Gothic Comparison The American Romantic Gothic short story , “Fall of the House of Usher”, written by Edgar Allan Poe and the American Contemporary Gothic short story, “ Where is Here? ”, written by Joyce Carol Oates are two short stories that are written in two different styles of American Gothic Literature, they have more similarities in being that they are both written in a grotesque and mysterious way, making them more similar than different. The two short stories contain similarities in the feeling they create and differences in their styles of writing. “The Fall of the House of Usher” and “Where is Here?” are two different forms of gothic writing yet portray very similar ideas and have the same style of creating an eerie and frightening mind set for the readers.
The American Romantic Gothic genre is traditional grotesque and generally creepy writing. A famous example of an American Romantic Gothic writer is Edgar Allan Poe. Poe wrote many gothic stories , but people during his time did not accept them because they thought his writing was different, peculiar , and all in all , scary. The American Contemporary Gothic genre is also grotesque
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Oates’ story takes place in modern time making her story contemporary. While she is writing this short story she is giving very little information to the readers , creating a mysterious and eerie feeling. “ ‘ We’ve all been dead-- they’ve all been dead--a long time.’ ” (page 329) This statement is made by the man who comes to the family’s house and asks to look around as “ he’d once lived in the house .” (page 325) The remark made by the man is peculiar because he refers to himself as dead but he seems to be alive to the family. Oates writes this short story in a creepy manner and wants to make the readers feel intrigued and curious as to what is going on in the family’s house and why they’re acting so