Sharp Objects, Don T Ask Jack, And The Black Cat

The use of gothic literature is very prevalent in the literary works Sharp Objects, Don’t Ask Jack, and The Black Cat. The fascination of the past is a common element in all of these works. The authors aim to explore the human capacity for evil through internal and external struggles with the characters and their pasts.

In the novel Sharp Objects by Gillian Flynn the past plays a major role in Camille’s (the main character) life. Due to the pain of loosing her younger sister and growing up with a mom who did not love her, Camille copes with the pain her past brings her in unfortunate ways such as cutting and alcohol consumption. For example, when Camille was told she was pretty, she would “[think] of everything ugly swarming beneath [her] clothes” (Flynn 156). The way she thought of herself was tied directly with how her mother treated

Although they did not play with the jack-in-the-box together, each child had their own encounter with Jack. Jack would ascend from the box, motion to the kids to come closer, smile, and “[tell] them each things they could never quite remember, things they were never able to entirely forget” (Don’t Ask Jack 2). Each kid’s memory with Jack stuck with them as adults showing the role Jack played in their lives. Jacks effects on the kids caused the girls, now women, to refuse to visit the house in which they had grown up. The youngest brother was found in the cellar of the old house “trying to burn the great house to the ground. They took him to the madhouse, and perhaps he is still there” (Don’t Ask Jack 3). This quote makes the reader wonder the things Jack told the brothers and sisters when they were little that caused such damage on their lives, even as adults. Each kid’s memory with Jack in their old house affected them as they grew up and left an unforgettable mark on their lives, something they would never be able to