Bog Kingdom Stylistic Analysis

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

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,

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