackled three short stories that can be considered southern gothic - "The Lottery," "An Occurance at Owl Creek Bridge," "Good Country People" and "A Rose for Emily." Select one of the stories, and in a paragraph explain how one aspect of the story meets one of the criteria listed above. Be sure that your response is thoughtful and thorough and includes a cited quotation. Keep in mind all of the elements of a good paragraph: topic sentence, set-up, quotation, explanation.
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ReplyDeleteThe film, An Occurence at Owl Creek Bridge shows evidence of a southen gothic story due to its expression of chilling terror and gloom by exploiting mystery and horror. Within the movie, there are many incidents where the main character is put into situations when he has to make tough decisions and part of this aspect makes the film agonizing or portrays anxiety. It makes you wonder what is going to happen next and what will become of the man. There is many situations the man comes in contact like for example when he has to choose where to run from the soldiers. There is mystery at a point when he is running to his wife at his house. You don't expect it all to be a dream, but everything he had gone through was imagined all in about a second or two right before he was hung and died. It is chilling to think that all that happened in his very own mind within that short length of time. This film, showing the basic elements of southern gothic, gives a mysterious chill down your back and proves to show a sense of horror.
ReplyDeleteThe Southern Gothic, ‘A Rose for Emily’ represents the Southern Gothic characteristic of: The gothic novel tries to evoke chilling terror and gloom by exploiting mystery and horror. The story concludes with the townspeople exploring Emily’s house after her death, “One of us lifted something from it, and leaning forward, that faint and invisible dust dry and acrid in the nostrils, we saw a long strand of iron-gray hair (292).”
ReplyDeleteIt took me a while to understand what the author intended for the reader to comprehend, but after thinking for awhile, I realized what he meant. I was horrified; Emily has been sleeping next to her dead husband for over thirty years. Her dead husband was rotting and reeking, and every night she slept aside him. In addition, the chilling terror is that she killed him. The mystery is why would you sleep next to your dead husband whom you killed, thirty years before? As Emily Dickinson says “Tis so appalling—it” exhilarates.
Good Country People shows the dark and hidden sides of things. Manly pointer is not who the book makes him appear as. He is supposed to be a good country person selling bibles. But he is really a liar and doesn’t even believe in God. "I hope you don't think that I believe in that crap! I may sell bibles but I know which end is up and I wasn't born yesterday and I know where I'm going!"(pg.648). Manly Pointer doesn’t even believe in what he does and that reveals the dark side of things. Not everyone is who they they seem to be and sometimes they can leave you harmed. Also a young nice man like him should not steal body parts from handicapped people. “She saw him grab the leg and then she saw it for instant slanted forlornly across the inside of the suitcase with a bible at either side of its opposite ends” (pg.648). A good country person should not end up being a twisted robber.
ReplyDeleteA Rose for Emily is a highly disturbing story. In A Rose for Emily by William Faulkner is a very terrible story, but for some reason it makes you jumpy and excited. The story is basically about a woman named Emily and she is secretly sleeping with her dead husband who she killed. Old woman are supposed to be very sweet and give you candy, but this old lady is a total creep. This short story has many examples of southern gothic, but the ones that are the most apparent are that it makes you somewhat scared and almost happy at the same time and that it goes against stereotypes. At the very end of the story when all of the people are looking around her house and notice a long gray hair next to the decayed body. That last paragraph was the reason to read the book, for a little chill. The story also makes old ladies seem twisted and evil. In other stories old ladies are the ones that give out candy and help people that are in need. This short story is the opposite of what you would think of a little southern town.
ReplyDeleteWould "An Occurrence at Owl Creek Bridge" be considered a southern gothic? Certainly southern gothic themes can be found in this strange story. “An Occurrence at Owl Creek Bridge” makes you question what “good” is; generally when you think of the civil war, you think of the northerners as the “good” people, but this tale here says otherwise. Though the North did fight for the freedom of the slaves, they sometimes used cruel tactics. In one of these tactics a man was led to believe that he can save his way of life if he burns down a bridge and prevents the North soldiers from entering his village. He believes this and is then caught and hanged. Before he is hanged we see what his mind conjures up in desperate effort to escape, he imagines the rope breaking, he imagines the soldiers shooting at him and missing every time, getting free and running in the forest, coming across his home, seeing his wife, running to her, and the second before he gets to her it all ends and his lifeless body is left dangling above the creek: rather gloomy and chilling, is it not? “An Occurrence at Owl Creek Bridge” shows the how cruel even the non-bloody side of war can be.
ReplyDeleteThere are many short stories that can be considered Southern Gothic. We read some stories in class that has several characteristics of Southern Gothic literature. “Good Country People,” has several characteristics that form a Southern Gothic story. A southern Gothic tips stereotypes on their side and kicks them in the gut. Chivalrous gentlemen, can turn out to be manipulative, evil, and cruel. Manley Pointer, a Bible salesman, looks and acts as if he is a sincere and genuine man. As you read further on into the story, you’ll realize that Manley Pointer turns out to be the complete opposite. “One time I got a woman’s glass eye this way. And you needn’t to think you’ll catch me because Pointer ain’t really my name. I use a different name at every house I call at and don’t stay nowhere long” (648), Manley admits at the end of the story. In the end he stole Hulga’s artificial leg. Later, Manley emerges again as Mrs. Hopewell says, “Why, that looks like that nice dull young man that tried to sell me a Bible yesterday” (648), but is he truly a pleasant man?
ReplyDeleteShirley Jackson’s The Lottery shows the dark hidden side of a society. This story is Southern Gothic because of that reason. When people think of a lottery, they think of winning money and are usually happy when they win, but in this story, it is totally different. In this lottery, the winner’s family must pick the folded sheets of paper and whoever gets the sheet with the black dot is the winner. The tradition of the town where the story takes place is that the overall winner of the lottery must be killed. They kill the winner so the saying ‘Lottery in June, corn will be heavy soon,’ comes true. “Tessie Hutchinson was in the center of a cleared space by now, and she held her hands out desperately as the villagers moved in on her. ‘It isn’t fair,’ she said. A stone hit her head on the side of the head.” (371). Tessie Hutchinson was the overall winner of the lottery, which means stones will be thrown at her until she is dead. The Lottery shows the dark hidden side of things because the society’s rules and customs are actually cruel and mean.
ReplyDeleteThe story "Good Country People" is an excellent example of southern gothic. In the story the main characters are Manley Pointer, a "bible salesman" and Hulga, who has a fake leg. When they first meet they have "love at first sight", or so we think. In southern gothic, it shows the dark side of people that is not immediately apparent to us. "She saw him grab the leg and then she saw it for and instant slanted forlornly across the inside of the suitcase," (p.648). Manley turns out to be an evil person that steals fake body parts under the cover of saying that he is selling bibles. This is a prime example of how southern gothic will take seemingly harmless people and expose their dark side. He has used countless people that are helpless against him to steal and take advantage of them. “‘One time I got a woman’s glass eye this way’,”. He will probably strike again.
ReplyDeleteThe story Good Country People shows a dark side of people. It gives us a fear of institutions such as religion. The readers think this man who is selling bibles will be good and works for God but he turns out to be pretty bad. Also tears apart the stereotype of a sweet southern bible seller who is a young man who is a sweet and nice man. Not true, he is good on the outside but when a person gets close then he changes. "I hope you don’t think I believe in that crap"(647). He shows the world a different view then he shows certain people. He turns out to be like a lot of young men, and not unique as thought before. He don’t even believe in God, only uses his name to get rewards of different kinds. In the end, he is a twist young man who may be ruined a women’s life forever.
ReplyDeletethe Film An Occurence at Owl Creek Bridge is a good example of Southern Gothic literature. It shows terror and mystery, while showing elements of gothic such as fear of institutions and the confusion of "good and evil." The whole movie makes you feel pity for the criminal, and gives hope that he will get away. The fear of institution is of the army. This also works hand in hand with the confusion between good and evil, because the military is meant to protect the people, but the main character is an innocent man put to death by the military, or the institution. The chilling part of it is that you get the idea that it will end in a good way when he runs to meet his wife, but at the last second it just shows him fall and die. This is a shocking, mysterious ending of how his anxious escape was merely a dream which took place in a matter of seconds. This shows the basic elements of Southern Gothic in a dark, chilling way.
ReplyDeleteIn the Short story The Lottery by Shirley Jackson there is a confusion of evil. The town has a lottery to choose one person to be stoned for a good year of crops in return. There’s a confusion of good and evil because the people have to kill someone to get good crops. The lottery is a tradition in this town and done every year. The man of the house chooses a card out of a box used every year. Now if the father has a black dot on the paper his whole family has to choose from the hat. The person in his family who receives the black dot on the card must be stoned. Mrs. Hutchinson says “it isn’t fair, it isn’t right,” (371) right before she was stoned. She obviously did not want to die and leave her family. The story shows that the people of the town have this superstition that if they don’t have the lottery they won’t have good crops for the year.
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ReplyDeleteIn the southern gothic story “Good Country People” by Flannery O’Connor there is a confusion of good and evil. Manley Pointer comes across an innocent bible salesman trying to make some money and spread Christianity. Later on in the story you discover he is actually evil and was planning to steal Hulga’s leg the whole time. The story makes you think he is one thing but it peels back the layers and you find he is a thief. “I see you got a wooden leg,” “I think you’re real sweet.”(642). Manley flatters Hulga into tricking her into thinking he really liked her, but all he wanted was her leg. He tricked her and made he believe he was something he was not.
ReplyDeleteThe Lottery is considered to be a southern gothic story. It is a southern gothic story because there is confusion between good and evil. Usually, lotteries are a good thing because many people win things like money or cars, but in the story, the lottery is a bad thing. The beginning of the story was misleading, “The morning of June 27th was clear and sunny, with the fresh warmth of a full- summer day; the flowers were blossoming profusely and the grass was richly green” (365). People would think that this would be a happy story because that was the first sentence, but when you find out what the lottery really is about it starts getting really creepy. Then, when Tessie gets picked to get stoned, the stereotypes get pushed aside, because all the wives who were Tessie’s friend, and who have took cook dinner later that night, grab rocks and tells everyone to “Hurry up” (371). That is why the story The Lottery is southern gothic.
ReplyDeleteThe short story, A Rose for Emily, definitely meets the standards of being a southern gothic story. A Rose for Emily definitely tips its stereotypes on their sides and kicks them in the butt. The story is about how an old lady, Emily, hasn’t been paying her taxes because she was told she didn’t have to a long time before because her father died. The story also says that her husband disappears. Just when the reader starts to feel bad for Emily, she dies and later gets caught with having her husband’s dead body in her bed. A grey hair is also found on the pillow next to him, which suggests that she slept with him still almost 30 years after she murdered him. Emily definitely doesn’t fit the stereotype of an innocent, old lady; she proves to the reader that she isn’t so innocent by murdering her husband and as if that wasn’t bad enough, slept with him. At the very beginning of the story, the reader feels as if Emily is an innocent lady, by the end, however, Emily is viewed as a twisted and evil character.
ReplyDeleteIn the story, "An Occurrence at Owl Creek Bridge," there are some aspects of the story that meet the characteristics of southern gothic literature. One aspect is the fact that this story evokes chilling terror and gloom by exploiting mystery and horror, like how a southern gothic piece is like. The end of the story, for example, truly evokes sudden horror, “As he is about to clasp her, he feels a stunning blow upon the back of the neck; a blinding white light blazes all around him, with a sound like a shock of a cannon -- then all is darkness and silence! Peyton Farquhar was dead; his body, with a broken neck, swung gently from side to side beneath the timbers of the Owl Creek Bridge.” In this quote, a man was about to be hung, but he escapes and eventually finds both his home and his wife. But, when he is about to embrace her, he suddenly gets hung, and dies. This chain of events can seem confusing, and horrifying, to many eyes. It can seem confusing, because the entire escape appears to have happened in one second, at least in the person’s mind. And the scary part is the fact that he suddenly was hung, after he dreamt in a second that he had actually escaped. The sudden hanging would make a person be taken aback, and the viewers’ open mouths would be filled with awestruck, because the sudden scene is so horrifying. So, in conclusion, the short story “An Occurrence at Owl Creek Bridge" shows at least one of the criteria for southern gothic literature.
ReplyDeleteThe short story, A Rose for Emily, definitely meets the standards of being a southern gothic story. A Rose for Emily definitely tips its stereotypes on their sides and kicks them in the butt. The story is about how an old lady, Emily, hasn’t been paying her taxes because she was told she didn’t have to a long time before because her father died. The story also says that her husband disappears. Just when the reader starts to feel bad for Emily, she dies and later gets caught with having her husband’s dead body in her bed. A grey hair is also found on the pillow next to him, which suggests that she slept with him still almost 30 years after she murdered him. Emily definitely doesn’t fit the stereotype of an innocent, old lady; she proves to the reader that she isn’t so innocent by murdering her husband and as if that wasn’t bad enough, slept with him. At the very beginning of the story, the reader feels as if Emily is an innocent lady, by the end, however, Emily is viewed as a twisted and evil character.
ReplyDelete-Danielle Yapor
In the short story “The Lottery” by Shirley Jackson, it shows many themes of southern gothic literature. But one very clear example of southern gothic is that the novel tries to evoke chilling terror and gloom by exploiting mystery and horror. In the story the author makes the lottery sound like a very bad thing. They would sacrifice one of their own people in the town so that the corn would grow better. The reader wants to know what is going to happen the Hutchinson family when they pick the tiny slip of paper with the black dot on it. When Tessie gets chosen to be sacrificed, she is scared to death. The reader almost feels bad for her because she is stoned to death for just a stupid tradition.
ReplyDelete“A Rose For Emily” is about as Southern and gothic as a short story can get. It demonstrates southern gothic characteristic number seven, “Southern gothic tips stereotypes on their side and kicks them in the gut.” Emily is seen as a poor, old woman who has been through a lot in her years. Colonel Sartoris remitted her taxes for a while since “the dispensation dating from the death of her father on into perpetuity”. (286). Everyone feels sympathy towards her because she is living alone with no family around and will now feel “old thrill and old despair.”(288) The townspeople think Emily is sort of strange, but no one suspects that she is anything worse than that. After Emily dies and the townspeople enter her house that she has kept private for years, they discover her dead husband’s body in the bed along with a long gray hair on of the pillows. Emily’s true character is exposed. Instead of an old lady that is worth feeling sorry for, she is a cruel old woman that killed her husband and kept the murder a secret for forty years! Emily breaks the stereotype of Southern, elderly women being sweet and nice with only one action, her husband’s murder.
ReplyDeleteThe lottery by Shirley Jackson is set in a small town in Florida of about 300 people. The people hold a lottery every year at the beginning of growing season to bring rain and good growing conditions. The reason this is southern gothic is that it isn’t your average southern town having a lottery. The townspeople put all the names of the people in the town in the black box. Once the person is picked the townspeople will walk around collect some stones then throw them at the person till death as a sacrifice. This is a very good twist to the story because you read the book and not till the end do you find out that the lottery is actually just to stone someone to death. In the story Mrs. Hutchinson gets picked. “It isn’t fair, she said (Mrs. Hutchinson). A stone hit the side of her head.” Sacrificing and killing is not the first thing that comes to your head when you think of southern town, and that’s why this story is a great example of southern gothic.
ReplyDeleteA Rose for Emily is the perfect Southern Gothic story where things have a twist, keeping the readers at the edge of their seat. It has every single thing needed in the perfect southern gothic novel. It revolves around showing the “dark and hidden” side of things. In the beginning of A Rose for Emily, it starts off as a story based on a lady who has lost her dad in her life, living a lonely life. After that, characteristics of southern gothic start emerging. Throughout the short story, there are many events that lead to showing the dark side of things. Even if you know your reading a southern gothic story, the evil and shocking sections always seem to surprise readers. It comes unexpectedly, making the whole situation even more chilling and provoking. With this story written by William Faulkner, he overemphasizes the terror that comes with a Southern Gothic story. The point where I thought the story showed the “hidden” side of things was when Emily killed her own husband, when everyone thought he was just missing running away from her; “The body had apparently once lain in the attitude of an embrace, but now the long sleep that outlasts love, that conquers even the grimace of love, had cuckolded him“(pg 292). It proves that this story does rip open lies, tricking the readers thinking that it is something else that you wouldn’t expect. A Rose for Emily shows the crime underneath the story beneath society’s rules and proves the feeling of horror within southern gothic.
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English
Southern Gothic: Good Country People
Good Country People is very much like a modern day horror movie that would be filmed today. It starts off like a regular movie, and has kind of a sweet southern tone built into it. As the reader reads further, they become awed by the love between Manley and Hulga. This is where the book starts twisting and turning into a southern gothic tale. As the reader gets to the climax, they are jaw dropped in shock and maybe even devastation! The climax is the part of the book when the story reaches its’ highest peak of suspense. The climax in this book is when the two ‘lovers’ were sitting in the barn when he asks to see her leg. This is the climax because this is Hulga’s weakest point in the book; she is totally helpless. “This boy, with an instinct that came from beyond wisdom, had touched the truth about her. When after a minute, she said in a horse high voice, ‘All right,’ it was like surrendering to him completely.” (646) Hulga has trusted this man she barely even knows so much that she allows herself to be totally helpless, but this ends up being the wrong choice. This feeling of chilling terror and gloom is an aspect of southern gothic that this story has mastered. This story also has a confusion about good and evil. The whole story, Manley was good and sweet and Hulga’s whole family loved him, except her. She then gets a chance to talk with him and walks him out. They then realize they have something and want to see each other again. This whole time Manley has been playing a character other than himself, tricking everyone in his midst. His true self unravels in the barn when he reveals to her what he has really come for, but only once she has become totally helpless since he was in possession of her wooden leg. Good Country People is a very good example of a chilling horror story.
The Lottery is best represented by the characteristic of: Gothic shows the dark and hidden side of things. This represents The Lottery the best because it shows that hidden behind a nice small town is a cruel system of sacrifice. At the beginning it seems like this is just an average southern town. Everyone knows each other and everyone always is friendly and says hello. “ Hi Steve, Mr. Summers said, and Mr. Adams said, Hi Joe.” They have a lottery where everyone picks a sheet of paper and one of them has a black dot on it. The twist comes after the lottery is finished. The Lottery was made to choose who would be sacrificed so the corn would grow. The person who got the paper with the black dot on it would be killed. The people would kill their own friends because they thought it would make their corn grow better. It shows some confusion about good and evil because the people think that what they are doing is necessary and is not a bad thing. The people think that it is a fair way to choose who to sacrifice so they are all fine with it.
ReplyDeleteThe story "Good Country People" is a good story for southern gothic literature. It was one scene in the book with the young man, Manley Pointer, and Hugla when they were in the barnyard. This point in the story captured mostly all of the southern gothic trait. This south called "good country people" was not so good, but he played the role to get what he wanted, the wooden leg. He manipulated her when he said "I known it, you're playing me for a sucker" when she wouldn't take off her leg to show she loved him. Manley Pointer maybe her feel as if she was wrong and that she didn't love him if she didn't show him how to take off the wooden leg. Then when she finally did he wouldn't give it back. This also confused good and evil. We still can't tell rather or not he's good, because when she asked for it he just said "Not yet, leave it off for a while. You have me instead." or "Wait". We would think this is getting romantic. Until the very end when his impression of "good country people" font goes and this confusion between good and evil is no more because he takes her leg and tells how he does this all the time and leaves her sitting there. Religion is also put in to play when he take out the bibles in barn and takes these bottles of whiskey out and a deck of cards. This story captured the good side of things and showed the bad side , in some parts of the story it even gave you terror for the girl and what he would do, this is a good example of southern gothic literature.
ReplyDeleteIn the short film called, “An Occurrence at Owl Creek Bridge” the main character is put to death because one of the, “confederates” told him to burn the bridge down because the people from the north were coming. Then he has a dream in the time that he was falling. The dream was him escaping using the river and the forest, running away and then he meets his wife. When he was about to hold his wife he was dead because that was when he was hang. All of us watching it for the first time probably thought it was really happening but it was actually a dream. This is a southern gothic short movie because you don’t know which is good from evil. The confederates are supposed to be the bad people because they were the ones wanting slavery and the north was trying to abolish slavery but instead the main character was good.
ReplyDeleteIn the short story, “The Lottery,” there was a scene that depicted one of the gothic elements. This scene was when the people of the town started to stone one of their citizens, Tessie. They do this because they believe it helps fertilize their crops and it brings luck to their town. The reason this scene is gothic because one of the southern gothic elements is that gothic novels try to evoke chilling terror and gloom by exploiting mystery and horror. This scene shows horror because they stone one of their own citizens to death just because they think it will help their town. The quote, “Be a good sport Tessie” (369) shows that they don’t even care that they are about to kill someone, all they care about is the belief that might not even be true. That is one aspect of the story that shows a gothic element.
ReplyDeleteIf a Southern Gothic story is supposed to show the dark and hidden side of things then a Rose for Emily is definitely a Southern Gothic story. The story expresses this characteristic of Southern Gothic literature because throughout most of the story the dark side of things are hidden, but towards the end it is ripped open and showed expressing the Southern Gothic of the story. When the group enters the upstairs room of Emily’s house “The man himself lay in the bed.” The quote expresses the man that Emily killed and preserved for her to sleep with and that is the dark and hidden side of the story. A Rose for Emily best describes this characteristic of Southern Gothic literature because the dark side is hidden throughout the story but at the end it shows the dark side.
ReplyDelete“Good Country People” has one excellent example of how southern gothic kicks stereotypes in their gut. Manley Pointer, or so he called himself, was a bible salesmen who at the end, ended up being a thief. By the way he introduces himself, and by his actions, the reader concludes that he is a good, nice, and polite person. Also, because he consistently describes his Christian self, not to mention the fact that he is selling BIBLES the reader also concludes that he is a very religious person who is pure. “I know I’m real simple. I’m just a country boy”, says Manley to Mrs. Hopewell. (639) The person who takes the time to describe his simplicity always seems like a good one. “Lady, the word of God ought to be in the parlor”, he tells Mrs. Hopewell. (639) The person who doesn’t use the word “Bible” and states that it is the word of God can generally be concluded as a very religious person. Every adjective used here to describe Manley is the exact opposite of what he truly is. He ends up seducing Hulga at the end, stealing her prosthetic leg, and running off with it. After Hulga states he’s a typical Christian, he states, “I hope you don’t think, that I believe in that crap!” Looks like he wasn’t really there to sell bibles. The stereotype of him being a pure Christian ended up being an illusion set by him.
ReplyDeleteThe story, A Rose for Emily, is about a woman named Emily who kills her husband. In this story, it uses the characteristic of number 7, “Southern gothic tips stereotypes on their side and kicks them in the gut. Sweet Southern belles are crafty and greedy, chivalrous gentlemen are sneaky and perverse, and righteous preachers are manipulative and evil.” Emily is a ‘sweet’ old lady in the South, who seems a bit suspicious. A stereotype for people who are as old as Emily, is that they are all sweet and innocent, but that is not the case with Emily. Emily kills her husband because she does not want him to leave her. She ends up sleeping with his rotting corpse in her bed with his arms wrapped around her. On page 292, it says “The body had apparently once lain in the attitude of an embrace, now the long sleep that outlasts love, that conquers even the grimace of love, had cuckolded him”. It shows that Emily was keeping secrets from everyone and she is not who everyone thinks she is. Everyone assumes she is an innocent woman with no secrets, but that’s not the truth.
ReplyDeleteThe film, An Occurrence at Owl Creek Bridge, is considered a Southern Gothic story because it shows the fear of institutions. In the film the man who escapes from the Union is in fear of them. In the story the Union is an institution. He is in fear because he is going to die because they tricked him. The story also confuses who is goo and who is evil. The man running is seen as good but when you look back in history he was the bad people who were slave owners. The Union is seen as the bad guys because they are trying to kill him. Again, in history they are really the good guys trying to abolish slavery. In the book the man is tricked into going to Owl Creek Bridge. They know he is the bad guy but you don’t realize it until after he died.
ReplyDeleteIn the short story, “Good Country People,” there is confusion about good and evil. The sense of confusion comes from Manly Pointer, who at first appears to be an innocent Bible salesman. Manly shows his purity and potential to be the good guy from the beginning when he shows up at Mrs. Hopewell’s home and is talking to Mrs. Hopewell. Manly says, “I don’t want to go to college. I want to devote my life to Chrustian service. See, I got this heart condition. I may not live long. When you know it’s something wrong with you and you may not live long, well then, lady…”(640). So, from this statement, the reader most likely gets an impression that Manly is a good guy. However, later in the story, the tides change a little bit. Manly exposes his bad side when he manages to get Hulga, Mrs. Hopewell’s daughter, alone in a barn. Hulga has had a prosthetic leg since she was ten, and in the barn, Manly persuades her to “show him” how to take it off. Before Hulga even realizes, Manly takes her leg and hides it away in his suitcase. His suitcase, which should have Bibles in it, holds only two boxes that look like bibles, and that contain a flask of whiskey, a pack of cards, and a box of condoms. When Manly presents this, it provides only more evidence of why he could be seen as evil in the story. Consequently, through the story, the reader first suspects that Manly is a good, innocent character, but by the end, the reader simply does not know what to think of Manly, causing confusion about good and evil.
ReplyDeleteMost of the time you are supposed to think of a Christian trying to sell bibles to promote his religion as a good thing, and usually it is. But in the story Good Country Men the priest/ bible seller is far from a good man. This is one example of how southern gothic tips stereotypes on their sides and kicks them in the gut. A priest or bible seller should be a good man, that is just how we think of them but in this story he is manipulative, sneaky and fake. He manipulates the girl into thinking he actually cared about her, he got her to go up to the top of the barn in somewhat of a sneaky way and he acts like he is very polite and people like him and then he ends up leaving the girl to die in a barn. “He picked up his bibles and thanked her and prepared to leave,”(640). He acted like he was polite and thanked her. He is trying to promote his religion by acting polite again. “Lady, the word of god ought to be in the parlor,” (639)
ReplyDeleteWhat a person sees is not always what they end up hearing. In “A Rose for Emily,” it shows the story from the point of view that is subtle and normal. They tell about the way a man leaves and comes back but make up stories along the way about the events that happen such as that Emily is in love with the guy but then he left her. The story is really not what it seems like, though. The southern gothic literature twists that all around and shows what the story is really hiding. “One of us lifted something from it, and leaning forward, that faint and invisible dust dry and acrid in the nostrils, we saw a long strand of iron-gray hair” (292). The quote shows that the story of Emily and her man was more of a horror. Everyone thought that they had been in love and that he left her and she was depressed but that was not the case at all. It peels back the layer of what everyone thinks and sees and shows you what has actually been happening.
ReplyDeleteIn the short story “An Occurrence at Owl Creek Bridge” there is confusion between good and evil. The story portrays a southern man who is hung by the Union. The Union tricked him by sending a Union soldier, who was pretending to be a confederate, to tell the southern man to destroy the bridge that would allow the Union to cross into the area that he was leaving in, “going northward in the direction from which he had come. He was a Federal scout,”. This is usually not what people think about when it’s about the Union and the confederates. Most people think that they are the good people, and the confederates are evil. In this story however, it is just the opposite. The Union killed an innocent southern plantation owner who had nothing to do with the war. This story shows the North as malicious and evil, which is the exact opposite of what people today think.
ReplyDeleteA Rose for Emily is the soul of Southern Gothic literature. It expresses various elements such as showing the dark and hidden side of things. The society Emily lives in is not cruel and corrupted, but rather her own personal life. Living in a relatively peaceful environment, she becomes the sinister outcast. The stereotypical “old lady next door” represents a kind, thoughtful woman, driven by loneliness. Emily is portrayed as the exact opposite. Although lonely, her physical characteristics reveal the aspects of her disturbed mind. “…still a slight woman, though thinner than usual, with cold, haughty black eyes in a face the flesh of which was strained across the temples and about the eye sockets as you imagine a lighthouse-keeper’s face ought to look.” (289). Her character proves to be both innocent and twisted, which enhances the story’s obscurity. Emily’s description is a glimpse of the dark and hidden world that only she dwells in.
ReplyDeleteIn the short story “Good Country People” by Flannery O’Connor, it shows the following criteria: Gothic shows the dark and hidden side of things. It rips open the lies and shows a world of cruelty, lust, perversion, and crime hidden beneath society’s rules and customs. In the beginning, the story described Manly Pointer for the audience to think the wrong about him, “He was a tall gaunt hatless youth who had called yesterday to sell them a Bible” (638). The characters thought that he was a real simple man just selling Bibles. When in reality, he was a cruel man waiting for his opportunity to steal Hulga’s artificial leg. In order to fool Hulga and Mrs. Hopewell, he chose the option to gain sympathy. “I want to devote my life to Chrustian service.” (…) “I got this heart condition. I may not live long. When you know it’s something wrong with you, you may not live long…” (640). This way, he abides the characteristic of Southern Gothic. Cruelty, to the extent, on which he brought lies upon. Towards the end of the story, he starts to show ‘lust’ just before he commits his crime. Although Hulga was in the barn for the wrong thing, he still asked her to take off her leg because that’s what makes her ‘different’. Right when she does, he twists the story and changes his whole character’s personality. He went from kind, caring, religious man, to horrible, deceiving person. He opened up the lie of who he truly is, and he did not just commit a crime, but break Hulga’s heart. She was the victim all along and she had no clue this would come to an end like this. Since the outcome of the story was Manly Pointer turning into something different the reader imagined, is shows exactly what one of the characteristics of Southern Gothic states: Gothic shows the dark and hidden side of things.
ReplyDeleteThe story “A Rose For Emily” clearly expresses how southern gothic literature shows the dark and hidden side of things. The story breaks down all the boundaries a society normally “puts up.” Normally a small town will seclude themselves from the rest of the world, or the bigger picture. You don’t hear about crude and demented things happening in places such as Aline, Oklahoma with a population of 214 residents. I bet you didn’t even know that was a place. The story depicted an old lady sleeping with her corpse of a husband. This broke all stereotypes and did in fact show a real place that was running around lies and hidden secrets.
ReplyDelete“A Rose for Emily” by William Faulkner is a Southern Gothic story. It shows the dark and hidden side of things about Miss Emily, the main character of the story. When she was young, her father died and Emily became depressed. The townsfolk felt sorry for her because Emily was lonely, and she was such a nice person. She soon fell in love with a young man who later disappeared. Everyone believed that the young man had left her, and they pitied Emily for her loss; especially when she wouldn’t leave her home. But at the end of the story, they soon discovered that he was always in the house on her bed. “For a long while we just stood there looking down at the profound and fleshless grin.” They realized that Emily, the sad, quiet, old lady had killed the young man years ago and still slept with his carcass. The townsfolk were shown the evil and dark side of Miss Emily.
ReplyDeleteThe short story, “The Lottery” by Shirley Jackson presents the dark and hidden side of things. For example the short story shows evidence how the villagers changed the meaning of the word “lottery” into something more twisted. When you think of the lottery you’re mainly focused on winning, or something good you may gain in the end. The village had to grab a piece a paper from the box and slowly one by one reveal who had the winning ticket. Usually people are eagar to find out if they have the ticket or not but, in this case they were hesitant and didn’t even want to find out. “Bill Hutchinson went over to his wife and forced the slip of paper out of her hand. It had a black spot on it.” (Pg. 370). While the suspense was growing, you later on find out that the “winner” would get punished for the towns benefit, “Lottery in June, corn be heavy soon.” (Pg. 368). That quote revealed the twisted way of how they valued their tradition. It showed the dark hidden side of the lottery, revealing that the winner would get stoned in the end. A lottery should show benefits for the winner, not the bad outcomes.
ReplyDeleteIn the short story The Lottery by Shirley Jackson, the plot is a reaction to the conventional, common sense, and enlightened world. The short story reveals a society that goes against the status quo. The townspeople rely on this lottery for their crops to be prosperous so they put all their faith into this lottery. They are brainwashed into thinking that if they do not resume the lottery, that there will not be many crops, “’Next thing you know, they’ll be wanting to go back to living in caves, nobody work any more, live that way for a while. Used to be a saying about ‘Lottery in June, corn be heavy soon.’ […] There’s always been a lottery.’” (368) The townspeople have been doing this lottery for so long it has become their society. They believe that having the lottery is the norm; they have always been doing so. This is the opposite of what we live in. We have an orderly and sensible society where we can do what we want, unlike this town where they have no choice but to follow the ways of the society.
ReplyDeleteThe short story Good Country People confuses its readers of good and evil. At a first glance, Manly Pointer is simply a devoted Christian, who sells bibles for a living. He is a likeable man considering his hard work and a person which most people would label as an “innocent soul” from his devotion to Christianity. However, only his victims uncover the malicious monster hiding behind this “Christian” figure. He is a twisted figure who steals artificial body parts. “She saw him grab the leg and then she saw it for an instant slanted forlornly across the inside of the suitcase…” (648) Then on top of this, he says, “And you needn’t to think you you’ll catch me because Pointer ain’t really my name,” (648.) All the nice traits that “Pointer” seem to have at the beginning are all shot down by his heartless, evil figure. This gives the reader much confusion of good and bad.
ReplyDeleteIn the short story, The Lottery, the author tries to evoke chilling terror and gloom by exploiting mystery and horror. The story is about Shirley Jackson who shows how everyone takes the slip out and one person in the family gets picked. There is a saying, “Lottery in June, corn be heavy soon.”(page: 368) This saying means if you do the lottery you will get more crops. Old man Warner and the people in the society believe if you stone someone you will get more and better crops. The part where Tessie’s family gets chosen in the lottery, Tessie gets chosen to get stoned. This is a mystery to us because we don’t know who was going to get stoned. I thought Old man Warner was going to get chosen because he’s been in the lottery for 77 years.
ReplyDeleteThe story “Good Country People” uses the element of false stereotypes to bring out the southern gothic within. Manley Pointer is the greatest example of a stereotype. He made himself out to be a good, well mannered bibles salesman who wishes only to spread his religion. “For a Christian, the word of god ought to be in every room in the house besides in his heart”. He eventually asks Hulga out using his stereotype. She believes that it is because he likes her but it is really because of her fake leg. In the end Manley goes against his stereotype and steals Hulga’s fake leg for money and abandoned her in an abandoned barn
ReplyDeleteIn gothic work there is usually confusion about good and evil. The story good country people, there is confusion about good because Manly posed as a good person, but in reality he is a sick person. He tried to, for some reason; get Hulga’s wooden leg by manipulating her to make out with him: “I like girls that were glasses.” Manly also manipulates other people by posing as a bible sales man, in the story he sold bibles to pose as a good person, but in reality try to steal Hulga’s leg. “Lord, he bored me to death but he was so sincere and genuine I couldn’t be rude to him. He was just good country people, you know.”
ReplyDeleteThe story, "The Lottery", contains one of the Southern Gothic pieces because I couldn't really tell who is good and who is evil. Mr. Summers would be both because he's the one in charge of who gets killed. I can't really say that he's good. He's more of a person that doesn't really care because if someone picks the black-dotted paper, then they're the person that gets stoned. He doesn't really care about that. This abstract of good and evil can confuse time and time again because it's difficult to understanding the real meaning of Mr. Summers.
ReplyDeleteA Rose for Emily has a very good example for the first characteristic of southern gothic literature. The first rule is that the gothic novel tries to evoke chilling terror and gloom by exploiting mystery and horror. In this story, Emily had been sleeping with an old corpse of her husband for weeks. In the beginning of the story, the author shows Emily living alone with her butler after her dad dies. Because she didn’t talk to anybody or keep in touch with anyone, her life was a mystery to the townsfolk; especially when the odd smell came for a period of time and then left. Her way of life evoked chilling terror, gloom, and horror after she died when the townsfolk went to her funeral. They were stunned when they looked in her room to find the rotten corpse of poor Homer Barron and that long white hair. One does not see an old woman sleeping with her dead husband that she murdered in one’s daily routine.
ReplyDelete*I posted this comment late because I was on vacation. I told the substitute that I would read the story and do the blog. She said it would be fine and that I would have to do the worksheet following Good Country People and the quiz after I got back.