![]() ![]() The utilization of sexism between Faulkner’s “A Rose for Emily” and O’Connor’s “A Good Man is Hard to Find” is completely opposite. ![]() It is easily notable that death is a common theme for both “A Rose for Emily”, written by William Faulkner and “A Good Man is Hard to Find” by Flannery O’Connor however, another thematic component that is present is gender roles or sexism as one may call it. Much like today, there were people in the past who strived to break gender role barriers while others may not have ever fit those barriers, to begin with and then there are those individuals who see gender roles as black and white and believe that men must be manly, and women must be lady-like. Even today, gender roles are still forced upon people, although that certainly does not mean that people refuse to confine themselves to those barriers daily. It persists and will continue to persist in literature because of its uncannily relatable characters and tantalizingly terrifying themes and plots.Today, gender reveal parties are planned for expectant parents daily, where the sonographer writes down the gender of the fetus onto a piece of paper and place in an envelope, and the parents will in turn hand the envelope over to someone and place them in charge of coming up with a creative way to reveal the gender of their baby to not only the parents, but the attendants of the party as well. Southern Gothic literature was relevant eighty years ago, at the beginning of its popularity, and continues to captures readers and audiences today. The Coen brothers also directed O Brother, Where Art Thou?, a more lighthearted and comedic look at the South and its stereotypes. In 2007, directors Joel and Ethan Coen adapted Cormac McCarthy’s No Country for Old Men into an award-winning drama starring Tommy Lee Jones and Javier Bardem. Southern Gothic persists on the silver screen too, though most of the movies are based on books. Because of his debut novel The Long Home, he was declared a modern-day Faulkner. Recently deceased author William Gay is a prime example. Most of King’s other novels do not fall into this literary category, but many authors exclusively write Southern Gothic tales. Its main character has the supernatural gift of healing. Stephen King’s The Green Mile, published in 1996 but set in the 1930s, is about death row in a Georgia penitentiary. Today, Southern Gothic still exists and works that deal with its setting and themes are being produced. Gender is also explored from all angles as many famous Southern Gothic authors were female. Common themes and elements are poverty, racism, and social class. Other famous novelists of the time include Truman Capote, William Faulkner, Carson McCullers, and Eudora Welty.īy so thoroughly developing their characters, Southern Gothic authors explore Southern social interaction and issues. In To Kill a Mockingbird, perhaps the most well-known Southern Gothic novel, Boo Radley acts as the cultural misfit, as does black man and accused murderer Tom Robinson. ![]() Most Southern Gothic stories have this stock character a person who does not fit into society and has an odd or violent personality and psychological issues. When the nosy, manipulative Grandmother upsets the trip, the family runs into the Misfit, an escaped convict and murderer. In O’Connor’s story “A Good Man Is Hard to Find,” a standard middle class family is taking a vacation to Florida. Many authors gained fame within this niche of literature, and it was characterized not just by novels but a variety of story formats, including Tennessee William’s plays and Flannery O’Connor’s short stories. ![]() Author Francis Russell Hart declared Southern Gothic as “fiction evocative of a sublime and picturesque landscape…depict(ing) a world in ruins.” With abandoned and half-destroyed plantations and the past oppression of an entire race of people, the South was (and still is) a fitting location for the crazed, melancholic characters that make Gothic what it is. Most of it had been ravaged by battle, and Reconstruction had failed to bring beneficial results. The landscape of post Civil War South was quite bleak in the early 1900s. Similarities between the two do exist, though. The former are often set in foreign lands and eerie, dilapidated castles, featuring supernatural characters. Stories in this tradition take place exclusively in the American South and emphasize common people, ‘folks,’ with abnormal characteristics or situations.Īt first glance, Gothic stories and southern America seem to have little in common. Folks." This quote from To Kill a Mockingbird perhaps best exemplifies the style of Harper Lee’s novel – Southern Gothic, Gothic’s literary child. ![]()
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