"A Short Guide to the City" Genre Study

“A Short Guide to the City” written by Peter Straub is a depicting short story that describes several different locations from suburbs, to ghettos, to wealthy developments that are all very different from one another. Yet several criminal homicides have occurred and the only thing known of the mystery is the nickname of the murderer called the “Viaduct Killer” who has already killed several innocent people. Yet where in fact does the Viaduct Killer live, it could be from any of the surrounding locations, no one knows?

Presumptions have been made of a few different areas concerning the killers home, which are all different from one another. The first area is called The East Side which is where the yuppies and wealthy live. The second area is called the valley, which is perhaps best seen in the dead of winter and is full of factories and buildings ran by middle class people working to make a living. Another important thing about the valley is that it is in fact home to the viaduct and has much history from wolf-ranches to polish immigration. The next important spot is known as “the city’s heart” the south side, which holds a profound relationship to violence and is never implied to be the home of the viaduct killer. Finally the last location is the Ghetto or the inner city, which is comfortable with crime and is home to the lower class citizens.

Yet this story exemplifies and depicts several different genres of the gothic culture. One of the clearer depictions of gothic culture is fear of the unknown. Another is the fear of something new and misunderstood. As in The Replacements one is uncomfortable to the unknown. A man killed an innocent creature just because it made him feel out of place and unimportant. He didn’t try to learn about the creature or why he felt this way about it, he just killed it and lacked any sympathy towards its purpose and chance at life. This shows how a common person can commit heinous acts for no reason besides its own misunderstood feelings.

Prejudice and labeling is another important issue and theme in “A Short Guide to the City”. The City’s and or ordinances are clearly separated into different backgrounds and are ranked by which one is more prone to murder. The ghetto has the poor and less respected citizens, the East side is home to the wealthy and the south side is home to the polish and Lithuanians who work for a living in factories. This is a clear sign of stereotyping even if one group is statistically more prone to crime it doesn’t mean that murder cannot take place in a less expected area. As in “The Outsider” and in “Twin Peaks” people do judge a book by its cover. Just how they judged the outsider when he approached the group, they ran away in fear due to his appearance. We cannot judge one by the way they look at first sight. And in Twin Peaks when Dale Coopers work associate Albert comes to work the case in Twin Peaks and does nothing but stereotype them and treats them as if they are illiterate and deprived from intelligence when in fact they are not.

Yet the fear of the unknown is the most important or fear of violence in general. The community has shown a clear sign of deprivation concerning the murders in acted by a killer who may as well be a part of the community. “We assume that the viaduct killer is a resident of the city, a voter, a renter, or perhaps even a parent of children who even now attend one the thirteen existing schools in the area”. Yet the city fails to acknowledge the severity of the situation, instead they grow eerie of the situation and remain afraid of the reoccurring violence. This is a clear sign that the community is in “denial mode” someone has broken the simple life manner and brought upon evil acts which is foreign to the community. They lack protection and instead deny the situation and even become outright stupid which can possibly jeopardize their lives.

Violence is gothic and is reoccurring in today’s society and needs to be addressed immediately even if it is new to a group or individual for the sake of ones safety. This is comparable to the story “Strawberry Spring” because everyone acts as if it is a group of for told murders. That these murders are going to keep happening and there really is nothing to do to prevent it, instead everyone is just scared and doesn’t do much. The fact of the matter is that it wasn’t a ghost or someone expected. It was an individual of the community who had no idea he was the killer until he woke up one morning to a girl stuffed in the own trunk of his car. The point is not to be in denial but to seek out the violence and the obvious because the killer may even be next door or might even be you.