Essay On Southern Gothic Literature

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The Truth behind Southern Gothic

The era of Southern Gothic literature was a very unique and well defined era in American history as a whole. Considering the early conservative culture of the American South, this was definitely a surprise for many readers as well as a revolutionary moment in American history as a whole. Southern Gothic Literature usually takes on a theme in which there is a seemingly calm and ordinary plot line which takes an extreme twist usually in a negative manner. Characters are shown indulging in anti-Christian activities. Christianity is an underlying theme in this literature and it relates to the traditional bible belt culture of the south. This twist is meant to serve as a moral teaching and as a way of spicing up the plot line to keep the reader engaged. This literature usually encompasses a variety of features such as grotesque behavior, moral turbulence, deception, and eeriness. …show more content…
Three novels will be examined for their linkage to the theme of Southern Gothic literature: “A Good man is Hard to find”, “Good Country people” and “A Rose for Emily”.
“A Good man is Hard to Find” by Flannery O’Connor is a perfect example of southern gothic. The characters in the story are bodily broken or their souls are shattered in some sort of way. It is classified as southern gothic genre because in the beginning of the story, they passed a cemetery on their way to Florida which had 6 graves in it. Well there were 6 family members travelling to Florida so that semt disturbing, because as we soon find out, those 6 graves represent each one of those family members lives and their soon to be deaths. Through the many characters in the story, a few stand out.Same was said by Stephen brandy, “There are really only two characters in this story: the Grandmother and the Misfit”(Brandy?). The grandmother in “A Good Man is Hard to Find” is a very religious woman who attends church every Sunday which if you’re an outsider
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