Southern Gothic

Flannery O’Connor’s and Southern Gothic Literature As a writer Flannery O’Connor blends aspects from both the south and their inherent Christianity. In her stories she does a wonderful job in the recreating of life in the south but at the same time she high lighted many of the parts of the southern society that many want to forget. Flannery O’Connor’s writings were anything but light hearted and carefree, she used many aspects of the Grotesque Southern Gothic genre and refers to the south as…

Within the southern gothic writing style it is common to read of the use of macabre, or grotesque events. Such events are easily identified in four particular short stories by O’ Connor. These short stories that all have southern gothic styles are as follows A Good Man is Hard to Find, Good country People, Everything That Rises Must Converge, and Revelation. But out of these four stories only two of them A Good Man is Hard to Find, and Good country People have this way of highlighting the wrongs…

writing style comes to mind when one thinks of racial bigotry, violence, and outsiders? Some may think of Southern Gothic literature, a writing style that focuses on grotesque themes and characters. Harper Lee uses this writing style in her book To Kill a Mockingbird: a story about a white lawyer who must defend a black client who is on trial for a rape. In her book Harper Lee uses Southern Gothic characteristics such as, racial bigotry, violence, and outsiders to create the environment of the…

A Rose for Emily: The Heart of Southern Gothic When Miss Emily Grierson died, so did the last generation of the antebellum South. She was Old Dixie’s last true daughter. Her family, once wealthy and proud, is now gone and all that remains is a house, a decaying monument to the former stature of the Griersons. The town of Jefferson treats her as a tradition, and while there may be rumors among the townspeople, there is a pervasive feeling of uneasiness in how they relate to Emily. The narrator…

Mockingbird In “ To Kill a Mockingbird”, Harper Lee emphasizes the metaphor of a Mockingbird as in the title. She creates themes of innocents being destroyed, social inequality, and importance of a moral figure in a child’s life while using the southern gothic genre. It’s set in a tired old town in Maycomb, Alabama in 1933 during the great depression.Throughout the novel, it addresses the growth of maturity in Atticus's children intelligent, tomboyish girl Jean Louise Finch also known as Scout…

In William Faulkner’s southern gothic novel, Light in August, deception plays a major role in the lives of each of the main characters. Characters such as Joe Christmas and Gail Hightower are scarred by the deceptions of others, preventing them from ever finding their place in society. However, one character is not a victim of deception, but rather wields it for his own use: Joe Brown, also known as Lucas Burch. His actions serve as a major driving force behind the plot of the novel, as his lies…

short story “A Good Man Is Hard to Find”, Flannery O’Connor introduces the reader to a world of family issues, danger, and murder. The story was written in 1955 during a period of social and racial unrest in the southern United States. Mostly, the story follows O 'Connor 's basic Southern Gothic writing style, a work that is "cold and dispassionate, as well as almost absurdly stark and violent" (Galloway). While the quote gives major insight into the tone of the story, it does not offer a…

Flannery’s short story “A Good Man Is Hard To Find” is one of her pieces that has a lot of literary criticism, and is her best-known story because of how popular it was. This short story is a great example of Southern Gothic Literature. Sylvia Bailey Sherman once said in her article “O’Connor favors a limited omniscient point of view, which generally focuses on a particular character’s flawed perception of reality—in this case, that character is the grandmother”.…

Many authors relate their past lives to their books sometimes. William Faulkner uses southern gothic writing, flashbacks, and how he grew up to connect to the short story “ A Rose for Emily”. First, William Faulkner used his style of writing southern gothic writing. Based on what he learned southern gothic writing was interested in the code of anti-social conduct. He uses an old mansion and decay in the story “A Rose for Emily”. Emily Grierson keeps the body of her father, until they come to…

Harper Lee was born in Alabama in 1926. She was the youngest of four and considered herself a tomboy (similar to Scout). Her mother suffered from a mental illness and rarely left the house (similar to Boo Radley). Lee studied law (similar to atticus) and then published To Kill a Mockingbird in 1960 during the Civil Rights Movement. Her novel went on to win the Pulitzer Prize a year later. In her novel, To Kill a Mockingbird, the social and gender inequalities are the main issues. Lee approaches…