Where Is Here Analysis

“Home is where the heart is.” No matter the time period, fantasy or real, home as been a place where most feel safe. However, many horror films, ghost stories, and other genres of fear use this aspect of home very acutely. Setting in any text, whether it be a house, a garden or a graveyard, is important to the plot of a story to further it and assist the tension. Edgar Allan Poe and Joyce Carol Oates use setting to set a manor of hostility and mystery within their texts. In the texts, The Fall of the House of Usher, by Edgar Allan Poe, and Where is Here? by Joyce Carol Oates, the use of setting furthers the plot by adding a sense of mystery, history, and loneliness. To begin, the use of homes within the setting provides mystery with not showing parts of them. For example, in Where is Here, the possibly antagonist avoids certain locations within the home he is visiting because of unknown reasons. The author explains how, “Other rooms on the second floor, the “master bedroom” in particular, he decidedly did not want to see. (Page 329, Lines 45-46)” The wonder and suspicion behind not wanting to see what was most likely his parent’s room raises suspicion as to why. Secondly, the history behind certain setting aspects show that there is more to a text than meets the eye. When the strange man enters the home from Where is …show more content…
For example, if a setting is in a home, depending on that home’s atmosphere, the reader may feel comfortable or frightened. To say that setting does not matter as much as a plotline would be false, because setting is throughout the entire text, supporting the plotline. One cannot have a climactic final battle without the battlefield. Obviously, in the texts, The Fall of the House of Usher, by Edgar Allan Poe, and Where is Here? by Joyce Carol Oates, the use of setting furthers the plot by adding a sense of mystery, history, and