In the gothic novel The Accursed by Joyce Carol Oates, physical places such as the Bog Kingdom and the city of Princeton are contrasted by means of specific details and motifs. However, the author explicitly contrasts the interpreted places in the book, such as the appearance of parallel events and the reality of those same events, by means of parallelisms and connectivity. Specifically, the contradiction of appearance and reality are made most evident in the journeys to the Bog Kingdom by Annabel Slade and her demon lover Axson Mayte, Amanda FitzRandolph and her demon lover, and Todd Slade. The first major turning point in the novel occurs when Annabel Slade is standing face-to-face with her soon-to-be husband and suddenly flees with, or …show more content…
Specifically, he wanders around his grandfather’s library. On the night of Todd’s adventure to the Bog Kingdom, “there [is] a sense of shame… that [makes] Todd want to avoid his grandfather even as he [finds] himself drawn to Crosswick’s Manse” (Oates pp. 484). He sneaks into Winslow Slade’s private library and appears to be an unruly, mischievous child with a curious mind. While disobeying his grandfather’s specific instructions on not intruding his personal space, Todd’s child-like curiosity seems to overcome his actions and compel him to snoop and pry around the office. He appears to have accidently come across a curious corridor leading to Bog Kingdom, but the inevitable interest of something new to a child leads to a critical fate for each character in the book. As he is made prisoner in the Bog Kingdom, he learns the Count’s ways into achieving domination—a game. He challenges the Count, as if he is trying to die as a means of escape, for the twelve- year olds’ death is inevitable by fate of the game and the Count’s cheating ways. As a last hope attempt as well as a last childish act of mocking the Count’s adulthood, Todd challenges the vampire to an intense game of draughts. Since he had always been mocking and conniving towards adults, the fact that Todd wanted to undermine an adult one last time was not a surprise. However, in reality, …show more content…
Song of Solomon by Toni Morrison bears resemblance with The Accursed and its contrast between fiction and fact; in the scene where a man jumps from the top of a hospital to his imminent death, it appears to the gawking society that he if freeing himself and is “flying”, however the scene is actually an obvious commitment of
Throughout the course of his The Devil in the White City, Erik Larson describes Chicago’s 1893 World’s Fair through the eyes of two different main characters: Herman Webster Mudgett—a psychopathic serial killer who builds his famous “death castle” on the outskirts of the fairgrounds, and Daniel Burnham—the director of works for the World’s Columbian Exposition. Larson employs the use of many contrasting themes within his writing including success and failure, but perhaps most importantly, murder and beauty. In order to emphasize said themes, Larson juxtaposes the accounts of his two main characters: Mudgett and Burnham. There is no doubt that the manner in which Larson portrays Mudgett is sketchy at best. Rather than introducing him with a concise description, Larson familiarizes the reader with Mudgett over the course of several chapters.
These events shape the audiences response to the novel and manipulate how we perceive these issues. Figurative language has been used in this text to portray the horrific scenes depicted in the prologue. Fellows’ most gruesome experience is illustrated through similes which enables the reader to visualise the horrid experience. He explains how the “wound opened up like a flower… worm-like creatures oozing and wriggling out of it like spaghetti” which compares this unthinkable experience to items we are more familiar with. By incorporating this simile, Fellows is able to manipulate the audience into being shocked and disgusted by the conditions of this prison.
The selections Bless Me, Ultima, The House on Mango Street, and A Midsummer’s Night Dream share the common theme of “People often make illogical decisions against reason when they ambitiously pursue a goal and are blinded from seeing reality.” In Bless Me, Ultima the characters illustrate the struggle which arises from the conflict between their personal dreams and their unseen reality. Likewise, in The House on Mango Street, the main character’s hopes and dreams for the future blinds her from seeing and appreciating her current life. Moreover, in A Midsummer’s Night Dream the characters’ actions demonstrate how love and ambition can blind people from the concerns of others and cause them to make irrational decisions. With common themes binding works of different genres and eras, it is mesmerizing to see how certain life truths do not vary, even over great times and
shows the readers that that vanity and lack of self-awareness can make some vulnerable and easily fall for the evilness of the world. Because Connie became vulnerable, she was easily persuaded by Arnold, who was portrayed as the Devil figure and the darkness that exists, to leave her the known safety of her home and to embark on the road to the unclear future. Oates’s story teaches the readers to be cautious of their surroundings and of the people that are unfamiliar to them that live in the same society. That is because even if someone appears to look a certain way they might have a mask that hides the true darkness and evilness that is in their body and
Edgar Allan Poe’s frightening gothic style poetry and short novels about fear, love, death and horror are prominent to Gothic Literature and explore madness through a nerve-recking angle. The incredible, malformed author, poet, editor and novelist is recognized for his famous classical pieces such as “The Raven”, “Berenice” and “The Tell-Tale Heart”, pieces of work that mystically yet magnificently awakens readers with a gloomy spirit. Awakening the subject of madness through written work was viewed as insane during Poe’s times. Yet Poe published some of the worlds most magnificently frightening pieces of literature throughout history. In the following essay I will examine and cautiously analyze
Analyzing Development: “Where is Here?” by Joyce Carol Oates Gothic literature holds an allure that readers and audiences often draw into; its combination of wickedness, mystery, death, and even romance stirs a sensation, a charm no other genre has. Through this charm, Edgar Allan Poe, the "founding voice of American gothic tradition," was able to pioneer interest into many future writers in the American writing industry. Specifically, modern writer Joyce Carol Oates implicated traditional gothic elements from Poe. Using dialogue, diction, and the interaction between characters, Oates carefully establishes the foundations and elements of spookiness into her gothic story—“Where is Here?”
In this essay, I’m going to discuss the gender roles in the paintings of Dalí, in the film “Un Chien Andalou” by Buñuel and the poems of Federico García Lorca. Gender roles play a huge part within these works. All three of these artists had the ability to showcase something beautiful or majestic through disturbing and off putting imagery. This is what made their work so distinctive compared to many other artists during the surrealist period. The main things all of these artists have in common are their feelings and expressions of gender roles.
Bud and Todd got into a fight and he was forced to sleep in the shed for the night. He gets attacked by hornets in the shed because he couldn 't see anything. He decides to get payback on Todd by putting his hand in warm water making him wet the bed then gets his suitcase and escapes the foster home. Bud then decides to go to the librarian to get help, since he was now homeless. He spends that night sleeping under a
Author Joyce Carol Oates ' discovery of the stories of Edgar Allen Poe and Ann Radcliff “sparked her interest in Gothic fiction”. These Gothic elements typically include gruesome or violent incidents, characters in psychological or physical torment, and strong language full of dangerous meanings. Oates herself is citied as saying that "Horror is a fact of life. As a writer, I’m fascinated by all facets of life". “Where is Here?" This story is sort of eerie and tells the tale of a grown-up man who goes back to visit his childhood home.
The thugs looked over to find where the howling was coming from and Lemon Brown lunged himself at them, causing himself to roll down the stairs. The thugs went outside of the house and after awhile they left. After seeing how much Lemon Brown adored his treasures, Greg realized that his dad caring so much for him meant everything. Greg now appreciates the lectures about decisions he was trying to make. Greg’s treasure was his relationship with his father all because of Lemon Brown’s story.
In Gothic literature, authors use ambiguity to create suspense and add scary details to their stories. Ambiguity defines the Gothic genre by developing questions and have the audience wanting more. The author of “Where is Here?” uses ambiguity more effectively than other Gothic authors like Edgar Alan Poe and Josie Couterez because of the use of fear of the unknown and the frustration of unanswered questions.
Modern artists today generally use images of physical and mental illness in literature. In The Tell-Tale Heart and The Fall of the House of Usher by Edgar Allan Poe, both short stories show the usage of illness, madness, and fear. The narrators in both stories try to convince the readers that the characters are physically and mentally ill. Edgar Allen Poe creates these vivid characters which successfully assist the building of plot and ideas. Poe demonstrates how a person’s inner turmoil and terror can lead to insanity through illustrative language.
The novel “The Haunting of Hill House,” written by Shirley Jackson, closely follows the traditional tropes of an American Gothic. The main character of the novel, Eleanor, begins her journey to self growth after accepting an offer to live in a suspected haunted house for the summer. Moreover, Eleanor meets three other people that have an important effect on her development as a person. These characters slowly begin to question their own sanity due to the house’s destructive nature. Jackson appeals to fans of the American gothic through her particular description of the house and how the characters interact with it in order to show the environments foil of an absolute reality.
In Victorian society, women had the choice between two roles: the pure woman or the fallen woman. Bram Stoker plays with these anxieties revolving around female sexuality – he follows the gothic tradition of innocent damsel in distress against looming evil. The narrative structure Stoker imploys to the text through intertextuality reveals multiple point of view distinguishing a duality in Lucy - her true self and 'thing'. In order to cope with Lucy’s worsening condition, the male authoritative figures of the text assign a duality present in Lucy to make sense of her shifting from “pure woman” to “fallen woman”. Stoker exhibits in the structure of the multi-faceted narrative how certain characters are unable to cope with the duality present
In the short story “The Flowers”, Alice Walker sufficiently prepares the reader for the texts surprise ending while also displaying the gradual loss of Myop’s innocence. The author uses literary devices like imagery, setting, and diction to convey her overall theme of coming of age because of the awareness of society's behavior. At the beguining of the story the author makes use of proper and necessary diction to create a euphoric and blissful aura. The character Myop “skipped lightly” while walker describes the harvests and how is causes “excited little tremors to run up her jaws.”. This is an introduction of the childlike innocence present in the main character.