What Are The Elements Of Southern Gothic Literature

Elements of Southern Gothic Literature Literature comes in all types of styles and one type is Southern Gothic. But what makes a story develop into this type of Southern Gothic style? There are many characteristics that are apparent in literature, so what conditions are distinct that would give them the term Southern Gothic literature? What kind of elements do we call for when trying to find this type of literature? Southern Gothic is a literature that has a style all its own. It has it unique elements such as being Southern based (characters or place), then we have characters with these righteous attitudes, and then it would not be Gothic without a tragedy. Now in Wikipedia we have Southern Gothic literature being defined as “relying

All of O’Connor’s writings are done in a Southern scene with a Christian theme, but they end in tragedy. As Di Renzo stated “her procession of unsavory characters “conjures up, in her own words, “an image of Gothic monstrosities”… (2). Flannery O’Connor was highly criticized for her work as a writer, because of her style of writing, and her use of God. It was stated that “…whatever the stories may have meant to her, they often send a quite different message to the reader”… (Bandy). But the stories of O’Connor take a look at the way people depict themselves on the outside, but inside they are

At first glance we see the Grandmother who is trying to pressure her son into taking her where she would like to go on this family trip. She does so by bringing up a convict on the loose by the name the Misfit stating she would not take her children to Florida with a convict loose in that area (O’Connor). The Grandmother tries to get them to go to Tennessee where she wants to go, this shows her selfishness. Then later in the story the Grandmother sees a little Negro boy and she remarks “Oh look at that cute little pickaninny!” (O’Connor) this shows a side of her racism. This is stated by Bandy where he says “She is filled with the prejudices of her class and her time” (3). These elements are the grotesque in Southern Gothic. Then we meet the Misfit who appears after an unfortunate event, the family has been in an accident. The car approaching them is described as “a big black battered hearselike automobile” (O’Connor). But in the description of the Misfit he is described as wearing glasses that made him look educated (O’Connor). This is an image of how he was perceived to be. Then the Grandmother keeps telling him how he is a good man this is after she figures out whom he is. The Misfit has all of the Grandmother’s family escorted into the woods and killed. And as the story ends he takes the Grandmothers life when she touches him on the