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 two short stories that can be considered Southern Gothic - "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 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. you may comment on your peers' entries for extra credit.
The text for "A Rose for Emily" can be found HERE. The text for "Good Country People" can be found HERE.
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. you may comment on your peers' entries for extra credit.
The text for "A Rose for Emily" can be found HERE. The text for "Good Country People" can be found HERE.
“A Rose for Emily” by William Faulkner is definitely a Southern Gothic piece because it utilizes every single “rule” to being a Southern Gothic book. The story reveals a huge fear of institution by taking marriage, an expected thing in real life and turning it corrupt. The saying “Marriage will kill you” is just hypothetical, but this story turns it literal by having Miss Emily who is perfectly happy and engaged to the man of her dreams end up killing him just so he does not leave. It is not really said that she exactly killed him, but since in the story they find him dead at the end and her saying “I want arsenic” (Faulkner 290) suggests it. This really shows that marriage might not be the perfect institution as it is suggested to be today by revealing the idea that maybe a spouse is crazy enough to buy arsenic, murder their spouse, then hide him/her in their bed upstairs and sleep with the rotting corpse.
ReplyDeleteI agree 100%, but are there any other instances in the story, any other details besides the poison, that support this idea of a fear of the institution of marriage? Anyone?
DeleteThats a great point Daniel. I agree 100% and it is very ironic how his marriage does end up killing him.
DeleteDaniel, I totally agree with you that A Rose of Emily relates to a fear of marriage institutions. But I am not sure how it ties into "every single rule" of southern Gothic. Can you be more specific with some more examples of the other rules. I am very sure that this ties with the fear of institutions because it can show how one may not trust his/her spouse in ways.
DeleteNot everybody in the world living today is here to live as “good people”. Many are corrupt, and have greed to inherit the “American Dream”. Many people steal, kill, and hunt everywhere to make money, and live rich lives. This is the main problem of the story Good Country People. The written by Flannery O’ Connor, most certainly relates to Southern Gothic rule number 6. The Story shows how it is a reaction to the conventional, common sense, and enlightened world. Many people think of a typical religious book salesman, as a man with a good heart and an end in mind to convince buyers to invest their money books as the bible. In the story, Good Country People, there is a man that takes the role of a man selling bibles named Manley Pointer, who convincingly portrays himself as a good man. During the beginning of the story, he arrives at the Hopewell residence and introduces himself. He tells them about why he is here, and Mrs. Hopewell rejects his offer to buy a bible. Manley says “for a Chrustian, the word of God ought to be in every room in the house besides in his heart. I know you’re a Chrustian because I can see it in every line of your face” (O’Connor 639). Later in the story, the author explains how Mrs. Hopewell’s daughter Hulga turns to have a crush on Manley. As the story goes into detail, Hulga and Manley go out of the house near a loft, and stand talking for a while. Manley finds out that Hulga has an artificial leg. Hulga’s artificial leg is the most meaningful possession to her. Finally she takes it off for Manley, and lets him hold it. After a while, Manley runs off with it, and Hulga is left alone. This shows how not all typical bible salesmen aren’t “good country people.” He’s just another plain old thief that likes to steal artificial limbs and run off. This is why Good Country People has a direct reference to Gothic rule number six.
ReplyDeleteI agree it was number six. I really saw that in the story.
DeleteThis is one of the most obvious parts of the story to classify it as Southern Gothic. However, it is completely true. Manley does go against the conventional Southern life when he steals Hulga's leg, which isn't exactly what bible salesmen are supposed to be doing. This is a good example and I couldn't agree more.
DeleteJohn, you prove that Manley is a thief and a cheat, but I'm not sure how you're explained how this character, as written, is "a reaction to the conventional, common sense, and enlightened world"
DeleteThank you Katie! I appreciate your feedback. Your comment has made me a more confident blogger!
DeleteMr. Cowlin, one would usually think of a bible salesman of a good person with a good heart in mind. In the story, Manley's action shows a reaction to the common sense that not all bible salesmen are good people. Some may be corrupt like Manley, in which they steal prosthetic legs of some sort.
Deletejohn i completely agree with you and I really see your point.
DeleteThank you for taking my side Mr. Anonymous! Hopefully Mr. Cowlin has something to say about this!
DeleteA Rose for Emily
ReplyDeleteSweet old ladies in the stories are killers in real life. This shows a fear of marriage because Emily does not want Homer to leave her so she kills him in an attempt to have him forever. “A man himself lay there on the bed” (Faulkner 292). She didn’t hate him she just didn’t want him to leave her once they got married. This part of the story proves how someone can get so scared about someone leaving them that they kill just to stay with them. After Homer disappeared people rarely saw Emily. Everyone thought it was because she was heartbroken but the real reason she never left her house was so she could spend time with Homer even though she killed him. She may have poisoned him but only in fear of what might happen if she didn’t. She was scared that another man would leave her as her father did. In the end they found a strand of her hair on the other pillow of the bed right next to Homers dead smiling body. So no matter how great people make things seem there is always a conflict waiting to rise to the surface.
I think you you need to more clearly say what rule you are showing is in this story. I dont really understand from your review why this story is southern gothic.
DeleteI agree with Sean. Please be specific: what quality of Southern Gothic are you discussing?
DeleteI agree with sean, this is more like a summary.
DeleteI agree with Chris. This is like a summary Arman. Not to be critical, but can you give me some specific evidence.
DeleteI agree with every comment here because this does not really say a rule/quality and without the rule/quality I can not tell why this would be Southern Gothis
DeleteI agree with Daniel. Except for the fact that he spelled Gothic wrong.
DeleteArman, you need to be more specific with what your point is in your paragraph.
Deletewell the saying a marriage can kill is ment as a joke that men love to say to their children but this man learned the true meaning of the phrase. emily thought killing him was the only way to keep him before they got married. this shows the fear of marriage that meet the gothic criteria. “A man himself lay there on the bed” (Faulkner 292). it shows that emily kept living with him as if he were still alive. that also shows how it envokes chilling terror in the reader and makes them question right and wrong.
DeleteThe world is a dangerous and misleading place. There are some people who claim to be who they are not. There are stories about impersonators who trick their victims into thinking they mean no harm. There is a particular story that has been classified as a piece of Southern gothic literature, where an event like this has happened. The story is called Good Country People, and it is written by Flannery O’Connor. There is one particular character in the story that helps classify it as Southern gothic. Her name is Hulga, and she is a very intelligent person. She has a Ph.D. in philosophy. She is not a people person and believes that everyone except for her is extremely stupid and not worth her time. “She [does not] like dogs or cats or birds or flowers or nature or nice young men. She looked at nice young men as if she could smell their stupidity” (O’Connor 638). However, she shows her hidden dark side (number four), she busts through hypocrisies and censorship (number five), and goes against her stereotype as a nice, polite, Southern girl (number seven). One day, she meets a man named Manley Pointer who is trying to sell bibles to her mother, Mrs. Hopewell. They have him over for dinner and then she and Manley make plans to go out on a date later. This is not something Hulga would normally do, but she is excited about it, which goes along with the characteristics of a Southern gothic novel. “During the night she had imagined that she seduced him. She imagined that the two of them walked on the place until they came to the storage barn beyond the two back fields and there, she imagined, that things came to such a pass that she very easily seduced him and that then, of course, she had to reckon with his remorse” (O’Connor 643). This shows Hulga’s hidden dark side, and goes against hypocrisies, stereotypes, and censorship, classifying this part of the story as Southern gothic.
ReplyDeleteI agree completely. Everyone made it seem like she was the victim, but she was planning on taking advantage of him too!
DeleteKatie, explain how this specifically goes against "stereotypes and censorship."
DeleteI like this because it does show how not only Manley tried to use her. It shows that all people are twisted which helps it seem more Southern Gothic!
DeleteWell, people usually expect Southern girls to be nice and respectful. Hulga breaks through the stereotype from the very beginning by being mean, intelligent, and stuck-up. She believes she's all that. But then she goes even more against the stereotype when she begins to become involved in lust and tries to seduce Manley. Also, it goes against censorship because back in the day, people didn't usually write about "nice" Southern girls attempting to seduce guys into doing whatever they want. There was more innocence and it was a different time when this was written.
DeleteWow Katie! I can't do anything but agree with you. The word is a misleading place, and you can't trust anyone except your real loved ones like your family. Very thorough description!
DeleteSean McDonagh
ReplyDeletePeriod 8
“Good Country People”
In the story “Good Country People,” Hulga is a young woman who is handicapped not having part of her leg. Her mother and neighbor constantly bug her about becoming married and having kids: things that they themselves did when they were around Hulgas age. When a bible salesman named Manly Pointer shows up to the residence, Hulga’s mother and neighbor instantly love him. They think Manly would be the perfect man for Hulga. Hulga is not convinced and not particularly nice to Manly, just like she is not nice to anyone else in her life. Although over time, Hulga lets her constant guard down and joins Manly for a romantic time in a nearby barn. The two climb up to the loft of the barn where Manly goes on to ask Hulga to see her most private part of her body, where he real leg meets her prosthetic. Hulga is hesitant, but eventually gives in and allows Manly to see it. Not only does she allow his to see it, she lets him take it off! Once Manly has the leg, he goes on to tell Hulga he is stealing the leg. He takes the leg and runs through the field where Hulgas mother spots him carrying it in a bag. “Why, that looks like that nice dull young man that tried to sell me a Bible yesterday,” was all she had to say as he ran off with her daughter’s leg. This story is gothic because it reveals a dark twisted side to Manly Pointer. At the beginning of the story, he is seen as a nice, young, innocent bible salesman, but at the end of the book, he reveals he is a corrupt twisted crook who steals prosthetic legs from handicapped girls.
SEAN, this does reveal the dark side of Manly. I also noticed how everyonbe thought he was nice and a really good person,but he turned out to be a fraud. Good analysis on Manly and I completely agree with you on how this scene of many is Southern Gothic.
DeleteJIM NASH
I agree with you JIM
DeleteSean I agree that Manley has a dark twisted side to him, but you never explained how he was a good Christian church boy, who loves God. You need tell us how he sells it and tricks the whole family.
DeleteThis comment has been removed by the author.
ReplyDeleteI had to fix something so i reposted it below.
Delete“Good country People”, written by Flannery O’Connor is considered to be southern gothic. It has many aspects of southern gothic in it. One of the main parts of southern gothic that this story has is that it evokes chilling terror, which is definitely a characteristic of southern gothic. The part that is supposed to evoke chilling terror is when the bible salesman decides to steal Hulga’s prosthetic leg. Manley Pointer showed up at Hulga’s house and offered bibles for sale. Hulga, being an atheist, didn’t like him at first. But then they started talking and she thought that she would seduce Manley Pointer, the bible salesman. Hulga, who was always in control of herself, went to the barn with Manley. But when they go to the barn, Manley is the one who is in control. First, he seduces her, then he takes off her leg, and she is not able to do anything about it. “Give me my leg! She screamed and tried to lunge for it but he pushed her down easily” (O’Connor 647). She is not able to move without her leg, and he was not giving it back to her. Then, he runs off with it, and Hulga is left at the barn. It is definitely scary to think of a bible salesman who goes around stealing girl’s prosthetics. This story is a perfect example of southern gothic.
ReplyDeleteJIM NASH
ReplyDeleteThere are seven criteria for a book or film to be considered Southern Gothic. The story, “Good Country People”, falls under one of those criteria, if not all of them. Today will be an analysis on why “Good Country People” is evoking chilling terror and gloom by exploring mystery and horror. On scene that is definitely considered Southern Gothic is when the Manly Pointer goes up and basically tries to steal some of the women’s belongings. Not only is this weird, but it gets weirder. What Manly Pointer is really trying to steal is her leg. Manly Pointer is that kind of person that steals someone’s belongings and just runs of. He tries to “Hook up” with women and then later takes some of their belongings. “I don’t care about what all you have done. I just want to know if you love me or don’tcher” (O’Connor 646). This just leads up to the point where he wants the lady to “love” him, but what he really wants is her wooden leg. They go on a little bit with the session and it eventually gets to the point where he wants her wooden leg. Manly Pointer gets the lady to give him her wooden leg. The weird thing is what would he want to do with this wooden leg? Manly then runs out of the barn where they hooked up and ran away and was never seen again. This scene is one of many that are a mystery and that is trying to evoke chilling horror. Manly had no business with the wooden leg. That is the mystery. That is why this scene of many of “Good Country People” is Southern Gothic.
I actually would disagree that this story exibited chilling terror. I beleive terror is when the story makes the reader truly scared, and i dont think that this story made me scared.
DeleteI actually disagree with you sean, It's not supposed to make you scared, but it's supposed to make you feel freaked out, or kind of confused about why he would want a fake leg.
DeleteIt did scare me! How would someone taking someones leg scary or a mystery.
DeleteJIM NASH
In the short story “A Rose for Emily” Southern Gothic tendencies appear on many different occasions. A specific example of this is for rule number three: a fear of institutions. Emily is a loner whose father died leaving her all alone. While he was alive he drove away all of the men from her life. When Emily meets Homer Barron, a laborer from the North, she is soon taken by him and they begin to be seen together in public. Ms. Emily is soon seen buying supplies such as a man’s toilet set in silver with the letters H.B. on it. This is a sure sign of their engagement. When Mr. Homer goes missing, everyone in town assumes he has left Emily. Instead what they find many years later once Emily is dead is Homers body. Once Ms. Emily dies, the entire town is able to see the rest of the house and the upstairs bedroom that she kept closed for nearly forty years. “A thin, acrid pall as of the tomb seemed to lie everywhere upon this room decked and furnished as for a bridal: upon the valance curtains of faded rose color, upon the rose-shaded lights, upon the dressing table, upon the delicate array of crystal and the man's toilet things backed with tarnished silver... Among them lay a collar and tie, as if they had just been removed... Upon a chair hung the suit, carefully folded; beneath it the two mute shoes and the discarded socks. The man himself lay in the bed” (Faulkner 292). The room is set up for a wedding and when the town looks on the bed next to the man, they find a gray hair belonging to Ms. Emily. The reason Ms. Emily kills Homer and keeps his body is so that he can never leave her and stay figuratively married to her. This shows a fear of institutions because it is saying that marriage will literally kill you. Another way this shows a fear of marriage is Homers personality. He is known as a “man’s man” meaning he is a bachelor and would not like to settle down.
ReplyDeleteTotally agree with Emily being a loner. She's just a creepy old lady living by herself. She is messed up in the head. She should just put herself out there instead of going crazy. But, I agree, this does classify A Rose for Emily as Southern Gothic.
DeleteI completely agree with this and how it says that Homer is known to be a "man's man". This does really show how Soutern Gothic this book is. But next time use a shorter part of the quote, it felt like re-reading the book even though it was very thorough and depicts it very well
DeleteI agree 100% with Courtney. Emily was a just a old, lonely women living by herself in the South. Nothing that interesting but when she meets Homer, she fears that he will abruptly leave her without an explanation, like her father did many years ago. Thus, she decides to kill him, to prevent him from abandoning her. In which case i definitely agree with Courtney. Her actions make the story a Southern Gothic narrative. ( It portrays a fear of marriage)
DeleteGothic shows the dark and hidden side to things. In the story “A Rose For Emily” it completely opens up a dark side to a story. In the ending scene after Emily is dead and when they are inspecting the house they find Homer Barron’s body. He had disappeared years before and they found him lying in a bed. “Then we noticed that in the second pillow was the indentation of a head. 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”(Faulkner). Emily had killed Homer Barron and slept with his body for a long time. It rips open the dark part of the story exposing how cruel people can be. Emily was afraid of Homer leaving her so to keep him with her she poisoned him and slept with the body. It tears apart society’s rules and shows off the terrible things that happen in our society. This story definitely has characteristics of a southern gothic story, especially in this scene.
ReplyDeleteCan't agree more, Way to go!
DeleteThe story A Rose for Emily represents the characteristic that the gothic novel tries to evoke chilling terror and gloom by exploiting mystery and horror. In A Rose for Emily the main character Miss Emily is known around town as a hereditary obligation this quote shows how Miss Emily’s peers thought of her “Alive, Miss Emily had been a tradition, a duty, and a care; a sort of hereditary obligation upon the town, dating from that day in 1894 when Colonel Sartoris, the mayor--he who fathered the edict that no Negro woman should appear on the streets without an apron-remitted her taxes, the dispensation dating from the death of her father on into perpetuity”(Faulkner 1). This story falls in the Southern Gothic genre because Miss Emily was known around as a fair woman in the beginning of the story, but the mystery and horror comes out when people of the town notice an awful stench looming around her house a few years after her fathers death. Men of the town went to sprinkle the chemical lyme around the house to make the smell go away but it remained. The suspense continues when people of the town notice that the man Miss Emily was seeing had disappeared and that she had purchased arsenic. The chilling horror of the story comes at the end when days after Miss Emily died due to old age, people of the town investigated the room which nobody had seen Miss Emily go into in many years. They opened the door and found the body of Homer Barron the man she was seeing before he disappeared.
ReplyDelete“A Rose for Emily” has many elements making it a Southern Gothic story. Miss Emily perfectly defines how a Southern Gothic reverses stereotypes. An old lady has the stereotype as a sweet nice person; however, she is clearly evil and twisted. She truly shows the dark hidden side of things. It is cruel and unusual for a woman to poison her husband, Homer, and then keep him lying in her bed next to him for years. The fear of marriage is revealed by Emily because this could make people not want to get married. They would not want to get married because although the other person may seem completely normal, he/she could really be a murderer. Miss Emily was at the store to buy poison. As soon as the druggist asked for its use her reaction was, “ Miss Emily just stared at him, her head tilted back in order to look him eye for eye, until he looked away and went got the arsenic and wrapped it up” (Faulkner).this is quite deceiving because most people assumed she was going to kill herself. In the end, it was not herself she killed; it was Homer. That is very unconventional which also categorizes “A Rose for Emily” as Southern Gothic.
ReplyDeleteIn the short story “Good Country People” by Flannery O’ Connor, shows a perfect example of a gothic. A man named Manly Pointer is a Bible salesman and goes to farm where a 30 year-old woman lives. The 30 year-old woman, Joy lost her leg in a childhood accident and throughout the story Manly Pointer acts like a very nice and sincere person to the family. In the end of the story he seduces joy and ends up taking here fake leg and running away to leave her to die. This is an example of Gothic shows the dark and hidden side of things because he was a nice man until the end of the story where he steals her leg and runs away leaving her to die.
ReplyDeleteLusty and perverted crimes are always discarded and disregarded by a society that wants nothing to do with such activities and wants to remain ignorant of the world’s blemishes. In the short story Good Country People, a horrific story of lust and perversion unfolds as the bible seller Manly Pointer rolls into town. In this story the leading female Hulga Freeman goes on a date with the simple bible salesman Manly Pointer, and she is expecting to engage in a very lustful afternoon, but manly Pointer has other plans, “She saw him grab the leg and then she saw it for an instant slanted forlornly across the inside of the suitcase with a bible at either side of its opposite ends. He slammed the lid shut and snatched up the valise and swung it down the hole and then stepped through himself” (O’Connor 648). Manly Pointer is a perverted villain that exploits women with prosthetic limbs through sexual means and then runs off with their prosthetics. This exemplifies southern gothic literature because not only is their massive confusion between good and evil with Manly being a timid bible salesman that is actually devious and perverted, but this story shows the lust and perversion of crime that is underlying of our society.
ReplyDeleteYeah the author does the best job showing both sides in the end of the story. Hulga's mom sees Manley in thedistance running still thinking he is good while her daughter has just been "raped" in a barn. It shows the two sides of the story.
Deleteboth of Mrs. Freeman's daughters are also described to be either married or pregnant at a very early age. this element made the world of perverted and dark.
DeleteIn the story “A Rose for Emily”, there are a lot of creepy things that could be counted as southern gothic. One sticks out to me the most, and that is the scene where she goes to the drugstore to get rat poison and she says “I want poison” (Faulkner 289), and then the clerk asks her “What kind” (Faulkner 289). She replies “I want the best you have. I don’t care what kind” (Faulkner 289). The man comes back with arsenic. That was creepy because you can tell that she was going to use it for something bad with it. The tone and the mood are different in this scene. The tone is angry, and the mood is worried and nerve racking. That scene made me stop reading and think about what she could possibly use it for. Then later you find out that she killed her husband and was sleeping with him after he was dead. We still don’t know if she killed him with the arsenic. In the scene where Emily buys arsenic is a great display of how southern gothic kicks stereo types in the gut, because you are expecting a nice little lady, and you get a psyco lady buying a bunch of poison.
ReplyDeleteMany Southern Gothic stories are mistaken for gothic and scary horror movies that make people fall asleep feeling scared. In Sothern Gothic there are supposed to be twisted stereotypes. In Good Country People this is exactly what happens with Manly Pointer. He is supposed to be the icon of good country southern people being a devoted bible seller at the will of God. The reason this makes this story Southern Gothic is because he is really a sick perverted man who steals women’s personal body parts. “The boy’s mouth was set angrily. I hope you don’t think, he said in a lofty indignant tone, 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!”(O’Connor 18). This is when he admits that he does not believe in any religion and that all he was really in it for was to trick people into stealing their things. As soon as Hulga realizes that she has been tricked she is furious and basically feels totally stupid. This is what makes it Southern Gothic that Manley has this completely sick and twisted side to him which reveals the world is not perfect and that there are really bad people in this world. This is what true Southern Gothic reveals and tries to show people that they should not trust anyone.
ReplyDeleteGeorge I can't agree with you more about Southern Gothic being about twisted strereotypes. Also your quote on Manley was great. Keep it up man!
DeleteA Rose for Emily is an example of Southern Gothic literature for many reasons. The reason that sticks out the most is the fact that Emily killed her fiancé because she loved him and did not want him to leave her. In the story the main character Emily, experiences the loss of her father and has trouble dealing with the fact he is gone. Her mourning slows when a man comes along and they become engaged. The man, scared of the marriage itself, had plans to leave Emily. Aware of the fact that she was going to lose another man in her life, Emily killed her fiancé. This was not known until the death of Emily herself occurred and townspeople went inside to view the house and found his decayed body laying in the bed. The story of Emily stays true to Southern Gothic by rule #6, showing how if someone truly loved someone they would let them go, as opposed to killing with them and sleeping with their dead body. In this quote you can see Emily started off with a natural reaction to losing one close to you, “We did not say she was crazy then. We believed she had to do that. We remembered all the young men her father had driven away, and we knew that with nothing left, she would have to cling to that which had robbed her, as people will” (Faulkner, II). Emily was so in need of a male figure in her life that when she got one she was too afraid to lose him. In a normal society one might have similar feelings in regard to the situation but not the same reaction. A Rose for Emily is proven to be Southern Gothic for many reasons, mainly because the actions read about are not justified in one’s normal mindset.
ReplyDeleteIt does go completly against logic for her to do that and it makes sense in the story because it really does notmake sense. Its works to make us think.
DeleteIt is somewhat logical to kill someone to prevent them from leaving. If a person love someone enough, actions taken are sometimes irrational and erratic. It IS logical is some ways, but illogical in others.
DeleteIn the short story” Good Country People” by Flannery O’Connor the main character Manley Pointer pretends to sell bibles to people who live in the town. The problem with Pointer is that he does not care about the people or the bibles he is selling all he wants to do is find a girl with a prosthetic arm or leg and take it. What a weird guy right? He does find a girl, Joy, with a prosthetic leg and he takes her up in the barn and takes her prosthetic leg and runs away. This part sends chills through a lot of people’s bodies especially because it’s just weird to do something like that. Number one in southern gothics are when a chill is sent up the readers body. Joy screams at him in the book saying “Give me my leg!” (O’Connor 647). This is when he takes her leg and a couple of moments later he runs off with it. That is definitely chilling when someone takes your prosthetic leg away.
ReplyDeleteAll through out the book A Rose for Emily by William Faulkner, one takes a deep look inside the life of Miss Emily, and only at the end of the story can the plot be placed together. After Miss Emily's death, the towns people finally enter her house. They take a look around. After Miss Emily was properly laid in the ground, the towns people busted open the door of the addict to find a dead body. The body was of Mr. Homer: the long missing boyfriend of Miss Emily. They nosed around the addict a little more. "We saw a long strand of iron grey hair"(Faulkner 292). The strand of hair was on a pillow next to Mr. Homer. This suggesting that after Miss Emily killed Mr. Homer with the poison she bought; she had sex with his dead body. Giving the reader a chill. A Rose for Emily tries to evoke chilling terror and gloom by exploiting mystery and horror. The mood of the story is that Miss Emily has had a hard life, but that she is still going strong. The mood tricks the reader into thinking Miss Emily is a good person. While Miss Emily is just a sick and perverted person.
ReplyDeleteIn the story “Good Country People,” a Bible seller meets a young lady, Hulga. He spends time with her, and they both get to know each other better. He tells Hulga about Christianity, something she seems to be confused about. Throughout the story, she listens to what the bible seller has to say, as she believes all of it. Hulga can trust the Bible seller, and would never expect anything bad from him. During a walk in the forest, the Bible seller says “I see you got a wooden leg,” he said. “I think you’re real brave. I think you’re real sweet.” (O’Connor 17). When he said this, it made Hulga blank and silent. After a walk in the forest, the Bible seller takes her up a ladder into the loft. He steals her leg, and she finally realizes that she has been fooled. “I hope you don’t think,” he said in a lofty indignant tone, “that I believe in that crap!” (O’Connor 18). This is Southern Gothic because it is completely the oppositie stereotype of a Bible seller. He tricked Hulga into thinking he was a nice man, and yet he stole her leg, which was invading her privacy(to Hulga).
ReplyDeleteHulga is also opposite of her assumed personality. She is supposed to be smart and logical, but her actions led to her own demise.
DeleteThe southern gothic style is one that portrays ironic events to examine the values of the American south. The most ionic writer that portrays southern gothic themes very well is William Faulkner, who wrote; “A Rose for Emily”. In which a regular woman is discovered to have the rotting corpse of her fiancé in her bedroom. This short story really illuminates the main idea of southern culture. To properly define “Southern Gothic” the most important aspect is that it is writing of the American South region and it portrays grotesque, macabre, or fantastic incidents. In “A Rose for Emily” for example, the story is seen through the eyes of an entire southern town, who observes a woman named Emily. She is very quiet and lonely because she is the last member of her family who is alive. The town observes Emily’s behaving growing stranger and stranger as the pass go by. Henceforth, when she dies alone, the town enters the house and is shocked to find the badly decomposed body of her fiancé, who everyone had assumed had left her weeks before their marriage took place. This shows the Southern Gothic theme because it usually reveals a fear of institutions, such as religion, education, or marriage. This one obviously is about fear of marriage. This tricks everyone into thinking that marriage basically means death. Getting married is like dying, whether you’re in it, or trying to get out of it, it feels like you’re slowly dying. It also resembles how women are the ones “killing” the men in the situation. It represents women as being obsessive, compulsive, and ruling. In addition, Faulkner decided to end the book on a rather disturbing note being; “Then we noticed that in the second pillow was the indentation of a head. 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” (p 555). Thus, portraying the realism in the mood of this story, which would be very exaggerated and unconventional. Which would classify this story “A Rose for Emily” as a Southern Gothic portrayal.
ReplyDeleteIn the story “Good Country People”, a bible salesman by the name Manly Pointer visits Mrs. Hopewell’s home trying to persuade her into buying a bible off of him. Although this entire story screams southern gothic, the one scene what applies to the criteria: “Southern gothic tips stereotypes on their side and kicks them in the gut” is the scene when Manly Pointer runs away with Hulga’s prosthetic leg. In the beginning of the story, the stereotype of Manly is that he is a good, well behaved bible salesman who worships the 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,” she said, “—just the salt of the earth.” (O’Connor 642). At first it seemed as if Manly was just a “Good country people” and was doing his job trying to become a missionary. Later in the story, Manly invites Hulga for a picnic and she agrees to meet him. Once they get up to the barns attic, later that night this is when the stereotype of Manly gets twisted. He opens his bible (which is hollowed out) and inside there were sex cards, condoms and some liquor. He tells her if she really does love him she would need to take off the prosthetic. Hulga does as she is told. What she doesn’t realize, is that after Manly persuades her to drink some more alcohol, he runs away with her prosthetic leg. As a result, Manly’s stereotyped personality of being a good souled, God worshiper is twisted into a creepy exploiting man.
ReplyDeleteThe short story Good Country People by Flannery O’Connor is easily identified as the genre, Southern Gothic. The story takes place in the rural areas of Georgia and Mainly Pointer, a Bible Salesmen in out and about selling Bibles to the townsfolk. Soon enough, Mainly Pointer comes upon the Ms. Hopewell door and knocks politely. Ms. Hopewell invites the man into her tidy home but does not agree to buy Manley’s bibles, even after minutes full of desperate persuasion. However, she does invite the boy to dinner and afterwards Hulga, Ms. Hopewell’s rude, impolite burly 30 year old daughter decides to throw her negative opinion about men out the windows and go on a date with the innocent and precious Bible Salesmen. The next day, though Hulga realizes Manly is indeed not a decent nor moral man, for on their date, Manly takes Hulga up a hayloft in a far away barn, and in the end, steals both Hulga’s glasses and wooden leg, leaving her in the in the barn, alone and helpless. Thus, this short story characteristics and plot reveals it most definitely is Southern Gothic. In most obvious terms, this story tips stereotypes on their side and kicks them in the gut. In this particular account, the reader believes Manly Pointer is a nice, sweet, innocent, kind, and respectful young man, who is harming no one in any way, shape or form. He only wants others to follow his righteous leader, the lord. To pursue his dreams, he sells bibles. Although this, later in the book we find he is neither sweet nor innocent. He robs Hulga of her wooden leg, leaves her stranded in a faraway hay loft, and lies to all the townspeople, preaching about his religion but not following his teachings. Instead, he is evil, mischievous and heartless. To further, “He took one of these out and opened the cover of it. It was hollow and contained a pocket flask of whiskey, a pack of cards and a small blue box with printing on it. He stopped and pointed, with a smile, to the deck of cards. It was not an ordinary deck but one with an obscene picture on the back of each card” (O’Connor 646). To conclude, this story was a Southern Gothic tale because it featured a main character that in the beginning of the story was thought to be kind and devoted young man, who sold Bibles as a living but later on we learn he was the exact opposite, evil, devious and a criminal.
ReplyDeleteIn “A Rose for Emily”, the protagonist Emily hides a very dark secret within her own house. The author gave hints in order to interest and warn the reader of upcoming events. The stereotype of an old woman being nice and sweet confused and distracted the reader of her own dark personality. The peaceful and sweet old woman was actually a murderer and a necrophilic. “The man himself lay in the bed. For a long while we just stood there, looking down at the profound and fleshless grin. The body had apparently once [laid] the attitude of an embrace, but now the long sleep that outlast love, that conquers even the grimace of love, had cuckolded him. The events leading to the climax showed dark and chilling hints about Emily’s real self” (Faulkner 292). Miss Emily deliberately kept the rotting the dead body to lay with. The hints became more and more disturbing, slowly uncovering the true nature of Emily’s own disturbing personality. “Alive, miss Emily had been a tradition, a duty, and a care; a sort of hereditary obligation upon the town” (Faulkner 286). The unexpected climax completely disregarded the taboo stereotypes about old women.
ReplyDeleteIn the story "A Rose for Emily" when it is found that Emily's man did not run away she killed him and kept him in her bed shows southern gothic. One of the criteria that the story fits is that southern gothic shows the dark and hidden side of things. The stereotype of an old lady in the south is a jolly, kind lady. In southern gothic it shows the dark and secretive side of things. In the part of the book where Emily has died and finally the police or townspeople go into her house and they find her dead in her bed with the skeleton of her man who supposedly ran away. "What was left of him, rotted beneath what was left of the nightshirt, has become inextricable from the bred in which he lay; and upon the pillow beside him lay that even coating of the patient and biding dust" (faulkner V). Since no one in the town saw the man they all assumed he ran away from her, but the dark and twisted part of it is that she killed him so he would not or could not run away from her. This story defiantly shows the dark and hidden side of southern gothic stories.
ReplyDeleteIn the book Good Country People, which takes place in Georgia, a young "innocent" bible salesman named Manly Pointer travels around to towns folks preaching and ends up at a farm where a lady named Hulga lives. Hulga had lost her leg in a childhood accident and was a perfect target for men. Not only was Hulga soon to be easily in love with Manly, but she was very unable to defend herself. One day Hulga is with Manly and he takes her on a date. After the date Manly takes Hulga into a hayloft and takes her glasses, and also takes her wooden leg: Hulga's most deprived possession. He then leaves Hulga in the loft without being able to see, and without being able to walk. This story takes stereotypes on their sides and kicks them in the gut. Everyone thinks Manly is a great man and would never do such a thing, but really it's the opposite way around. A quote that would best resemble how this story is southern gothic is a short paragraph on page 646 where manly is with Hulga in the loft and Hulga sees what really is in the so called "bible". "it was hollow with a pocket flask of whiskey, a deck of playing cards and a small blue box with printing on it" (O'Connor 646).
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