Genre Study of "Afterward"

The story “Afterward” by Edith Wharton is about a lady named Mary who is reminiscing on the time right before her husband, Ned, disappeared. The story is told in five parts and each part is a different memory. The first part is Mary’s memory of a conversation with Alida and Ned about finding a new house. Mary discusses how she wants a house that is haunted and Alida tells them about the legend of the Lyng house. The legend is that there is a ghost in Lyng, but no one knows they have encountered it until “long afterward”. Mary also remembers the day her and Ned saw a stranger in the garden and Ned chased after him, but the stranger disappeared. In the second part, Mary recalls the day someone sent her an article in the mail of the suit that was being brought up against Ned by someone named Elwell. He tells her it has been withdrawn and not to worry about it. Part three takes place the next day when a stranger comes looking for Ned. Mary escorts him to the library and later finds out that Ned has disappeared with the stranger with the only clue being a letter addressed to someone named Parvis. In part four, Mary contacts Parvis and he claims to know nothing of the letter. In part five, Mary finds Parvis and after he explains the business deal that went bad between Ned and Elwell, she puts the pieces together. After Parvis tells her Elwell is dead and shows her a picture of him, Mary realizes Elwell was both the ghost and stranger and he took Ned away.
One of the gothic conventions displayed in this story was the supernatural subject matter. The supernatural can be defined as something that is non-existent in nature or subject to explanation according to natural laws. In “Afterward”, the supernatural subject is the ghost in the legend of the Lyng house. According to Mary’s cousin, Alida, there is a ghost in Lyng, but you do not know it until “long long afterward”. At the end of the story, Mary realizes that she encountered the ghost more than once and it was the ghost who was responsible for her husband’s disappearance. It was the ghost who was in the garden that Ned chased after and it was the ghost who Mary led to the library the one morning. The ghost in Mary’s legend was Elwell, the guy who tried to bring the suit up against Ned. Mary explains that the reason the ghost disappeared the first time they saw him was because he was not fully dead yet. He was waiting to die so he could take Ned away. When he finally died, he came back and took Ned away.
Another story that has a supernatural subject is “The Legend of Sleepy Hollow”. The supernatural element was the legend of the Headless Horseman. The Headless Horseman was supposedly a ghost who rode on a horse through the town of Sleepy Hollow and beheaded people during the night. Although they were unsure if it was really the Headless Horseman or Brom who chased Ichabod out of town, it is still believed that a Headless Horseman really did exist in the story.
The television series Twin Peaks also contained supernatural elements. Even though we did not watch the full series, they did mention a spirit that lived in the woods. Another supernatural subject was the giant that appeared in Agent Cooper’s dream. The giant was not real and could have been a ghost. During the second visit he made, he took Cooper’s ring. That is a sign of supernatural because it cannot be explained by natural laws.

"Afterward" Genre Study

Afterward is a story about a couple named Ned and Mary Boyne. While talking to their friend Alida Stair, they find that there is a haunted house in Lyng, Dorsetshire. The couple being very intrigued wants to move in immediately. The only thing is, is that Alida Stiar said that they would not know that they even encountered the ghost until long after. When asked what she means by this Alida just says that's how the story goes. The couple move in and everything seems fine at first. They have yet to see the ghost, but Mary notices that Ned is acting weird. At one point in the story Mary and Ned were on a secret spot on the roof. Ned noticed someone and ran down the stairs without even waiting for Mary. Mary, thinking that he saw the ghost, hurries after him. She finds him in his office just looking through papers. Ned says that the person he thought he saw was Peters and he just wanted to ask him a question, but couldn't get to him in time. Mary finds that Ned is having a suit brought against him by an associate of his. This worries Mary, but Ned tells her he has it under control. One day while Mary is out in the garden a man comes and asks to speak to her husband. At first she tells him that he cannot because her husband is working, she then feels sorry for the man and tells him what room her husband is in. She then finds later that her husband has disappeared. She goes through many months without knowing what could have happened to her husband. A man her husband knew named Parvis stops at the house to offer Mary his condolences. In the conversation he shows her a newspaper clipping that has both pictures of her husband and the man named Bob Elwell who was the one who brought the suit, Bob was also dead at this point from trying to kill himself. Mary then realizes that Bob Elwell was the man Ned had seen on the roof and the man in the garden she had spoken to. She puts everything together and realizes what has happened, the ghost of Bob Elwell came for her husband and he went with him. Mary then realizes what Alida had meant when she said you would never know it was the ghost until “long, long afterward”.
This story shows a lot of fear of the unknown, which is the whole reason why they moved into the house in the first place. They were trying to look for a ghost without even knowing what they were looking for. Mary even at one point tells her husband that she has given up looking for the ghost and asks him the same thing. It’s not that they are actually scared of seeing the ghost, but I think the fact that they might not know what it is frightens them or Mary at least. Mary at one point thinks that Ned has seen the ghost and just isn’t telling her about it, because it did something to him. That’s why Mary thinks Ned is acting weird. Mary is fearful that is unknown ghost did something to her husband.
We see the fear of the unknown in many of the stories we’ve read. The Lonesome place is one that expresses fear of the unknown very clearly. The two young boys in the story are terrified of what they can’t see on a dark part of the street at night. Their fear takes over their imagination and runs wild.
The Veldt may even be considered as fear of the unknown. The parents are afraid of the unknown future of their children’s minds. They’re not sure what the children will think up in this futuristic house that they have. Or how not being able to do anything for themselves will affect them when they are older.

"Afterward" Genre Study

“Afterward”, by Edith Wharton is a story that is divided into five parts and explores the memories of the central character, Mary Boyne, from a six month period. Her and her husband, Ned Boyne, move into the Lyng house in Dorsetshire, England after their cousin, Alida Stair, tells them it’s haunted by a ghost. They only wanted the house if it was truly haunted, but according to Alida, anyone who lives in Lyng does not know they have encountered the ghost until long afterward.

One of the conventions of Gothic displayed in this story was the uncanny. The uncanny is the idea that not everything is what it seems; it is something that is familiar, but foreign at the same time that results in a feeling of strangeness. In “Afterward” the uncanny is shown when Mary realizes that she didn’t really know her husband. He has been something familiar to her and someone she is comfortable with until the ghost starts showing up and she sees the look of perplexity and anxiety on his face. She suddenly becomes interested in her husband’s business which was always a mystery to her and leads to her discovering that the stranger who visited was really a man who had made a bad business deal with Ned that ended up destroying his life. Ned was comforting and reassuring her about his business only to let her down when she finds out what’s really underneath.

Another story that we see the uncanny is in “The Enormous Radio”. When Irene’s husband, Jim, brings home an old radio Irene is able to hear conversations and other stuff that goes on in their neighbor’s apartments. She sits home and listens to these people’s lives so her whole perception that she had of her neighbors changes so now when she sees them, she sees them for their problems. It also brings out that Irene and Jim, who had seemed to have a happy marriage and rarely ever argued, aren’t the perfect couple with the perfect family either.

Yet another story is “The Lovely House”. When Margaret goes to stay with her friend Carla at her house she is swept away by how lovely her house is. As she stays longer and becomes more familiar with the house and Carla’s family, Carla’s brother, Paul, comes home and Margaret finally goes up to the tower to see if there’s really a Great Aunt living there. From the tower, she sees the house as it really is; the house is aging and the grounds are not as taken care of as she initially sees. Through the story we are led on to believe that Paul is really there only to come to the possible conclusion that he’s really a ghost and the old Great Aunt living in the tower may be Margaret when she’s old.

“Twin Peaks” also shows us the uncanny. We are introduced to this town that seems to be a perfectly normal small town. As the season goes on we get a view of the secret lives of the townspeople; their affairs, their sneaking behind people’s backs, plots to kill each other and get money, drug trade, and sex scandals.

"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.

A Short Guide to the City (Genre Study)

Peter Straub’s, “A Short Guide to the City,” is a tourist brochure that describes a Midwestern town, but mentions from time to time the viaduct killer. In this pamphlet, he illustrates four areas that possess different kinds of lifestyles. The first one, the East Side, is where all the wealthy people live. Another is The Valley which contains much of the area’s history and the viaduct. Then, there is The South Side or “the city’s heart.” And finally, are the low life areas which are called “children cities” and the ghetto.

This story has many elements of the gothic genre; for example, the city is portrayed in the narrator’s eyes. Everything is based on interpretation. Just like in “Death in the Woods,” the little boy created a made up a life for Mrs. Grimes. The narrator, in this story, states in the beginning, “our society folks keep to themselves, and what we know of them we learn chiefly from the newspapers.” Stories have been passed down from many years ago, which can give a “telephone” effect of what the truth really is.

Another big issue in “A Short Guide to the City” is the citizens lost touch of the imagination. The narrator told a story of how the children witnessed a winged man crawl out of the lake. When they saw him, they chucked some rocks at him because he was eerie and not normal. He was “as cold as cancer-into their bones and bedrooms, which gave them earaches and chilblains, which in the summer bred rats and mosquitoes.” The children were the only ones who saw him as a threat. Maybe this man is the killer of the six murders? Also, the people in the ghetto are considered low lives, but are very artistic people. In this city, it appears that the more ordinary are you, the more accepted you’ll be. This idea is just like the one in “The Lonesome Place.” After the two young boys grew up, they lost sight of their childhood fear. Then, they felt guilty for not saving the fat boy from the “monster” that haunted them.

Segregation is another theme in this story. Even though the narrator says there are no prejudices in the city, it is pretty obvious there is. The neighborhoods are divided into sections. The East Side has the rich, respected citizens. The South Side has the Polish, Estonians, and Lithuanians. Finally, in their decaying dwellings, are the children cities and the ghetto. The narrator could not even comment on the “violent status” of the ghetto area. It seems that if you live in a certain area that is where you stay. The citizens only go and mingle with their own kind. Social separation is also seen in “Death in the Woods.” The townspeople looked down their noses at Mrs. Grimes, even though she was just a fragile woman. In “The Outsider,” when everyone saw the ghost at the party, they all ran away from him. So, in return, he bothered with “ghosts of the night,” or creatures of his own kind. Finally, in “Allal,” Allal never had a friend because he was a bastard child. Everyone is enslaved by their own physical attributes and environments. There really is no unity in this community other than the fact that violence is not tolerated.

In the story, violence parallels a lot of themes. The first one is domestic abjection. Violence is an “internal matter, to be resolved within or exercised upon one’s own body and soul or those of one’s immediate family.” The South Side even goes to the extreme of using a family member as a human sacrifice. “The outsider can only hope to imagine, that the whole family must die-(be sacrificed).” “The Yellow Wallpaper” showed domestic abjection by leaving a mentally sick woman locked in a room to solve her problems instead of getting her the proper care she needed. Violence also was the duality of the city. The people tried so hard to steer away from it, but in the end, there was a nut on the loose that killed people anyways. Violence is good in a sense to the South Side to cleanse evil, but yet violence killed six innocent people. Another duality could be that the narrator is the killer. We are not sure of if, but how he describes his yearnings and what type of people walk across the viaduct just raised questions in my mind. He says, “(mainly men) come with their lunches in paper bags, walking slowly along the cement walkway, not looking down over the edge of the viaduct, looking away, dawdling, finally leaning like fishermen against the railing, waiting until they can no longer delay going to their jobs.” How does he know this? In “Strawberry Springs,” the reader finds out in the end that the narrator was the killer all along. Which strikes the question, do we really know ourselves? In “The Replacements,” the main focus of the story is to keep balance in your life. Stewart’s wife should have given attention to the creature and her husband. Having violence in the world keeps the balance between good and evil. In the city, the people are very judgmental. Like in, “A Good Man is Hard to Find,” deals with how people relate to humanity. Having the grandmother say these racist comments without knowing the person is as bad as having the Misfit kill people out of the sense of killing someone. Both characters do not care about humanity. It is just ironic that in “A Short Guide to the City” have citizens that are so judgmental, but cannot be violent. Both acts do not value humanity, so what is the big deal?

The most important theme from this story that is reflected in other stories is how we handle our fears. The community is frightened by violence, but why? What is the secret that makes these citizens scared of a little violence? As the reader, we cannot conclude what aggressive actions took place to cause the community’s precautions. The narrator states that the area is in “denial mode.” The city is known for its modesty-“it cherishes the ordinary, or what it sees as ordinary, which is not.” The unfinished “Broken Span” bridge parallels the cities denial to possess reality. They would rather lie to themselves to be “protected” from the truth. I believe the narrator is yearning to seek realness. He feels that the bridge lacks completion just like his city. Violence may not be the most pleasant way to deal with issues, but at times, it is just a natural instinct, or to him, “sensitivity.” The killer, in the narrator’s eyes, is the one who is revealing how the world really is. In “The Enormous Radio,” the family lived a lifestyle that had to keep up with the Jones. Everything was according to statistics even to the point on how many times the family attended the movies. When the husband bought a radio for the family, strange things began to happen. They could hear conversations of other residence’s lives. She thought everyone else had problems, but her. Actually, her biggest fear, not being perfect, was concealed because of her denial to accept the truth. Another example comes from the short story called “A Rose for Emily.” The question here is, “What is wrong with the South?” (Sorry Dr. Little) Are the people growing for the better or staying at a plateau? In “A Short Guide to the City,” we do not know what happened before violence was forbidden, but what is important is how history affects us in the present time. Last but not least, Stewart, in “The Replacements”, killed an innocent creature because he did not understand what it was. This just goes to show how people kill someone because they are afraid of it. Instead of trying to understand our fears, we destroy it and try to forget about it.

Genre Study for "A Short Guide to the City"

A big theme in Gothic fiction is the idea of the imp of the perverse. The imp of the perverse is a metahpor for the tendency of a person to do exactly the wrong thing in a given situation. The concept is that the misbehavior is due to an imp (a small demon) leading an otherwise decent person into mischief. It is when somebody's thinking is seriously wrong. It could be the way that they think. The imp of the perverse was originally used and popularized in Gothic fiction by Edgar Allan Poe. In using this convention, the author is trying to show what can happen when the thinking of an individual goes bad. It is a big convention in Gothic fiction and is found in many Gothic stories, including some of the stories we have read this semester.

The imp of the perverse is seen in "Strawberry Spring". The narrarator seems to be a normal person. It turns out that he is a ruthless serial killer. The thing is that he does not remember doing any of these murders unitl the end of the story when he figures out that he isa serial killer. There is somehing seriously wrong with his thought pattern.

The imp of the perverse also appears in "The Black Cat". The narrator orginally loves all animals. Then, they get a black cat and he begins to hate the cat so much that he wants to kill the cat. He ends up hanging the cat. This behavior is not normal especially because he was orignally a normal animal-loving person. What is even less normal is that he eventually kills his wife (even though he did not mean to) in an attempt to kill the cat and he buries his wife in the wall. This is a classic example of the imp of the perverse, especially because it was written by Poe.

Yet, another example is found in "The Yellow Wallpaper". She was not always insane and is using the rest cure possibly for post-pardun depression. She ends up destroying her room after her fall into complete insanity.

There are a few examples of the imp of the perverse in "Twin Peaks". Firstly, many of the characters are using ulterior motives to get what they want including Josie. Secondly, there is cocaine being sold in the town to students. Both of these things leads to several murders. Bobby also frames James by putting cocaine in the gas tank of his motorcycle.

Another big example of the imp of the perverse occurs in "A Rose for Emily". Emily Grierson kills her new husband and sleeps with his corpse for the rest of her life. The imp of the perverse can be found being employed in almost any and every Gothic fiction story..

In "A Short Guide to the City", there are several examples of the imp of the perverse. One can be found on page 363, where people in the Polish district practice self-mutilation. Also on page 363, the narrator explains that once a decade, people of the family decide that the whole family must be sacrificed. Another example occurs on page 365, where the children that live in the "children's cities" practice violence by tattooing themselves and raiding rival tribes. The last example is on page 367 when the narrator explains how two or three citizens each year elect to commit thier suicides by leaping into the electric fence.

The big difference between "A Guide to the City" and the other stories is that in "A Guide to the City" the imp of the perverse is shown by groups of people in society and in the other stories in is shown in the psychology of the individuals. The imp of the perverse almost always shows some type of malevolent behavior. This is the case in all of the stories I have discussed except for "The Yellow Wallpaper". The fact that "A Short Guide to the City" shows the imp of the perverse in the society of the city rather than the psychology of the individual makes it a unique story.

Ever since Edgar Allan Poe used it, the imp of the perverse is a huge theme in Gothic stories. It shows what can happen when something goes wrong with the thought pattern of an individual. "A Short Guide to the City" is an exception to this. Because of its uniqueness, it is a truly great work of art.

"Nevermore"

The Replacements

The Replacements revolves around the insecurities of what seems to be an average male by the name of Stuart. Stuart has a typical male mentality when stumbling onto this creature of his walk home from work. Stuart was not particularly fond of this creature and quickly decided that "It was something that should not exist, a mistake, something alien. It did not belong in his world" I found it almost comical that he mentions that this creature is living in "his world" after finishing the story. It is obvious that the world that Stuart lives in isn't his world at all. Jenny, Stuart's wife wears the pants in the relationship and calls the shots in Stuart's life. Jenny believed that this creature that "didn't belong in the world in Stuart's world" belonged in their home. At one point in the story Stuart realizes that "he was not afraid of a creature no bigger than a football and less likely to hurt him; rather, he was afraid that he might hurt it". This statements reflects Stuarts undeniable fear of upsetting Jenny and the consequences that may follow. As the story progresses Stuart is more and more neglected by his wife until Jenny stops offering to drive him to work at all. The creature slowly begins to replace Stuart in every day activities. Towards the end of the story, the creature seems to be trying to flee the house but is trapped.

I believe that the story is reflecting a woman's desire to nurture whether it be a child, pet, or alien creature. I think the fact that it becomes more about the woman's desire rather than the creature's actual need shows an aspect of feminism. Showing that not only do women not need men, but men can be replaced as well. I strongly agree with the theory that the creature is a metaphor for what happens to a relationship with the birth of a child. Although, I believe that there is a reason that it is a creature and not a baby. The fact that the creature is repulsive affects how acceptable the neglect of Stuart is. If Jenny were to be nurturing a child and neglecting Stuart it would be a fact of life that he had to deal with but, a alien creature is not a ordinary occurrence making the neglect more personal.

Genre Study - A Good Man is Hard to Find

When looking at A Good Man Is Hard To Find by Flannery O'Connor it is a story about a family from the south who are going on a what seems like a harmless vacation to Florida. Though, the whole time the grandmother is trying to persuade the family to change their minds and go to Tennessee. One reason that she did not want to head towards Florida is because there was a Killer on the loose called The Misfit. It was the grandmother then that lead the family off on their vacation to visit a place that she had visited when she was a young girl. Though, on the way to this place they crash into a ditch and are left stranded. Till what the family probably thought would be the people to save them, but because like said in the story countless of times you can't trust anyone anymore. The people who got out of the car was The Misfit, which led to the murder of the entire family. Though, the grandmother tried to find the good in him, but there was none to be found and she ended up dead.
Within the story there are many gothic elements that can be portrayed. It is said that this story is of Southern Gothic. There are elements such as being stranded, the weather, that of suspense and of the common evil horror.
The weather is a concern, in we do not know what time of day it is. We do not know if it is day or night and this would add to the overall effectiveness of the story, but we are never told.
The aspect of being stranded in how the family is not in a place they are familiar with. Though, the grandmother thinks she does, but is mistaking the area with an area in Tennessee. Then to the final scene where the family is left stranded in the ditch after they crashed into, left there injured and know way of transportation. Putting their faith in the hands of the next person or family to come along and help them out. This element adds on to the other element of suspense. Throughout the story, we have an underlying feeling that something is going to happen to this family.Then when the family finally comes in contact with The Misfit, there is the suspense that builds up as he kills off each member of the family one by one. Then to the final suspense if he will kill the grandmother. These two elements help drive the story to the end. Then the final evil that is possessed in the story with The Misfit, if feeling no remorse when killing all the people he has killed.

Genre Study of "A Good Man is Hard to Find"

There are many Gothic elements present in "A Good Man is Hard to Find". Some of the major Gothic elements that are present in the story are those of suspense, seclusion/loneliness, and also a sense of evil/horror.

One element that seems essential to the story is the seclusion and loneliness aspect. When I say seclusion, I mean it in the sense of location rather than a sense of personality. This is present also in the story "The Striding Place" which we have read. The striding place was located out in the English wilderness and far from major locations. The same seclusion seems to be used in "A Good Man is Hard to Find". The Grandmother in the story frequently reminds her family that she lived in a rural area as a child. She recalls how there were no paved roads, lots of trees, and large mountains. She also causes the family to drive on a secluded road to get to a place she said that she had spent some time at in her youth. This is of course the road that the car ends up crashing into a ditch and leads to the slaughter of the family by the Misfit.

Another element that is there is the sense of horror and evil. I think this Gothic element is extremely predominant in the story "Strawberry Spring" by King. There is a sense that something vile and evil is lurking out there that no one really seems to be able to survive after an encounter with it. I think this is present in "A Good Man is Hard to Find" with the use of the Misfit. The grandmother uses his name to frighten her grandchildren into giving them a reason why she shouldn't stay home while the family goes to Florida. Throughout the story, he is an evil and repulsive presence that accompanies the family on their travels. Finally when their car is in the ditch, the Misfit arrives. He seems to be a representation of classic evil as he refutes and expresses his thoughts about Jesus, giving him a devilish personality. Then after all is said, he is responsible for the death of the family, leaving none alive in his path.

Genre Study: "A Good Man is Hard to Find"

Genre Study

“A Good Man is Hard to Find”

In the story “A Good Man is Hard to Find” there are many elements of Gothicism: foreshadowing, isolation, darkness/creepiness, and a struggle between good versus evil. The one I would like to focus on is the foreshadowing element.

This short story has to have been the most predictable story I have ever read. Right from the begging when the grandmother complains that she doesn’t want to go to Florida. That set off the alarm in my head saying something is happening or going toward Florida that isn’t very good. When the grandmother says “Here this fellow that calls himself The Misfit is aloose from the Federal Pen and headed toward Florida and you read here what it says he did to these people. Just read it. I wouldn’t take my children in any direction with a criminal like that aloose in it. I couldn’t answer to my conscience if I did.” (O’Conner from the short story “A Good Man is Hard to Find). Is another major foreshadowing point. IRONICALLY the grandmother is the one who leads them right into the path of the Misfit.

Lets see what else is foreshadowing in this story. The fact that she dresses in her best cloths in case they die on the side of the road, so everyone will know she is a lady? Or the town’s name, isn’t it ironic how they family is killed in a town named Toombsboro? This name can be split apart into two words, tomb and bury. The biggest example of foreshadowing for me in this story was the fact that they passed a cotton field with six graves in it! THE EXACT NUMBER OF THE PEOPLE IN THE CAR. At this point I was like screaming HELLO THE MISFIT IS GOING TO FIND THEM AND THEY ARE ALL GOING TO DIE.

Foreshadowing is a key element is most stories, not just Gothic. It is a narrative hook that get the reader into the story basically. Just by dropping little hints and clues all over the place to keep the reader of the story interested. Countless of other stories we read have had this literary device in it. Most recently “A Rose for Emily” was filled with foreshadowing. The smell, the way Miss Emily hoards her father’s body, and the way no one ever hears from Homer again?

Foreshadowing is set up in “A Good Man is Hard to find” very nicely by O’Conner. I don’t know if she meant her story to be that predictable, but it was. It doesn’t take away from the fact that it was a good story. All the hints, tips, and guesses as to what was happening made me continue to read, just to see if I was right. This is what authors use foreshadowing for though. O’Conner does an excellent job of alluding to the final outcome in many effective ways. BUT I wish there was a little more shock value to it. Know what is going to happen is nice, but I would have like to been proven wrong on at least one of my guesses.

A Rose For Emily

“A Rose for Emily”, by William Faulkner is a story about a woman who refused to accept change. When her father died, she denied his death for three days, arguing that he was still alive. Emily Grierson was said to come from more of a prestige family, but after her father’s death, she was left with nothing. The mayor at the time exempt her from taxes, saying that it was a way to repay her for the money her father lent the town; a way to hide the charitable handout. The story also shows how Emily found love in a northern, day laborer, which had the townspeople talking. She had bought arsenic one day, which was thought was to commit her own suicide, but by the end of the story, the readers find out what horrible deed was done. After her death, city authorities searched through the house, and found in an old, seemed to be abandoned room, the decayed body of Homer Barron, her former lover. Next to his body, was an indented pillow with strands of Emily’s gray hair. Killing the man she loved was a way she could keep him forever, in her struggles with coping with reality.

There were several gothic elements to this story, which were displayed through the descriptive settings and the small town secrets. Gothic settings take forms of architecture as well as nature. Gothic moods are set by descriptions of settings; cold, dim, gloomy, etc. Another element in Gothic literature is small town secrets, where the secrets are horrid and can make some people go mad.

Charles Johnson uses the same elements in countless other stories, one being “The Exchange Value”. In this story, the old women led a mysterious and secretive life, which the two brothers were curious of. As they break in the house they find out that, she inherited a large amount of money, which then she was afraid to loose, and became a hoarder. Also in Twin Peaks, there are many examples of secrets, and how secrets lead to destruction. As we see in, “A Rose for Emily” her once lovely house, has began to decay and tarnish. Her house was dark and dirty, filth piled itself among the walls, and horrible smells emerged, and was described as “an eyesore among eyesores.” Throughout the story, there is a sense that something was being hidden. The narrator mentions strange things such as the purchase of the arsenic, and then again how Homer returned to Emily and both were never seen outside again. Emily’s deranged secret was that the arsenic was used to kill Homer, keeping him locked away to be with her forever.

In each of these three stories, elements of gothic fiction appear strongly. The settings help to set the mood of mystery and suspense and as the stories play out, the secrets are revealed. Small town secrets, in all examples, have been anything but pleasant. These secrets, like stealing the money, which caused the disorder of hording, and Emily’s secret murder, show how terrible secrets bring people to go crazy.

Replacements: an afterthought

I neglected to mention Poe's "The Black Cat" and how I noticed it's similarities to "Replacements". A very obvious similaritiy is the husband's urge to hurt-even kill-his wife's pet. But what is different is that in "The Black Cat" the husband hurts the cat out of twisted thoughts of alcohol-fueled madness, whereas in "Replacements" the husband's contempt for the creature is simply because it doesn't seem normal. It doesn't fit with the world he grew up in. There has to be something wrong with it. And it is pulling him away from his wife. Her mothering instincts appear to take over and dominate her entire existence. Strangely enough, other women who own these creatures appear to behave in the same way. What kind of hypnotic hold do these creatures hold over their "owners"? Could they somehow be related to infertility?

Replacements: genre study

Fear of loneliness, fear of the unknown, fear of darkness, fear of nature. These are a few of the themes found in good examples of Gothic fiction. Bring it all together, give it a pinch of thought, and let it simmer for a while. What you have to feast on is a giant, bubbly, piping-hot bowl full of death. Yes, that is a very extreme and blunt way of putting it. But can't you see it? I can--in one way or another the one thread connecting these stories (indeed, all horror/goth stories) is the mystery of death. Some stories we read focused on what appeared to be a somewhat dreamy and inquisitive look into death, such as Shirley Jackson's "The Lovely House" and the Twin Peaks episodes. However, even though they were at times whimsical in dealing with death and the dark unknown, there was still an ominous atmosphere.
My theory can be split up in a number of different ways when referencing the Gothic genre. Closest to the fear of dying is the fear of loneliness, which was explored in Lovecraft's "The Outsider", as well as in Gilman's "The Yellow Wallpaper" and Anderson's "Death in the Woods". And in "The Icebound Hothouse", our main character is overwhelmed with the desire to be inside that hothouse. For whatever reason he carries on about, it boils down to a matter of his desire to escape from the cold, to enter where it is warm and alive. And once he is there among the flowers, the porcelain husk of a beautiful woman (once warm and alive, but now dead-cold-alone) crashes down, destroying his warmth and once again bringing the cold and snow into his life. And of course we all remember where the story goes from there. Not very pretty. Or alive. Being lonely and feeling abandoned could quite possibly be what death is like.
Poe's "The Black Cat", which I will get to again later, depicts how one man handles death. Does his urge to hurt the cat indicate that he is curious about death? Or perhaps life is what he wants to learn about. Or he could also be a heartbroken and psychotic drunk. I believe his alcohol-eroded mental stability brings him to somehow investigate death and pain. In a strangely opposite perspective, I see the main character in Oates's "The Temple" as feeling a caring love and tenderness towards the dead. She feels the bones she discovers must be respected. And, in the end, it is the lifeless bones that cure her loneliness. Interesting...the lonely bones and the lonely woman brought together show how in a way death has brought them solace.
Which leads me to Tuttle's "Replacements". When this semester began, I had no idea where my eager imagination and desire for learning would take me. The last thing I expected, however, was to find myself wrapping up my Gothic Lit class by talking about the importance marital strife had in relation to it. Beginning with King's "Children of the Corn" and continuing with Carver's "Little Things", Gilman's "The Yellow Wallpaper", Cheever's "The Enormous Radio", Bradbury's "The Veldt" (erosion of the family more than of a marriage with that one), and finally Tuttle's "Replacements", the simple drama of a couple fighting and falling out of love has become a central theme in many of the gothic stories we have read. And what happens when a couple separates? Two more very hurt and lonely people begin to wander the planet, shaking off whatever kind of wreckage has stuck to their skin and clothes. Which again connects to how close loneliness must feel to death. And unfortunately, as the darkness of solitude relates to death, so does the darkness and intimidating density of a mysterious forest relate to being lost and alone. Emotionally, anyway.
These thoughts leave me to wonder if our true fear isn't death or the darkness, but the possible (eventual?) natural erosion of love. That is the essence of being deserted and left in the shadows. I wonder if it is right to think that in the end we all die alone?

I have been staring at this screen for what seems like hours. I honestly can not think of anything else to add. I end my blog entry with that question.

The Lonesome Place (Cultural Context)

The Lonesome Place is about two young boys, Steve and Johnny. The narrator of this story is Steve and Johnny is his best friend. These two young boys are terrified to walk by a grain elevator at night. There is no light and seems almost abandoned. Almost every night one or both of the boys has to walk by the elevator. They always run as fast as they can to get to the other side.The next day they tell stories of what they saw. They believe there is a creature living in the place behind the elevatory and each night they add something new to what it looks like. Steve and Johnny believe so adamantly that something is there that Johnny actually tells his parents about it and then gets punished. For some reason Steve's mother always makes him go down to the store just when it's getting dark. He always begs and pleads with her, saying that he will going in the morning to get what she needs, but ne never seems to prevail. The boys eventually grow older and seem to somewhat forget their fear of the lonesome place. They know how spooky it is and sometimes take girls there so the girls will walk close to them, but even Steve states that no matter how pretty the girl is he never lingers there. One day the boys find out that a little fat boy named Bobby Jeffers was killed by the grain elevator by some sort of animal. The boys then start to believe that it is their fault because they left the creature there to get someone else who couldn't run as fast as they could.
Fear of the unknown has a lot to do with this story. The boys were afraid of what they couldn't see. It was fine to walk past the grain elevator by day, but at night the creature came out. I think the boys were just having the same fears of the dark as any other little boy or girl would have. They imagined the creature and basically kept adding to its image until they forgot about it. Even as adults people are afriad of what they can't see. When you're a child there's a monster in that dark spot with no light, but as you get older the fear morphs into more practical things. Instead of there being a monster in the dark, maybe there's a thief or someone there waiting to hurt you. Fear of the unknown, especially the dark is a pretty worldwide phenomena.

"Death in the woods" (Cultural Context)

“Death in the woods” written by Sherwood Anderson is a sad story of one woman’s loneliness and strive at life to hardly survive. Her life would only consist of a duty to care for “others”, which were her animal friends on her small farm and the joke of a family inherited. The story of the poor woman portrays the lives of people who once lived during the capitalistic society, when the powerful reign of “Marxism” flourished. Being that Sherwood Anderson was a writer during the “modernism” period, encourages Anderson to depict the hardworking way of life that most American’s faced during the industrial revolution.

Such as the story of Mrs. Grimes who only knew a life of loneliness and enslavement. All through her life she was nothing more then a slave and piece of meat to others. Her life only consisted of serving unkind, cold hearted people beginning with the German framer, her boss who tried to take advantage of her sexually and even the ones closest to her, Jake (her husband), and there only son. No one in the town had ever known anything of the woman besides that both of her men were low life thieves and criminals who had little respect for anyone or anything. Since neither the father or son were ever home for long periods at a time, the woman had to look after the farm and face the responsibilities that came with it even if it meant she could barely survive. “Life was work, and work was life” for the old woman who knew nothing more. The old woman once young and beautiful never got to enjoy her life because of the burden of others. Work meant feeding the Men, horses, dogs and the few chickens that had to lay eggs so she could gain income. Not only was her life miserable but also unexpectedly cut short because of the long, hard, cold days of work and traveling through snow for miles, which her body could no longer endure.

The woman in the story is the definition of the way of life that millions faced during Karl Marx’s period of “modernism”. Marx’s main fear and anxiety was for the people who worked everyday of their lives during the Industrial Revolution, which would ultimately exploit them for their contributions to society and received little to no sympathy for it. Capitalism is unkind to society and can bring pain to the people who follow it. This is what the story entails of the sad short life of the woman who knew nothing but of hard work. Capitalism ultimately means to work and never rest. When the woman stopped to sit and rest from working for one second, she died. Women and people who are less fortunate in life are not only providers of life but are crucial to a societies development.

"The Lonesome Place" Cultural Context

The story, “The Lonesome Place” by August Derleth, is told from the point of view of the narrator, Steve, and his best friend, Johnny Newell, who are both around the age of seven. They are both scared of this dark place and absolutely terrified of this thing that they believe lurks in the darkness of the grain elevator, “the lonesome place”, that’s nearby their community. Steve’s mother always sends him to town to do errands which means passing the place in the dark on his way home. To the narrator “the lonesome place” seems harmless when he passes it at dusk, but when the sun goes down is when he fears whatever’s inside the most. Johnny and Steve always tell their own stories of when they have to run past the lumber yard and grain elevator because of the scary creature they believe lives there and they conjure up their own idea of what the creature looks like. They say it has scales, and a long tail like a dragon’s, breathed hot as fire, but had no face or mouth in it, just an opening in its throat, and it was as big as an elephant, and has clawed feet like a soft-shelled turtle. They also say that the creature waits to prey on fearful children. After Steve and Johnny grew up and became less fearful of “the lonesome place”, a young boy, Bobby Jeffers, is killed there. It appeared that he had been mauled by some kind of animal, but Steve and Johnny feel responsible because they believe that it was the monster they created out of their fears when they were children. “You were never afraid of it by day, but by night it was a different place; for then it was lonesome, away from sight or sound, a place of darkness and strangeness, a place of terror for little boys haunted by a thousand fears (193).”

I think this story has a lot to do with the fear of being alone. On page 192 Steve says that he and Johnny were never afraid to go past “the lonesome place” together, but they weren’t together often. Steve went that way a lot of the time because it was the quickest way to town when his mom made him go. He goes on to say that you could hear kids playing in the time they had left to be outside and that made him feel not alone somehow. The narrator could “go down into that dark place under the trees” and he wouldn’t think of being lonesome because there was a notable presence of other people around. When he comes back from town, the sun is completely set and even though the streetlights are on, the light doesn’t reach “the lonesome place” near the elevator; it is “half a block long, black as black could be, dark as the deepest night”. When Steve is alone is when his imagination runs wild, so wild, that he believes there’s some kind of monster that he has to run from until he reaches his home; he was creating something out of his own fear and when you’re alone, especially for a young boy who’s only seven, there’s no one there to tell you that it’s just your imagination or to assure you that there’s really nothing there.

Steve was so afraid to walk by it alone that he would argue with his mom that he would go to town in the morning before he had to go to school or for her to send his sister. On page 193 Steve says, “I would walk slower and slower, the closer I got to the lonesome place. I would think of every way around it. I would keep hoping somebody would come along, so that I could walk with them.” He never wanted to face “the lonesome place” alone so he would wish for someone, anyone, to show up to walk with. When he reaches the end of the place he runs. He keeps running from something he created from always having to walk past this lonesome place by himself and because it’s in his mind, it will never go away and he won’t stop running until he reaches the safety of his home. Not only was Steve passing the place alone, but so was Johnny and that’s when they would compare what they felt and saw; Johnny was doing the same thing Steve was, but Johnny was so convinced that there was some creature that he would tell his parents, making his dad give him a “licking”. When Steve and Johnny are individually alone and have to go past “the lonesome place” there’s no one to constrict their imaginations and give them a sense of protection and comfort. They have to face this fear they created alone.

"The Lonesome Place"

The Lonesome Place is a story about two young boys, Steve and Johnny. The story is centered aroung an old abandoned grain elevator, which the boys call The Lonesome Place. It is an old elevator surrounded by trees and old piles of lumber. Steve and Johnny are afraid of this place when it is dark out but not during the day. During the day it is simply an old grain elevator and piles of lumber that are never bothered but when it is dark out there is a creepiness to the place and the boys believe a creature lives inside the elevator. The boys always run past the place at night because they are scared. One night the boys are overcome by fear and while they are running they create an image of this creature. They imagine the creature to have scales, big claws, a long tail, and no face. When the boys are older they find out that a young man has been killed at the lonesome place. Steve and Johnny blame this on themseleves because they never told anyone of this monster that they had created.

I think the main thing this story is focusing on is fear of the dark. The boys are normal children living in a normal town, but they are overtaken by fear of a creature living in an old elevator. The creature obviously isn't real, as the boys can see during the day that nothing is there. I think the author is trying to show the reader that darkness can make people change their thought patterns. Something that is completely normal and peaceful during the day can be strange and scary in the dark. The author demonstrates that people automatically think differently when they can't see everything around them. Darkness provides an eery setting that easily creates thoughts of evil and monsters. This story shows that people are reassured when they can see what is in front of them, but in the dark, a person's imagination can run free because there is no visual proof that something is or is not present. The author also points out that fear of the dark is foolish by making Steve and Johnny feel guilty about the death of Bobby. The reader can understand that Bobby's death was not their fault and there was no creature that killed Bobby, but since Steve and Johnny are so afraid of the dark, they think it is their fault and they believe that the monster truly exists.

"Death In the Woods" Cultural Context

"Death in the Woods" by Sherwood Anderson is a tale of the plight of man just to work to survive. This story was written just when Marxism was becoming popular and the story represents the plight of man in a Capitalistic society. It shows how this woman is exploited for gain. She began as a slave for the German (as Marx said "Everywhere man is in chains") and ends up being a slave to her husband Jake Grimes and thier son. The woman has to walk and carry heavy loads just so she has something to eat and so that she can feed her animals so that they can produce food for her and her family. She struggles everyday just to do this. The story is clear that she has to work hard just to survive in terrible living conditions. In modern times, this is just like people living paycheck to paycheck in order to produce a livelihood. People today have to work to produce a profit for the company that they work for. This story tries to show that if we stop working to the point where we are breaking our backs, we will die.

When Karl Marx wrote his "Communist Manifesto", his fear and anxiety was that the workers of the world were being exploited for the good of the elite. The woman in this story is being exploited first by her German owner, when she is a slave to him, and secondly to her husband and son. This story takes place during the Industrial Revolution. The Proletariat (the woman) were in terrible working conditions so that the Bourgeoisie (the German, her family) could live better lives. The Proletariat had to do back-breaking work just as the woman does.

The perspective of this story is that the plight of the woman in trying to survive ultimatley leads to her death. In Capitalism, if you stop working you will die. When the woman stopped to rest, she died. According to Marx, the Proletariat was being treated poorly and unjustly just as the way that the German and her husband and son treated her. Anderson is trying to depict the horrors that Capitalism can bring. She struggles everyday just so she and her family can continue to eat and to live. It is the story of the plight of man in a society that is based on exploitation.


"Nevermore" -the Ravin

Cultural Context of "The Lonesome Place"

The story “The Lonesome Place”, written by August Derleth, is about these two children, named Steve and Johnny, who are around the age of seven. The story starts off with Steve, the narrator, confessing to the readers that he has committed a murder. The boys then start talking about their fear for the darkness and this place they call the Lonesome Place. The Lonesome Place is an old grain elevator surrounded by nothing but trees, sheds, and lumber piles. There are no houses nearby making it very lonely and dark at night. The Lonesome Place was a different place during the day than it was during the night. During the day, it was surrounded by maple and oak trees, sheds and lumber piles that were never bothered, and most importantly, it was not a scary place because of the light. During the night, it was dark, lonely, away from sound and light, and it had a strangeness that terrified the little children. Johnny and Steve were convinced there was some kind of monster, or “Thing”, living in the Lonesome Place. At night, they would run as fast as they could past the place and the next day they would share their stories of the Thing. Although neither one of them had actually ever seen the Thing, they described it as having big, clawed feet, ugly, sharp, and soft claws, scales, a long tail, and no face. As they got older, they forgot about the Lonesome Place altogether until one night when a little boy is found dead in the Lonesome Place. They are convinced it was their fault because they kept the Thing a secret from the village.

I think the cultural context of this story is the fear of darkness. The narrator compares the Lonesome Place during the day and during the night. During the day, the boys are not afraid of it and have no problem walking past it. However, during the night, they sprint as fast as they can past it because of the darkness that surrounds it. At night, their imaginations run wild and they create this monster in their heads. Steve’s mother always makes him run errands at night and he pleads and begs her to let him go in the morning. He even asks his mom to make his little sister go instead of him. Steve describes how he would walk slower and slower just to stay in the light longer and once he got to the Lonesome Place he would run as fast as he could past it until he reached the light again. In the story, only the little children are afraid of the dark. While Steve argues with his mother every night about not wanting to go to the store, she does not see that he is afraid to go out into the night. When he comes home all out of breath and pale, she tells him not to rush home and does not even bother to find out what exactly he is running from. When Steve tells his mom that one night he will not be back because of whatever is out in the darkness, she calls him “silly” and tells him the booger-man was caught. Even his little sister can tell that he is afraid of something when she calls him a “fraidy cat”. On his way to the store there is usually some light left and there are still little children out playing, but on his way back there is no more light and all the children are locked in their houses.

“Death in the Woods” (Cultural Context)

The story, “Death in the Woods,” is about a poor helpless woman named Mrs. Grimes, who was treated badly her whole life by cruel people, such as, the German framer, her boss who took advantage of her, Jake (her husband), and her son, who never showed her any respect. Grimes purpose in life is to feed animals, and her family. As Jake, and her son come and go as they please, she is left with the problems of keeping everything in order. When she was discovered dead in the woods, the narrator makes it his goal to really explain the true story of Mrs. Grimes’ life.

Sherwood Anderson was a writer of the literary movement called “modernism.” In this time, writers discuss how Western society’s work conditions, daily life, and social organization progressed into a new era of the “industrialized world.” Especially after the Industrial Revolution, effects emerged. The American way of life changed drastically. Machines were used instead of one’s hands, and located in large factories, instead of their homes. The working class was the ones who suffered the most because they spent endless hours of labor for very little pay, as for the wealthy became wealthier. This caused a major social gap between the communities. The result that developed was a change in how others treat one another. In “Death in the Woods,” the story takes place in the late 1800’s, around the time of the industrial revolution. The town, however, does seem rural, but is expanding causing the citizens to only look out for themselves instead of being an intimate community they once use to be. As I said before, the poor became poorer, and the rich became richer. The penniless Grimes family was looked down upon by the towns’ people, for Jake was a horse thief, and the son was a clone of his father. Jake, her husband, had made an attempt of being friendly with the others, but failed. They were considered low lives, since John, Jake’s father, and Jake spent all their sawmill fortune on unimportant things. The people of the town should have had pity for the woman, but instead, turned the other cheek when she was in their presence. She was considered “nothing special” and “one of the nameless ones that hardly anyone knows.” This kind of segregation is seen all throughout the story, except the part with the butcher. He was the only person who ever showed her any form of kindness, and compassion. This could represent how others should be. Anyways, back to the point, the author is in fear of how people are developing, as a result of the new cultural change. A perfect example is when the narrator over heard the unfamiliar hunter claim he found a dead body in the woods. The boys did not know any of the men they were following on their way to the corpse. When the narrator claimed the events that were happening, he says, “They took the body to the undertaker’s, and when the blacksmith, the hunter, the marshal and several others had got inside, they closed the door.” In a close knit area, the boy should have been able to know the men’s names. I believe the author is upset with the new changes in life. It makes all the people in the story sound so disconnected and heartless to Grimes. Sherwood’s perspective on the issue is that we will all become strangers to everyone else, and not care about others. Well, someone might think, if they were not so close, how come the narrator knew so much about Grimes? To be honest, the story seems to be embedded with much fiction. As he lives through his life, experiencing more situations, her life story starts to change. When he was describing the story of Jake and the German farmer fighting, the one part he admits, “I wonder how I know all this. It must have stuck in my mind from small-town talks when I was a boy.” The narrator also claimed events happened that parallel his life, such as, the dog circle death ritual, and the girl who works on the farm in fear, and is hated by the farmer’s wife. As a reader, the information that is given to us is not valid. All we know that is true is the time he saw her body that day in the woods.

Another concern the author has in this story intertwines with concept of inequality but with gender roles. Grimes was treated horribly all her life. Her duty was to feed animals, or people who acted like animals. This reflects the woman’s role in a family. It did not matter if she had an identity or not, just as long as she nurtured the family. Especially in many housewives lives, their identity disappeared because their family is the only part in their lives. In the story, Grimes would just tremble when an argument broke out or was always silent because she “was fixed” that way. She was never able to express herself or her feelings. She was just an object that was a provider. She was a provider with food, and an object of sexual desire. In the story, the German farmer took advantage of her, and did not have to “feed her husband-in a certain way. That hasn’t lasted long after their marriage and after the babies.” Even after her death she stills plays the provider role. When the dogs did their death dance, they stole her backpack full of food to feed themselves. Also, her dead body became young and beautiful again in the snow, making her desired by men that found her. In this story, I feel the author is making a point that women are seen as providers, but are worth more than that. The narrator said the brother did not tell Grimes’ story right because he did not understand the beauty in it. When time went by, and the narrator was able to “piece” it together, he was “impelled to try to tell the simple story over again.” It shows how significant she actually was for the boy to try to understand her story until he was an adult.

The Striding Place

The short story “The Striding Place” by Gertrude Atherton takes place in the West Riding of Yorkshire, England where Weigall and his go on a trip of grouse hunting which they do every year. After their long trip the men decide to go to sleep, but Weigall remains up thinking about his friend Wyatt Gifford that has disappeared two days prior. Weigall decides to take a stroll in the woods and while doing so, he reminisces about the good times him and Gifford shared together. The roaring river is heard through the trees up ahead, and Weigall decides to walk towards it, through the trees where the only light is the stars above. As Weigall looks into the rough waters he seems a hand waving in the water, he then breaks off a branch and pushes the figures hand. Weigall realizes that the body is caught in the rocks and jumps in to save the figure; which seems familiar to him. After Weigall rescues the body he listens for a heartbeat and then tries to give CPR, but upon closer inspection, his close friend Gifford that he had rescued, has no face.

This story had its interesting moments but sometimes was a bit hard to understand. The one cultural concern that jumped out at me was the fear and anxiety of what happens in the afterlife. Weigall remembers Gifford discussing that he thinks people are able to see their friends and family one more time after you die, but those are his specific beliefs. Weigall doesn’t really share his beliefs on the subject, but it’s possible that some people might have shared the same thoughts depending on the time period in which this has taken place in.

I think Gertrude portrayed the concern of the afterlife in an odd way, but it seems like it fit into the story line. Weigall’s friend was missing, and he happens to hear the river that has claimed so many lives and remembers what Gifford thinks about seeing his friends for the last time after he dies, and then Weigall actually finds Gifford dead, but with no face. Maybe Gifford’s face missing represents some type of symbolism that he was unable to see or experience anything after death, the fear of the unknown relates to the unknown of the afterlife.

Cultural Context of The Damned Thing

In Ambrose Bierce’s “The Damned Thing”, Hugh Morgan is not only dead, but his body is battered. The locals, a jury, and a coroner are in the cabin of the deceased person to determine the cause of death. There was a man named William Harker, the only witness to Hugh Morgan’s death who says there was something in the field of oat bushels that Hugh Morgan referred to as a “damned thing”. Everyone else laughed at what William Harker said, and one person sarcastically said that he should go back to the insane asylum. At this point, the reader recognizes the cultural fear that still is extremely debatable to this date, the supernatural. People were first taught that among the supernatural, things such as ghosts, were in purgatory as the good people according to God went to heaven, and the evil people would go to hell. There were a decent amount of people who believed in ghosts, however the rationalists would laugh and mock these people.
This is what happened to poor William Harker, as he would become more frustrated with the jury. At the end of the story, the jury agree to say that Hugh Morgan was killed by a mountain lion. In my opinion, the author of the story, Ambrose Bierce is trying to tell his audience the reason why people deny the supernatural is because it is not well known. If there’s one thing that people fear, it is the unknown. In Hugh Morgan’s diary, he acknowledges that people will never believe in the “damned thing” because the eyes and ears of human beings are imperfect as there are rays the human eyes are not able to say. The ears are imperfect as well because of the black birds that fly away together even though no one has been able to hear a warning before they fly. The author may also be saying that humans are very lucky to have the intelligence, hearing, seeing, and other gifts we have, but we are still not perfect.

In the Striding Place by Gertrude Atherton was an interesting, yet I found it hard to follow and understand. Though one thing that is clear is the Cultural Context within the story and that was the concept that we do not know what is in store for us in the afterlife. Since this story was written in the early 1900s we know that this concept will always be a fear and a mystery for all of us. Along with what happens in the afterlife it also talks about another common question that is associated with the afterlife. This is if our soul will live on; if it lives as a sperate part from the body or if it remains with the body.

In the story Weigall's childhood friend goes missing for two days. While he was looking for his friend he has flashbacks of when they talked about what happens after death. His friend Gifford said that he "cherrished the theroy... that the soul sometimes lingers in the body after death" (159). He belives in this theroy that we are able to see our friends and family one last time before we move on. Though, we will never know, there is no proof or fact that this is what happens. He aslo talks about how he believes that the body and soul will remain together. "The body and soul are twins, life commrades-- some-friends, sometimes enemies, but always loyal in the last instance" (159).

When looking at this concept I agree with Atherton in putting this concept into her story. This adds an overall edge that makes us think what will happen. Though, we will never know, we can only guess and that is what I think makes this story interesting. She takes a concept that will always be a question for almost every human being, we may have an idea, but we will never really know what will happen, until it does and by that time we cannot tell anyone, so know one will ever know.

The damned thing by Ambrose Bierce

The damned thing writes about the social anxiety or fear of the unknown. in the story the damned thing is an evil thing that cannot be described because no one is sure what it actually looks like. The problem with the damned thing besides the fact that its evil is the fact that no one knows when or how it is going to strike. in the book it desribes how the movement in the grass and the fluster of the birds in the trees are the only things that allow someone to know that the damned thing is near. Looking deeper into the idea of the unknown, society hates the unknown. it is not a comfortable feeling not knowing what is truly going on. another thing that this story shows is people and how they are not able to wrap their minds around something that is not concrete. the witness in this story was looked on as being crazy because of his account of how the man died. its easy to just push the insane button when something is not easily explained. if the majority of people do not believe what is happening than the people that actually do are easily referred to as crazy. it was eaiser in the story to rule the death becasue of a mountain lion than too actually search for the damned thing. people are to scared to find the unknown because its the unknown. this animal or creature could be insanely scary and truly evil or it could be something that does not look evil at all but truly is. society hates the fear of not knowing whats going on and i think thats the most important social fear that this story depicts.

Cultural Contexts of "The Striding Place"

Upon reading "The Striding Place" by Gertrude Atherton, one major cultural anxiety shot out at me. This anxiety seems to be present in every society present, past, and most likely future. The anxiety I speak of is that of what happens after death and what is the connection between spirit/soul and body. This may also be considered a cultural fear for some because there is not documented proof as to what happens after death and if there is such a thing as a true soul or spirit of a person. I am not stating that there is no such things as souls because many people believe in souls and life after death, but rather that there is no definite understanding about these things.

Throughout the story, the thoughts of death, what happens after death, and the presence of human souls are brought up. Midway through the story, the main character recalls a conversation with his friend, who he is searching for, about the connection of soul and body. He remembers his friend stating that the soul is a conscious prisoner in the body during times of madness. He also states that he likes the theory that the soul sometimes remains in the body after death. This seems like an anxiety that faces many people. People are unsure as to whether or not that statement is true. Death is a sensitive issue on its own, but to add to that the thought that the soul still could remain in the body seems to bring up a huge anxiety of possibly fear. He also goes on to say that he wants to become a mahatma in India so that he could truly explore the relationship between soul and body through allowing his soul to travel across different astral planes of existence. Then the main character asks about whether he should deem his body unfit for his soul after his travels through those planes of existence. This also brings up a huge fear. This suggests that not only can the soul leave the body, but can travel across other planes of existence.

The main character makes a reference to the afterlife when he comments about the striding place. He describes the place and says that no other place had the right to claim so many ghosts, if ghosts there were. Here he brings up the thought that there may are may not be such a thing as ghosts. Many people believe in ghosts and the supernatural because they feel like they need a connection to someone they knew after that person dies. Finally when he pulls his friend from the water he states that he has no face. I think he means that the body is lifeless and that the soul has left his friend's body. By saying what he said about the faceless body, I think we get a preview as to what the author's view on the soul is like. I think the author believes that there is a connection between soul and body and that the soul can leave the body at the time of death.

Cultural Contexts "The Striding Place"

“The Striding Place”

By: Gertrude Atherton

Cultural Contexts

I found this story to be very hard to understand. I didn’t make sense to me at all. Not even in the end when you find out what happened to Gifford. But I believe that this story has a main key issue that is discussed. That things are not always what they seem to be.

I saw this right from the begging that the author was trying to discuss the way things appear to be versus the way things really are. When the author talks about the English’s woods and how they are painted out to be so beautiful but when you get in them you realize how unsatisfying the hype is. Another example is Gifford is painted out to be a prankster and is always playing practical jokes on the group. But it turns out in the end that he really doesn’t have the face to muster a joke.

Unfortunately things not being what they seem is something that we find in today’s society as well. Even history shows us that things aren’t what the seem. Take Communism for example, the perfect form of government. On paper it seems like the best thing for society. Then comes the Soviet Union, and boom, communism turns out to be not the best thing in the world. The thing people have to understand is that things are never what they seem to be. Everything can seem perfect at one point or another, but unless you take into account every aspect of human nature you will not find out what it really is.

In this story it is evident that the woods are not what they seem to be. “An English wood is like a good many things in life-very promising at a distance, but a mellow mockery when you get within it.” (Oates 157, from the story “The Striding Place”) Basically, there is a grand picture of the woods, but once you get in it you are like “Wow this isn’t that special”. The author is trying to make society take a look at what we hold up on a pedestal and make us look at if they really deserve to be up there. Not all things in the world are what they seem. If society learned this then I think there would be fewer depressed people in the world.