RR #4: Southern Gothic Southern gothic is a style of writing used by many writers of the American South. The stories that were set, or took place, in that region are characterized by grotesque, ghastly, or bizarre occurrences. Flannery O’Connor and William Faulkner are among the best-known writers of Southern Gothic. Flannery O’Conner’s “A Good Man is Hard to Find” and William Faulkner’s “A Rose for Emily” are both works of Southern Gothic fiction. “A Rose for Emily” shows the effect that Southern Gothic had on Faulkner’s writing. This story kicks it off with; “When Miss Emily Grierson died…”(32) right off the bat. Death is literally the fifth word in this story! Throughout the entirety of the story, there is a gloomy sort of feeling accompanied …show more content…
On the other hand, for me, it lacked the dark, ghastliness. It could be because the cold blood murders did not really have a sinister twist, just your general kind of twist. (I don’t know if that makes sense). O’Connor twisted up the meaning of “good”; you have a nice religious grandmother and family, good, versus the Misfit, bad. In reality, the grandmother lied about the location, hypocritically “practices” religion, and does not follow her set of moral codes, where as the Misfit stays true to his code. The grandmother did not follow her beliefs and claims to believe in Jesus and proclaims Him unto the Misfit, telling him to “pray, pray” (428-429) and yet, she did not once pray for herself and her family in this time of crisis. I believe one more aspect made this story a Southern Gothic, and that would be a sense of foreshadowing what’s to come. Red Sam, a not so important character, right? So why does he get to say, “A Good Man is Hard to Find”? (423). When that line is read, there’s an eerie feeling that a good man may not be what he seems. It all depends on your perspective of “good”, and the grandmother desperately told the Misfit that he was good and he said that he wasn’t a “good” man in his point of view, but “[he] ain’t the worst in the world