Gothic Literature Themes

In A Good Man is Hard to Find, a stubborn and self-centered grandmother leads the very common family trip to an unforeseen tragedy, which can ascribe to the power of Gothic literature. Southern Grotesque, a subgenera of Southern Gothic, “cuts through the veil of civility, though decorum and oppressive normative fabrications to expose a harsh, confusing reality of contradiction, violence, and aberrations”(Bjerre). With these aspects, the genre of Southern Grotesque shows the social issues and human natures in story through ordinary people’s life. In the story A Good Man is Hard to Find, Flannery O’Connor discusses the discrepancy between good and evil, violence, and salvation with the two main grotesque characters—the grandmother and the Misfit—and through the perspective of

In this tale a family takes a vacation to Florida where a murderer who calls himself the Misfit, who was well designed by O’Connor to represent the grotesque qualities of humanity, has just escaped from prison. During a brief lunch break in which the grandmother and store owner, Red Sammy, lament the ills of society and reminisce about how much better life used to be and how no one is good anymore; while ironically, they themselves are not the best people. Later, after a misinformed wrong turn, the grandmother’s smuggled cat gets loose and causes a damaging wreck, this angers her son Bailey but he doesn’t confront her immediately, he needs to attend to his wife who has suffered a broken shoulder. After a few minutes the Misfit and his henchmen find them and get out of their vehicle, they look like they might be about to offer help but the grandmother recognizes the Misfit and makes it obvious.

Brown does not rely on most of the conventions of the gothic literature. Brown does use conventions of a Gothic genre. Brown follows the topics shared in an American Gothic novel. Allan Lloyd-Smith talks about how many American Gothic writers would exchange key aspects that can be seen in a European gothic novel. For example, instead of a castle the setting of the novel will include a remote house in the country side away from most of the population. Brown does not include a great deal of the setting but uses atmosphere and suspense to inflict fear into his readers. Brown stays away from the European gothic conventions discussed in “The Gothic Novel”. Brown does not include castles, dungeon and does not place his gothic novel in the medieval

Gothic literature has been criticized as being a dreary, dark, and death-involving subset of Romanticism (a literary movement accentuating human individuality, imagination, and subjectivity). In addition, gothic lit incorporates several themes- not all about deathly acts - but includes some emotional and surprising themes such as dreams, nightmares, or hallucinations, and grotesque or bizarre occurrences. Two short stories, both written by Edgar Allan Poe, entitled “The Raven,” and “The Black Cat,” as well as the novel The Night Circus, by Erin Morgenstern, all encompass these gothic elements, found throughout each story.

Flannery O’Connor’s short story “A Good Man is Hard to Find”, is tale about a grandmother who unknowingly steers her family to a fatal meeting with a fugitive. The chance encounter with the murderous fugitive ultimately costs the grandmother and her family their lives. Sticking with the Southern Gothic genre, O’Connor takes odd characters and mixes in dark encounters to produce a story packed full of hidden meanings and foreshadowing (Language and Literature, 2). At first glance, it seems easy to identify the character that represents evil in the story, the murderous outlaw. However, things are not always, what they seem; a closer look will reveal that the murder might not be the evilest character in the story.

A piece written by Flannery O’Connor, “A Good Man Is Hard to Find”, is an example of Southern Gothic. She uses the traits of the eccentric characters’ to persuade the readers of many disturbing mysteries. This author’s, Flannery O’Connor, style in the Southern Gothic tale, “A Good Man Is Hard to Find”, is characterized by faith, violence, and shock.

“A Good Man is Hard to find” by Flannery O’Connor and “The Tell-Tale” by Edger Poe have several areas of contrast and similarity. One of the aspects that portray this relationship is the historical contexts in which the stories were written, which explains how it impacted their creation and their featured themes. “The Tell-Tale Heart” is typical of the macabre themes for which Poe became popular. The book is part of the American Gothic Literature which was characteristic of the 19th Century and focused on the human existence through supernatural horror, madness, irrationality, and guilt. “A Good Man is Hard to Find” on the other hand, belongs to the Southern Gothic Literature which was

The Southern Gothic qualities of violence, outsider and good vs. evil are evident in Flannery O’Connor’s “A Good Man is Hard to Find”, Shirley Jackson’s “The Possibility of Evil”, and William Faulkner’s “A Rose For Emily”. These stories fits the traits of the Southern Gothic Genre.

Gothic genres are often characterized by themes including hypocrisy, death, racism, among others. The plainspoken, comic- cartoon-ish, blunt, and obvious short story writer, Flannery O’Connor, in her short story “A Good Man Is Hard to Find,” bring about the perfect example of Gothic fiction. The story is about an escaped mentally-ill criminal dubbed The Misfit- who crossed path with a fatal family. The main characters, The Grandmother, June Star, The Misfit and even Bailey among others show traits of odd and implacable demeanor. Coincidently, they crossed paths with The Misfit, and The Grandmothers grave mistake of remembering at the last minute that the house was in Tennessee led to their inevitably fateful death. Flannery O’Connor “A Good Man is Hard to Find” has many characteristics that make it a part of the Gothic Literary genre, including dark, hypocritical, and ignorant characters.

“A Good Man is Hard to Find” is a short story written by Flannery O’Connor in 1953 during the period of the Southern Renaissance. Around the time of 1900, the American South was beginning to recover from the economic depression it had been immersed in since the Civil War had ended. After an improvement in economic conditions, there followed a flourishing of culture which produced some very successful literature, and this phenomenon became known as the Southern Renaissance. In the early to mid-twentieth century American writers living in the South began to explore gothic themes, leading to the formation of the term Southern Gothic or Southern grotesque literary tradition. Gothic literature focuses on human terror, is typically set in old, isolated areas or architecture like abandoned buildings, haunted houses or threatening landscapes, and centres on characters who are challenged by mysterious forces. Southern literature often combines with social realism to create strange and unique characters with qualities that force the reader to look closely at the world fashioned in the novel, and the human experience more thoroughly. Flannery O’Connor’s work is well known for including the gothic component, where it includes anything strange, freakish, or perversely weird. ‘A Good Man is Hard to Find’ features the grotesque as a way of representing humanity by showing how it can cause people to act in a certain way, but also how it can change a person.

American Literature was shaped in parts by the tradition of the Southern Gothic genre by having the traits of the outsider, moral blindness, social class, good vs. evil, unrequited love and macabre. The stories that we read as a class was “ The Possibility of Evil” by Shirley Jackson, “ A Good man is hard to find” by Flannery O’Connor and “ A Rose for Emily” by William Faulkner. The traits of southern gothic are clearly portrayed in these stories that were read in class because they all criticize moral blindness of the south. “ A good man is hard to find” by Flannery O'Connor is about a family that goes on a vacation but has a car accident.

The Literature of America was shaped by Southern Gothic Literature through the pointing out the moral blindness of the Southern region. Traits of this genre include moral blindness, macabre situations, disturbed characters, and high-class people. Some of the stories from this genre are “A Good Man is Hard to Find” by O’Connor, “The Possibility of Evil” by Jackson, and “A Rose for Emily” by Faulkner. The traits of Southern Gothic are demonstrated through characters and setting.

The irony of the story is that it is under the directions of the Grandmother that leads the family into a run in with The Misfit, which is what she told her son she would never do. Throughout the trip we are given examples of the racism that was present during this period. The Grandmother makes multiple racist innuendos such as her observation of the “cute little pickaninny,” and her statement that “little niggers in the country don’t have things like we do” (O’Conner 2). During the ride, The Grandmother convinces Bailey to take a detour down an old, dirt road which supposedly leads to an old southern plantation home she once visited. The road leads them deep into the woods where an accident is caused by The Grandmothers cat, which leaves the car upturned and the family stranded. It is then the family encounters The Misfit, whom discovers them stranded as he was passing by. He approaches the family with two young men and shortly after The Grandmother lets out a scream as she realizes him. During their encounter, the readers are given a small glimpse into the deranged mind of The Misfit. It is apparent that he has an upturned moral compass. He gains pleasure from committing crimes and the meanness that goes along with it. During his conversation with the Grandmother, he slowly has his men take members of the family out

The gothic literary movement is a part of the larger Romantic Movement. Gothic literature shares many of the traits of romanticism, such as the emphasis on emotions and the imagination. Gothic literature goes beyond the melancholy evident in most romantic works, however, and enters into the areas of horror and decay, becoming preoccupied with death. “The Fall of the House of Usher” by Edgar Allan Poe is a powerful example of gothic fiction, whereas James Fenimore Cooper’s The Last of the Mohicans serves as the romantic predecessor, illustrating the differences and the similarities between romantic and gothic literature.

Southern Gothic exposed and criticized the moral blindness in the South. This genre opens the people’s eyes to the past. The traits of this genre are Irony, Southern Setting, Macabre, Violence, and Social Issues. The stories that we have read as a class are, “A Good Man is Hard to Find” by Flannery O'Connor, “The Possibility of Evil” by Shirley Jackson, and “A Rose For Emily” by William Faulkner. The traits of Southern Gothic are portrayed in the stories, through the characters.