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 several short stories that can be considered southern gothic - "An Occurance at Owl Creek Bridge," "Good Country People" and "A Rose for Emily." We also viewed Night of the Hunter - again, classic Southern Gothic. Select one of the stories, and in a paragraph explain how one aspect of the story/film 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, cited quotation, explanation (claim - evidence - warrant). Write in formal third person. Post your paragraphs in the comments below. Include you name and period.
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, cited quotation, explanation (claim - evidence - warrant). Write in formal third person. Post your paragraphs in the comments below. Include you name and period.
Southern Gothic Literature
ReplyDeleteIn the movie Night of the Hunter it shows an example of southern gothic literature by using the fact that the movie shows the dark and hidden side of things. This type of gothic shows the lies and cruelty of the real world and the truth behind people that seem nice and real are mean figures. In the Night of the Hunter the man Harry Powell who marries Johns and Pearls mother is real out to find the money and not for love. He does not care for the children and he would kill them just to get the money. He acts as a preacher and everyone in the town thinks he is such a nice man and they all feel sorry for him but really he has done this before and he will keep doing this until someone stops him. He gets luck when he meets John and Pearls real father in a cell. “Lord, you sure knew what you were doing when you brung me to this very cell at this very time. A man with ten thousand dollars hid somewhere, and a widder in the makin'. ”. This man will ruin many people’s lives if he keeps doing this but luckily he was stopped before causing any more damage to John and Pearl.
Good Country People is a very good example of southern gothic. It invokes chilling terror and blurs the lines between good and evil. In the book, the author makes it hard to like Hulga Hopewell and makes it easy to like Manly Pointer. Hulga does her best to make sure everyone else is as miserable as she is. Ever since her accident, she walks around clomping her wooden leg on the ground as loud as she can. She does it because “it was ugly -sounding” (O’Connor 637). Manly makes himself look like a perfect Christian man. He goes around selling bibles and talking about the religion to people. He sounds like a true believer. When Hulga goes to the barn with Manly to try to seduced him, their true selves come out. We are able to see the real Manly Pointer. As he takes off her leg and leaves her there to die, he talks about the other victims that he tricked. He took her the thing that made her confidence lower and he exploited it. We are able to connect with Hulga because she becomes the victim. Even though Manly was the bad guy, everyone still rooted for him to win until they realized how sick he really was. It invokes terror because it shows how easily it is to trick people. He easily fooled Mrs. and Hulga Hopewell into thinking that he was a good country man. In his own way he took Hulga’s worst nightmare and made it come alive. Her actions turned on her and it truly is terrifying to imagine someone doing that to me.
ReplyDeleteThe movie Night of the Hunter is an example of southern gothic. It shows confusion about good and evil. The preacher, Harry Powell, pretended to be an innocent religious man but on the inside he was a cruel murderer. He tricked the wife of two children, pretending he was in love for her and not for the money that he wanted from them. The wife, Mrs. Harper, thought Mr. Powell was a nice religious man who loved her. However, one of the children, John, knew that he wanted the money from the start. He tried to warn his mom but she believed Harry over John. “Now just tell me. Where’s the money hid?” (Charles Laughton). This was when Mr. Powell was asking Pearl, the daughter, where the money was hidden. Mr. Powell is really after the money and did not marry Mrs. Harper to marry her, he married her because he wanted the money.
ReplyDeleteGood Country People is southern gothic at its best. It shows how a young, innocent bible salesman is manipulative and sneaky. The boy was supposed to be “good country people” (O’Connor 647), but instead he planned to rob Hulga of her pride by stealing her wooden leg because, “without the leg she felt entirely dependent on him” (O’Connor 647). Hulga as a strong, independent woman was destroyed. This is an example of southern gothic because the boy was sweet and innocent in the beginning. He was expected to be a regular, kind bible salesman. When Hulga first met the boy, she decided that was going to use him. In a story, usually the reader hopes that the innocent kid or underdog is successful and goes unharmed. In Good Country People, the reader puts his or her focus on the innocent bible salesman who is most likely going to get used by Hulga. Also Hulga’s negative personality makes the reader want her to fail. But by the end of the story, the tables have turned, and the boy manipulates Hulga which shows that this is southern gothic by characteristic number seven “Southern gothic tips stereotypes on their side and kicks them in the gut.” This characteristic of southern gothic explains that the readers roots for the evil character not knowingly.
ReplyDeleteThe short story Good Old Country people is one of the most gothic stories that I believe is out of the 4 books and stories. This is because it definitely meets most of the expectations for it to be a southern gothic book. The first expectation is that in the book the person who is reading is supposed to feel a chill or a terror in some part of the movie. In the end when the Manley Pointer is a crook who steals people fake body parts. This was a terror because many he tricks people and fiercely steals people’s body parts. The second expectation is that there’s supposed to be a confusion about good and evil, and in this book there definitely is a confusion about good and evil. This is because Manley in the beginning of the story is a nice friendly bible sales man who easily gets Ms. Freeman to come inside his house and eat dinner. He also tricks Hulga when he “falls” in love with her, but really when he is a man who steals people’s fake body parts. The third reason why the short story is a gothic story is that it involves religion. This is because Manley, in the beginning of the story, was a bible seller who was friendly and very religious. He tried to get Ms. Freeman to buy his bible by telling her that he stopped going to college just to become the most faithful to god he can be. The final thing that this book shows is that it tears through censorship and explodes hypocrisies. It shows this in the story because it proves that no one is who they really claim to be. Manley was supposedly a bible seller to the family but they were wrong. These explanations and examples prove why Good Old Country people is the most gothic story out of all four.
ReplyDeleteI chose the movie the Night Of The Hunter. One way version of Southern Gothic that they used In The Night of the Hunter was confusion of good and evil. Like when they thought Harry Powell was a good guy, but he was actually bad. John was trying to convince people that Harry was asking him where the money was hidden, but nobody believed him. Eventually, when they were staying at the old woman's house, he said "He's not my daddy" and the old woman shot him. This is a version of Southern Gothic Literature because they mistook him fora good guy, when he was a crazy money hungry man. People thought he was a good guy because he posed as a preacher, so they thought he wouldn't sin. But they were mistaken. I think that Uncle Bernie was taken aback when he saw a car with a woman in it at the bottom of the pond. He must have thought he was still drunk. Confusion of good and evil was the version of Southern Gothic literature in The Night Of The Hunter
ReplyDeleteThe movie “The Night of the Hunter” is a classic example of a southern gothic movie because it tips stereotypes on their side and kicks them in the gut. In the movie, the bad guy is a preacher which ruins the stereotype because preachers are supposed to be kind and harmless but in the movie, the preacher is mean and tries to kill the kids on several occasions. “I’m just a harmless preacher” is what the preacher says to the judge when he is found quilting of stealing a car but the judge knows better “No good preacher would ever steal a good old lady’s car”. Later on in the movie, he does some more harmful things such as threaten the children and kill the mother on the children. These are all qualities of a very bad man and they should not be qualities of a preacher but the movie does make them qualities of a preacher; which makes the movie a southern gothic movie because it is breaking stereotype of all preachers being good.
ReplyDeleteIn the movie The Night of the Hunter, the preacher was put in jail for stealing a car, at the same time John and Pearl’s dad was put in jail for stealing $10,000 from a bank robbery. Their dad hid it somewhere near the house. The preacher got released early because he had a minor case. His plan was to marry John and Pearl’s mom so that he can have more time to look for the money so that he can steal it. He knows that the father’s children know where it is hidden so he tries to trick them into telling him where it is, but he was unsuccessful. John knew where the money was and instead of the preacher trying to trick him, John tricked the preacher into thinking that the money was hidden in the cellar, and when the preacher went down there and he realized that the money was not hidden in the cellar, John locked the door and left the house with Pearl. Harry Powell the preacher was stuck. This demonstrates that this movie tries to evoke the chilling terror and gloom by exploiting the horror and mystery. During the movie there is supposed to be this feeling of chill and suspense. For example when Powell finally broke out of the basement and tried to find the kids, they were already getting on the boat into the river. However, he was so close to grabbing them and taking them back to the house, but they missed by inches. This was suspenseful for me as I kept asking myself, are the kids really going to make it and break free of the preacher and his aim? Making the movie suspenseful and at the same time a little horrifying is what made the movie an attention grabber. It makes the viewers stay glued to the TV.
ReplyDeleteThe film Night of the Hunter truly shows how southern gothic reverses stereo types and shows the true evil side of them by revealing such a fine characters evil side and what they truly are. Harry Powell shows how he appears to be a good southern preacher and how the word of god is always with him. However, Harry’s true side shows that he is crazy, evil, and manipulative and makes people believe whatever he wants with his charm which is generally his word of god. Harry goes around “preaching” and gaining the trust of beautiful women murdering them, and stealing their money, Harry also has something against beautiful women that seem to bother him and that is what makes him so irritated of them and whenever he encounters one he opens his switchblade which shows a sign of hate,” There are things you do hate, Lord. Perfume-smellin' things, lacy things, things with curly hair” (Charles Laughton).What Harry hasn’t dealt with before is finding ten thousand dollars hidden somewhere near the Harper’s home. He encounters many problems along his evil way dealing with Mrs. Harper and two kids, however before Mr. Harper was killed and taken away he told his son, John to guard Pearl and the money with his life. Once Harry becomes a new addition to the family immediately conflict begins with him trying to get the money by squeezing the information out of the kids. However after the mother has gone “missing” the kids run away and meet Mrs. Cooper who houses them and saves them from Harry. Harry is stereotyped as a manipulative and evil pastor that tries to take advantage of women and steal their money.
ReplyDeleteOne example of southern gothic is An Occurance at Owl Creek Bridge. This story takes place during the civil war, and is about Payton Farquhar a southern prisoner who is about to be hung for trying to set fire to a bridge. This story is southern gothic because in gothic works there is usually a confusion of good and evil. In the story right when a confederate soldier steps off the plank and Payton the southerner is about to get hung he has a dream about escaping but in the end he “was dead; his body, with a broken neck” (Bierce 81). Thou ought the whole story you are rooting for him to escape and when he comes out of his one second day dream he is dead. That is how An Occurance at Owl Creek Bridge is gothic because it gets you to root for the bad guy.
ReplyDeleteThe film, Night of the Hunter, directed by Charles Laughton, meets the criteria of almost every category. The movie creates the mood of mystery and horror the almost the whole two hours of it. The director creates the mood by using contrast of color in almost every shot. Since it is in black and white, the director takes advantage of it and has the elements of the story almost stick out. In a book, the author wants the reader to “read between the lines”. But in this film, the person has to pick up on why the director is showing something up-close or why the director is making everything white and the one object black. For example, when the pastor and wife are in their bedroom and the wife is praying, the director somehow makes the bedroom look like an actual church and makes the pastor in the dark to make him look like is a evil. Another category of Gothic writing that the film falls under is the confusion between good and evil because usually a normal person who think that a pastor is all good but in the film, he is pure evil. Also, the pastor plays both sides of the fence so in the beginning of the film, you thought he was a good guy. A third category of Gothic writing reveals a fear of institution which is religion and the church. A person thinks that the church is a sacred place and nothing bad can come from it but in the film it did.
ReplyDeleteJay Jennings P4
ReplyDeleteSouthern Gothic is very interesting and always leaves one wondering and frightened at the end. The short story Good Country People is a great example of Southern Gothic. This short story is about a family of people who meets a rather suspicious young bible seller. One element that makes it Southern Gothic is that it reveals fear of institutions. Manly Pointer, a young bible seller, tries to get the Hopewell family to buy bibles. Mrs. Hopewell does not want to, and that is when he notices Hulga. Hulga is 32 and still lives with her mom. She is not welcomed by many, even her mom at times. This is why the bible seller, Manly Pointer, takes advantage of her in an interesting way. Manly took her to the barn, where Manly thought that “It was too bad we can’t go up there” (O’Connor 645). Manly wanted to go up the ladder in a barn, but thought Hulga would not be able to due to her leg. Hulga proved him wrong and went up, which was ultimately part of Manly’s unique plan, which was to get her leg and leave. Manly later went on to remove her leg and leave with it, leaving Hula trapped upstairs in a barn without a leg. This is a great example of Southern Gothic, because it reveals a fear of religion. Manly is a “bible seller”, and he is thought to be religious. This is not what Manly is about though. He has
got many items including a glass eye, from tricking people like he did to Hulga. This reminds me of The Night of the Hunter, because Harry is supposed to be a “preacher”, but he really marries people to take their money. This can almost get one to be scared of religious people, and that is why this is an example of Southern Gothic.
“The Night of the Hunter”, directed by Charles Laughton, is a story about a preacher named Harry Powell who marries women for their money then kills them. He thinks that he’s helping God do away with women who arouse men's carnal instincts. Parts of this movie meet the criteria of Southern Gothic Stereotypes. Sweet southern belles are crafty and greedy, chivalrous gentlemen are sneaky and perverse, and righteous preachers are manipulative and evil. Harry Powell is the Preacher who is manipulative to people and always has them believe everything he says. People are so gullible. He sings his trademark song “Leaning, Leaning, Leaning on an everlasting arm…” and this shows how creepy and evil he is. During the movie you see parts of the town’s drunk hillbilly, a bossy old woman that owns the shop Spoons, the religious preacher and another woman who takes care of orphan kids. These are all stereotypes of a typical southern town.
ReplyDeleteNadia Choi
Good Country People is a work of southern gothic literature because it meets one of the criteria of all the characteristics of gothic literature. This short story meets the criteria of how it reveals a fear of institutions religion being the institution in this story. Manly Pointer is supposedly a bible seller and he is considered to be good country people. He goes to Hulga Hopewell’s house to try and sell them a bible. Hulga ends up liking Manly and she trusts him. So he asks if he could take off her fake leg because she does not have a real leg. At first she hesitates because she’s never trusted anyone but herself with her leg, but eventually she let him take it off. Manly then opens up his suit case and the inside of his bible there is a hole. From the hole, he takes out a bottle of whisky, a pack of cards with naked women on them, and condoms. Hulga is disgusted and asks him if he really is a Christian. Manly responds saying that he does not “believe in that crap!” and that he is just pretending to sell bibles ( O’Connor 648). This shows fear of religion because everyone thinks Manly is a Christian and that he is just trying to spread Gods word around. Christianity is basically allowing this kind of a sick and twisted behavior to happen.
ReplyDelete“Good Country People” is a short story by Flannery O’Connor, and it is a great example of classic Southern Gothic. The story is one that really shows the dark and hidden side of things, and has confusion on who is evil and who is good. In the story a boy is trying to sell bibles to a family and is very kind. When he is leaving the house, he asks the daughter “Couldn’t we go on a pic-nic tomorrow? Say yes, Hulga” (O’Connor). Even though Hulga with her fake leg is very independent and shy, she agrees, but later the next day she probably wishes she did not. Manley, the boy, was supposed to be “good country people” (O’Connor 647) well that turned out to be completely wrong when he left her stranded on the second floor of a barn and stole her fake leg. The story is Southern Gothic because at first Manley seem like the “good” character while Hulga with her rude personality and shyness seemed like the “evil” character. That obviously twisted, and you saw the dark and hidden side of Manley. His sick mind was apparent when he gained enough of Hulga’s trust to take off the most personal thing that belonged to her (her fake leg), took it off, stole it and left. In the end, you can see clearly that Manley was the evil character and Hulga was good, which is what classic Southern Gothic is supposed to do.
ReplyDeleteIn the story titled “Good Country People” it provides evidence for many characteristics of southern gothic literature. One main characteristic of southern gothic literature that it represents is the dark and hidden side of things. A young, religious, gentlemen walked around door to door explaining the need of having a bible located in every room of the house, but he had a total different thought in the back of his head. His name was Manly Pointer. He was a sick, and a perverted guy who focused on luring young girls into buying a bible and then attempts to seduce them and take any of their belongings. Manly met this girl named Hulga and led her up to the top of the barn, where he attempted to seduce her by showed her the inside of the bible which contained a “pocket flask of whiskey, a pack of cards, and a small blue box” (O’Connor 647). As he opened the blue box and Hulga saw that it wasn’t just an ordinary blue box, but it contained a condom as well. This example shows the true character of Manly Pointer that he was a sick and perverted person in the inside, but a kind and peaceful citizen from the outside
ReplyDeleteThe movie The Night of the Hunter fits the criteria for a Southern Gothic story, because the movie evokes terror by using mystery and horror. Towards the end of the movie, when the children run away from the preacher that killed their mother, they hide out in many places to get as far away as they can from him. And on the night that the children are sleeping in the barn, John wakes up in the middle of the night due to somebody singing a familiar song that the preacher usually sang. When he looks outside, he sees a dark figure of a man on top of a horse cantering down towards the barn while singing the tune. This scenario creates goose bumps on your arms because after the miles that children ran away, the preacher still managed to follow their tracks. Also, when the children are taken care of the polite women, the preacher somehow found out where they were staying at. Once the woman found out that the preacher was not really the children’s father, she took out a gun from the house and warned the preacher to stay away from them. During that same night, the familiar tune was being sung by the preacher; he sat on a tree trunk that was cut off staring into the dark and gloomy house right at the woman that was rocking in the rocking chair with her loaded gun. This also created a chilling terror because the preacher keeps finding the children and he so obsessed with the money, that he is willing to stay outside all night waiting for the right moment to take it from the doll. He is kind of a stalker willing to do anything at any cost.
ReplyDeleteIn the movie Night of the Hunter directed by Charles Laughton, the film is considered a “Southern Gothic” style piece. It is considered this through many things, one of them being how it shows the ugly and perverse side of good-seeming people. Harry Powell seems like a very nice man, and being a preacher and a Priest one would think he is. But he carries a sharpened pocket knife around him at all times and uses it to kill widowed women and take their money. Harry only ends up marrying John and Pearl’s mother because he knows their birth-father left them $10,000 and he wanted it. He winds up marrying their mother (in order to get closer to John and Pearl) and later murdering her. Throughout the whole entire movie, he tries to get the location of the money out of John and Pearl. He even tries to get it out of their mother, but she does not know where it is. Near the end of the movie, he puts his knife to Johns head (with Pearl watching) in order to attempt to get the location of the money out of him. Pearl confesses how it is inside of her stuffed doll, because one can clearly tell that she would rather be money-less than John-less. Fortunately they wind up escaping from Mr. Powell. Night of the Hunter really shows the ugly, perverse and sick side of people.
ReplyDeleteGood Country People
ReplyDeleteSouthern Gothic shows the wicked and hidden side of people who look and act perfectly fine from the outside. In the short story, Good Country People, it is about a young priest who acts like the hero of the story, but ends up being a horrible and villainous person. He acts as though he is just a good religious kid who everyone likes and adores, but when you see the true side of him he is a totally different person. During the story when Hulga asks Manley why he carries his Bible everywhere, Manley responds: “‘you can never tell when you’ll need the word of God, Hulga’” (O’Connor 644). When people are reading this quote it may seem as though it is just a regular clean religious Bible, but in the inside it had a bottle of whisky, a condom, and a pack of cards with “obscene pictures on the back of each card” (O’Connor 647). Manley has also tricked other characters in the story and make them think of him as a “good country people” but does not know how he acts when no one is with him. This is all an example of Southern Gothic because it shows the dark and hidden side of Manley and how he actually acts when he is not with people who he is trying to impress and trick.
Sammy Kim
Period 8
In the movie Night of the Hunter, there is much confusion about good and evil. When a preacher turns out to be a widower there are questions as to who is good and who is evil. Preachers are supposed to be role models for children and good people who are very well respected so when it is discovered that he is a murderer, people are conflicted about what they should believe. Children may start to think that if they want to be respected and that becoming a preacher is the way to gain that respect then they need to start acting like a preacher. But does this mean that they should grow up to be a murderer just because that is what they thought a good person was? Respected church people are huge role models in society and when they go around marrying many women then murdering them, they turn into the evil character. When the preacher kills John and Pearls mother just for her money, people don’t see the bad in him because he lies about it and people would never expect a nice young preacher to be a murderer. The preacher is evil because what he is doing is very immoral.
ReplyDeleteThe movie, Night of the Hunter is a good example of southern gothic because it confuses someone to think what really is good. It makes people believe that you can't really trust anyone. The preacher, Harry, convinces everyone he is good and holy when he really was just in it for the money. Harry married the wife of a man who stole $10,ooo dollars and only told his children where it was. Harry had already killed many widows and taken their money and he saw this as an opportunity. He ended up killing the wife and following the children as they tried to escape. It was very thrilling and scary because only one person, which was the little boy knew that Harry only wanted the money. So, no one would believe him if he tried to get help. there was no one to help or to trust. Harry always sang and was very creepy. It was as if he never went away until the very end when he was arrested. But, it still giave a wierd feeling because everything was twisted the wrong way.
ReplyDeleteGood Country People is a very good example of southern gothic. This movie is a good example because it reveals the hidden parts of life. Also, this movie shows the reality of how awful the world could be, and how terrible people act. For example, Manly Pointer seemed to be a really nice man. What we didn’t know was that Manly Pointer ended up being an awful person, because he was pretending to be in love with Hulga, but he really just wanted to steal her fake leg. “Show me where your wooden leg joins on” (O’Connor 646). Manly was saying this just because he was pretending to love her so that he can get her to take her fake leg off, and it worked eventually. Manly got her to take her leg off, and as soon as Hulga gave him the leg, Manly took it and put it in his bag and left.
ReplyDeleteSammy Gruenberg
Jackie Cortopassi
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Night of the Hunter, falls under the gothic criteria of evoking chilling terror and gloom by exploiting mystery and horror. It does so for a few reasons such as the contrasting of light and dark at different times in the movie. At the time the movie was made of course there were scary movies that people loved, but when this movie came out, it was also scary but didn’t get any good reviews. Later, after the new genre of gothic was revealed, the movie began getting better reviews. So how did this happen? The contrasts of light and dark were something that no other director had incorporated into their movies before. In some scenes when there is more darkness than light for example in the scene where the preacher is standing at the top of the stairs, an illusion is portrayed. The illusion is what gives it its possession of controlling the size of things which made the basement that the preacher was about to enter seem abnormally big while contrasting, the preacher stood through the tiny crack of light at the top of the stairs. The tiny amount of light made the basement seem inescapable which gives a trapping suspenseful and scary. In that moment of the story, even the people watching are exhilarated as they try to seek another way out of the big black basement of darkness. This is what gives the “chill”.
In the short story “Good Country People” by Flannery O’Connor, the story shows great examples of Southern Gothic. “Good Country People “showed the 5th characteristic, gothic tears through censorship and explodes hypocrisies, because this is trying to show how southern gothic exposes the world in a corrupt and reeking place. “Good Country people” was a very corrupt and reeking story because Manley had manipulated and seduced Joy/Hulga and in the end he had just stolen her wooden leg and left her vulnerable and alone. This was a very corrupt move to make because Manley took the advantage of a girl and used the feeling of love to convince her that he really did care for her. This shows how you can’t even trust the people who you may think care and love you. What kind of world is this when people can misuse the feelings of love and trust?
ReplyDeleteGood Country People resembles a good classic Southern Gothic story because there is a twist in the end of the story and protagonist and the antagonist become more and more difficult to separate. In the book Good Country People a girl named Joy that changes her name to Hulga because she does not think that she deserves the name Joy mainly because she lost one of her legs that is now replaced with a wooden stump as a leg. Hulga lives with her mother Mrs. Hopewell who is continuously hoping for Hulga to have a better life but Hulga. After reading about Hulga for a while the reader begins to have a dislike for Hulga but all of that change when a man name Manly Pointer who sells Bibles comes to their house. Manly is a likable guy because of his positivity and his religious views but later all of that changes when Hulga and Manly go to a barn and Manly steals Hulga’s leg making the antagonist and protagonist switch making the reader feel bad for Hulga. “Give me my leg!” (O’Connor 647).
ReplyDeletePeople can never predict the ending when they are reading a southern gothic story. In the story Good Country People there is a girl named Joy that got her leg shot off when she was young. She never recovers from the accident because she is so mad that she tries to make everyone else’s life miserable. She changes her name to Hulga and she tries to act as unladylike as she possibly could with her prosthetic leg. Then, this boy who is a bible salesman named Manly Pointer comes and shows an interest in Hulga. He is a very sweet, kind, loving boy who really cared about her. “ the boy would dart a keen appraising glance at the girl as if he were trying to attract her attention” (O’Connor 640). In the end, he takes her out to a barn and pretends to like her and asks if he can see her prosthetic leg. She shows him it and he ends up taking her leg and running away never to see her again. It says that he has done this to a couple of woman who had prosthetic parts. This is number seven on the southern gothic list because everybody stereotyped Manley pointer and it ended up hitting them in the gut. This story was about a nice, sneaky gentleman that is perverse and ended up being the opposite of what everyone thought he was.
ReplyDeleteThe movie Night of the Hunter is a very dark and scary movie. It toys with our brains and emotions by making us confused on what good and what’s evil. Harry Powell is a friendly man who spreads the word of god, or is he really an evil murderer. Throughout the whole movie he tricks innocent people in the town including Widow Willa Harper who he later marries. This was all his plan to get 10,000 dollars that he found out about through the former husband of Willa. Only John and Pearl Harper Willa children know where the money is. Harry has been trying to figure out where the money is from the kids the whole movie. “Know just tell me. Where’s the money hid?” (Charles Laughton). This is when Harry is asking Pearl where the money is by yelling at her. He is a sick twisted man who marries and kills women for their money.
ReplyDeleteGood Country People is southern gothic criteria because its shows the dark and hidden side of the real world. In the story the main character Manly Pointer pretends to be a bible salesman but is really a thief. Manly steals prosthetic body parts from women. Manly appear to be a really nice young gentleman. Manly has a woman that he took advantage of and he says “let me take a look at that leg” (O’Connor 646). He then runs off with the leg and leaves the lady behind with no ability to get back to her house. Everyone in the town thinks that Manly is a good person and he does nothing wrong. Showing the real side of crime and law-breaking in the world makes this story southern gothic.
ReplyDeleteDavis Hianik
Period 8
A great example of southern gothic is Night of the Hunter, which is a well-known and classic southern gothic film. The first characteristic of southern gothic that Night of the Hunter has is that it evokes a chilling terror and gloom by exploiting mystery as well as horror. The dark, creepy setting and suspense make a chilling atmosphere that pleasures the viewers with terror. Night of the Hunter also reveals a fear of institutions, the two biggest being marriage and religion. The marriage in the story between the mother and the priest is loveless, as well as harsh. The priest uses religion greedily and does terrible things. Night of the Hunter also tips stereotypes on their side and kicks them in the gut. The main antagonist of the movie is a priest, which is ironic because priests are supposed to be viewed as the most pure of society. He marries and widows his wives for money, which what many people think a priest would never do. Acts like this prove that this is southern gothic, and turn this into a chilling tale. Night of the Hunter is a strong example of southern gothic and will go down in history.
ReplyDeleteVan Hershey
Period 8
In the movie Night of the Hunter, there are many aspects that are fulfilled. It evokes chilling terror and gloom by exploiting mystery and horror, it reveals a fear of institutions, and it tips stereotypes on their side and kicks them in the gut. Even though the movie has all of these aspects, the aspect that is shown the most is how it questions stereotypes. Harry Powell, which spreads the word of the lord in the movie, is actually evil and manipulative. He marries Willa Harper only for the sole reason of wanting the ten thousand dollars that her original husband stole to give to her children. After he kills her, Harry acts like she ran away. He then goes after the kids to get the money. He asks the kids stuff like “Where’s the money hid?”(Laughton). He threatens and tries to kill the children multiple times, but he failed each time. Harry Powell is evil and does things to only benefit himself when everyone around him thinks that he is a good guy. This is a great example on how he is actually evil and manipulative. That is how Night of the Hunter is a good southern gothic story.
ReplyDeleteMichael Daffe
Period 8
Danny Fookson
ReplyDeleteSouthern Gothic is a genre of literature and film that in many ways exaggerates the creepiness of reality. One movie, The Night of The Hunter, exemplifies the qualities of Southern Gothic in many ways. One way is that this film reiterates the fear of institutions. As Willa Harper, Widow of Ben Harper, fell for Harry Powell, She married Powell, but she became scared of him. Soon after, he brainwashes her and she falls for everything he tells her to do. This is basically the definition of fear of institutions. Willa is terrified of what Powell can do to her and she is scared that she cannot leave the marriage. She soon becomes a lifeless robot (Figuratively). As happens in many marriages, there is a secret that Powell thinks that Willa is keeping. Soon enough, Powell kills Willa, and Evil starts rising through the story. This exemplifies a characteristic of Southern Gothic and defines this genre of film.
-Danny Fookson
Night of the Hunter is a fine example of classic southern Gothic. The film tells the story of a preacher, Harry Powell, who travels from town to town doing the Lord’s work. The Lord’s work involves, in his eyes, seducing and murdering newly-formed widows. He targets the wife and kids of an executed bank robber. The preacher ends up killing the wife and attempting to do away with her kids. It is not ever completely clear to the characters in the movie what Harry’s alignment is; is he good or is he evil? Mr. Powell comes off as a polite and spiritual man. He is a “man of God”, something that people would usually think is the embodiment of good. Everything he does, even the killings, he does in God’s name. “there are things you do hate, Lord. Perfume-smelling things. Lacy things. Things with curly hair.” (Laughton). This brings up the idea that just because people do things in the name of something good, in this case God, it doesn’t mean that they aren’t evil. He manages to fool everybody into thinking that he’s a good person. He even confuses John, someone who is presumed to have seen through his guise the whole movie. This is exposed when John screams “Don’t!” and calls Powell “Dad” in the scene where he is arrested. This confuses the audience a great deal, suggesting that the preacher was not as evil as was thought.
ReplyDeleteSouthern gothic
ReplyDeleteIn the movie Night of the Hunter it shows a good example of Sothern gothic by having the fear of institution, the dark and the cruel world as it really is and the confusion about what’s evil and what’s not. “Well now, what's it to be Lord? Another widow? How many has it been? Six? Twelve? I disremember”(Laughton) the movie starts off with a guy named Harry Powell dressed as a preacher saying these words. Those quotes show the fear of institution perfectly because it’s a preacher who is talking about how many woman he has killed, even though preachers are suppose to be holy and peaceful. His main goal is to mind wash woman to marrying him then kills them, then takes their money. That is a good example because it shows how even though something or someone that is supposed to be good is corrupting people and take their money by killing them. It also is showing the how marriage is being misused to get money and that is an example of fear in institution. Also in the movie everything seems gloomy and suspicious. Having that in the movie sets the mood and kind of gives the viewers a chill at all times. The mood also puts the viewers in a uneasy mood and this movie does that perfectly. Everything always seems dark and gloomy, not everything is suppose to happen the way it is and it almost seems like the movie is a nightmare. That is showing how the world is such a corrupt world even though it does not seem like the real world.
-Soju Kunchandy
Good Country Old People is perfect case for Southern Gothic literature. Southern gothic tips stereotypes on their side and kicks them in the gut. This is because the Bible salesman, Manly Pointer, who would seem like a nice honest person, is actually a lying, powerful, prosthetic body part stealing thief. After Manly had taken off Hulga’s leg, he took out a Bible from his valise. The Bible “was hollow and contained a pocket flask of whiskey, a pack of cards” (O’Connor 647). Since Manly first seems like a stereotypical religious bible salesman, the reader infers that he does not do “bad things”. Well one of these “bad things” is drinking. Manly hides a flask of whiskey inside of the Bible. Other “bad thing” that the reader could infer is that Manly gambles, because of the fact that he has a deck of cards with obscene pictures on them. So, since Manly drinks and gambles, the story of Good Country People outlines the basics for Southern Gothic.
ReplyDeleteIn The Night of the Hunter by Charles Laughton, a man by the name of Harry Powell marries a widow, Willa Harper. One of the key southern gothic characteristic is that it tries to provoke terror and gloom through mystery and horror. Well, Harry Powell marries people for their money. He goes and find a woman, marries them and them kills them. After killing them het takes their money and leaves. This shows southern gothic because of the killing. It is supposed to evoke a chill into the reader or watchers mind. When Harry would chase the children, it provoked fear and a chill. Harry says “She'll not be back. I reckon I'm safe in promising you that”(Laughton). This quote is after Harry has killed Willa. He goes on to tell people that she took the car and drove off when really, he cut her throat and drove the car into the river with her in the car. He then said that he would take the children when really all he wanted was to know where the money was. He then went on to try to catch and kill the children until they told him where the money was.
ReplyDeleteDaniel Bernstein
Period 4
A Rose for Emily
ReplyDeleteBy: Michelle Kolkevich
A Rose for Emily is an example of Southern Gothic because the theme of the story is death and it has the stereotype of a Southern Gothic story. This story talks about death in the beginning, middle, and end. In the beginning it talks about Ms. Emily’s death the story starts “When Miss Emily Grierson died, our whole town went to her funeral” (Faulkner 286), this already gives the story a dark mood and you can tell that it is not going to be a story of sunshine and happiness. In the next section of the story it talks about her fathers death. Then, Miss Emily goes and buys poison, but she does not tell for what, even though she is required to do so by the law. This whole story has a gloomy mood and it is a perfect example of a Southern Gothic story.
Michelle Kolkevich
Period 4
In Good Country People, the story is the genre of southern gothic. There are several types of southern gothic. Some of them include ghosts and evil spirits, some show the dark side of people, and others show that a seemingly organized society can be bad and how it isn’t an organized place. This piece of literature is in a type that shows how people manipulate and are evil to other people. The story takes place in the countryside in a house. In the house, two people live there and their names are Mrs. Hopewell and Hulga. In the story, Hulga has a fake leg that she lost in an accident. During the middle of the story, a teenager who goes by the name of Manley Pointer who has come by the house claiming that he wanted to sell them bibles. After he tries, Mrs. Hopewell invites him to dinner because she thinks that he’s a nice boy and her daughter might like him too. They then go to the barn and Manley then stole the leg and went off. Throughout the start of the story, Manley pointer in a bible seller who seems nice enough. At the end, he is someone who takes trophies to show he is good at what he does. That shows this is southern gothic because the story shows how society isn't organized or sensible.
ReplyDeleteStephen Clare
Period 8
Frankie Feiter period 4
ReplyDeleteThe movie The Night of the Hunter by Charles Laughton is a classic southern gothic movie. One of the key necessities for a movie to be considered a southern gothic is that it must tip stereotypes off the side. This movie does a great job of this by showing an evil side to the town’s priest whose name is Harry Powell. Harry Powell wants money from this family so he marries the wife of that family and plans on killing her to get the money. He thinks that because he is a priest no one will care. The priest even believes God does not “mind the killings” also he believes that God kills himself “there’s plenty of killings in your book (Laughton). This shows that the town’s priest has an evil side to him. Also the quote shows that this movie tips the stereotype of priest acting Godly and flips it into a priest acting evil.
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ReplyDeleteFrom the movie Night of the Hunter it shows an example of southern gothic. The preacher who at first seems like a “good” person is really evil because he preaches the word of god. People think he is honest because he believes in god and all of god’s people shall be honest. Basically he tricks people to think he is a good man and that he doesn’t do anything bad because he is a follower of god. In the movie the preacher gets married to widowed women and he kills them and takes their treasures/money. The preacher meets this man at prison who stole 10 thousand dollars and the man was talking in his sleep saying a kid will help you find the money. The preacher says “Lord, you sure knew what you were doing when you brung me to this very cell at this very time. A man with ten thousand dollars hid somewhere, and a widder in the makin'” (Charles Laughton). The preacher was determined to find the money and he was going to do everything to get the money. As the movie goes on the things get weirder and weirder. The preacher first comes out like thins innocent follower of god then when he get impatient he becomes this rude, angry, and mean person. The only reason why the preacher married the widow Willla is because he needed time to find the money. He asks the kids John and Pearl where the money is and they don’t spill any beans to the preacher. Since John is a hard nut that can’t crack the preacher goes to Pearl. He first asks Pearl nicely “Now just tell me. Where's the money hid?” and Pearl says “But I swore I promised John I wouldn't tell”. Then the preacher yells furiously to Pearl saying “John doesn't matter! Can't I get that through your head, you poor, silly, disgusting little wretch” (Charles Laughton). He is forcing Pearl to tell him where the money is at and at first he was being kind then he got impatient and screamed at Pearl. This is an example of southern gothic because the creepiness of the story and how the person who should be good turns out evil.
ReplyDeleteElizabeth Han
Period 4
A classic southern gothic story is the movie Night of the Hunter. This film has many events that represent how it is a southern gothic. The story uses stereotypes, confusion between good and evil, and terror and gloom by the use of mystery and horror.
ReplyDeleteThe movie uses stereotypes of a typical priest. Priests are very religious and follow the bible. However, the priest in this movie, Harry, does not follow the bible as well as others would. Most priests would be against murder, but Harry murders widows for absolutely no reason. In the beginning of the movie, it starts off with kids finding a dead body of a woman in a basement. Then, they show Harry driving away; he is whistling and seems to be carefree even though he really just killed someone. It is obvious it was him because he even admits to the crime. Of course, a normal priest would never do this and this shows how the writers of the movie twist the character of a priest into a bad guy.
It is hard to figure out if someone is really bad when they have the roll of a good guy. Once you figure out if the character is good or bad, it is too late for the victim of their wrath because they are most likely already caught and dead. Harry acts well to everyone around him, but once he is alone or with his victim, he drops his act and acts as the evil person he is. When he is with John and Pearl’s mother you can tell he is evil because he is disgusted by her just because she is a woman. Harry is a devil hiding in an angel technically.
When you figure out that Harry is really evil, it hits you hard because you would not have expected it too much. The mystery and horror leads you to getting the chills because as you figure out about Harry you feel repulsed by the actions he has done before. An example is when he acts nice to Pearl and Pearl really likes him. After you figure out that Harry is really evil, you feel disgusted that Pearl would even like a person like him or even that Harry has acted so casual with her.
Night of the Hunter is a great example of southern gothic because it has more than one criteria of it and gives people the chills.