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Southern gothic research topics
Gothic literature
Themes in american gothic literature
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Southern Gothic Lit, it is a sub-genre of the gothic style, meaning this type of literature is supported by supernatural activities or abnormal occasions to guide the storyline. This subgenre is unique to American literature. Southern Gothic literature is important due to the fact that not only does it give the viewer a sense of shock and suspense it also gives the reader a greater surprise when the plot is uncovered. Southern Gothic Literature also demonstrates grotesque features written in many novels. Applying Southern Gothic literature elements onto the movie “Fried Green Tomatoes” can be seen in multiple occasions.
There are often lots and lots of different ways to tell when something is being used as a symbol. Usually symbols are super easy to find and figure out. In most of the books I have to read for school the symbols are really common ones like a raven for death or a sunrise for a new start. Other popular symbols are colors. Colors like black often symbolism death.
Historical influences on To Kill a Mockingbird The Great Depression was a time of devastation and uncertainty (McCabe 12). The great depression was a time when the stock market crashed causing many people to lose their jobs and homes. This novel is based on the time around the Great Depression. There were many historical influences in the book To Kill a Mockingbird such as the Jim Crow laws, mob mentality and the Scottsboro trials.
Green is a color that is mostly associated with the emotion, envy. Color symbolism is common in many different works and is generally associated with emotion. In this scene, Emma is at the peak of her unhappiness with her marriage and therefore at the peak of her envy towards other people she sees around her. The green hat that Emma wears symbolizes the constant envy she feels towards the peaceful people she comes in contact with. Emma is at a fair and seeing the people that are happier than she is, envious feelings swell up inside her.
Three examples of gothic imagery in to kill a mockingbird are; a broken society, good and evil in the world, and the value of learning. The county of Maycomb contains racials tensions every such as Tom Robinson being convicted of a crime he did not commit. The only Reason why Tom Robinson was convicted as guilty is because an all white jury decided his fate. The fact that Atticus received hate and threats for doing the right thing and defending a colored Man shows a boundary between races in Maycomb.
On the surface Maycomb County might seem like quiet, nice place to live, but deeper into the town hidden identities are discovered, courage is needed, and the maturation of characters is crucial to unearthing the truth about life in the 1930s. In Harper Lee’s novel, To Kill a Mockingbird, readers learn about a small town named Maycomb County and the struggles that occur within it. During the Great Depression and a peak of Southern racism, readers met the main character Scout. Scout, a girl ages six to nine, narrates this story for years and the happenings in the town. Years pass and different incidents arise including a court case about rape, a mean old neighbor, and the mysterious man next door.
As I noticed reading the book and watching the two movies commenting on social issues, was a big big thing. Obviously it had to pertain to the Southern society. But the themes of betrayal, hypocrisy, honour and integrity among others are central to Southern Gothic literature. Southern Gothic writers built their stories around questions such as What are Southern values? What makes Southern culture and social identity unique?
A big game hunter, Rainsford, is going to the Amazon by a yacht with his friend Whitney. He hears an unusual sound off in the distance. He goes towards the edge of the yacht to see if he can see anything. He then falls overboard and has to swim to shore, only then to find out he is trapped on an island. He follows footprints through the jungle and eventually finds a large house that he decides to approach and knock on the door.
The analysis of this short story reveals a narrator of an Afro-American community who wanted to be part of the white culture but in vain, because he was confronted to tragic events, such as his brother’s imprisonment at an early age for drugs’ deals. This event makes him realize that he is part of that society where even in the school students are addicted to drugs. The story focuses on the necessity to accept its own community’s heritage as a factor to reach any political social o economical purpose. The narrator finds peace really when he reconnects with his family and his heritage that he tried hard to sacrifice in order to live.
In Roald Dahl’s The Landlady the genre is not Southern Gothic Literature. It has the opportunity to be but it ain’t , y’all. It’s utterly American (British) Gothic Literature but mysterious just like Southern Gothic.
Southern gothic literature is a method of writing that deals with problems in society that can be influenced by family values or disturbing lives. In the three texts To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee, The Life You Save May Be Your Own by Flannery O’Connor, and The Flowers by Alice Walker they are revolved around southern gothic literature. In these texts there is a strong emphasis on familial values in the southern gothic literature because all the problems faced in the texts are caused by family values. All three of these texts are based in the south where there is many different views on cultures and race which southern gothic literature strives on.
Outsiders are not always obvious, and it is a part of growing up and learning everywhere. The Southern Gothic genre is meant to tell narratives of the south with a hint of creepiness to add to the overall message of it. The genre evokes many emotions through the numerous messages given through all forms of literature. It still has power today because if the authentic stories and morals it gives. Violence, imprisonment, amd outsiders are all negative aspects of the south, but it does not take an ample amount of labor to make it positive and learn from
The tax collector is also southern gothic because you don’t see those today they had people who were tax collectors that would go door to door back then that’s what makes the tax collector southern gothic. Another thing that is southern gothic is the scenes, Faulkner sets the scenes in a way that helped the story become more southern gothic by giving it an eerie mysterious atmosphere. He went into detail about how things looked and at how he described things in the
Gothic literature is a style of literature that takes place in the past, most of the time it has someone who dies and it has a creepy vibe/tone behind it . Edgar Allen Poe’s “The Fall of the House of Usher,” is a good example of Gothic literature because it shows how a man goes to visit an old friend and see how his friend and his friends twin sister die. “The whole of a dull, dark, and soundless day. ”(13)
Gothic Literature is a genre that was popular between 18th to 19th centuries in North Germany. It is always being associated with Dark Romanticism which the emphasize was more on nature, terror and death, horror and many more. It involves dark and gloomy setting and also unexplainable things that are beyond human senses and reason such as ghosts and monsters. The main characters, on the other hand, are always ineffectual which they do not give much effect on the story plot. This can be seen through Washington Irving’s “Rip van Winkle” and “The Legend of Sleepy Hollow” which can be considered as American gothic work in terms of its description of setting, the involvement of supernatural element in the story and also the characteristics of the main character.