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

her growing up. Because of the non existent love shown to Camille by her mother, it lead her to believing at a young age that she really was unsightly. As the book progresses you see the strong desire for Camille to be loved because of the void her mother (Adora) left in her life. Adora would “parade Camille around town, smiling and teasing [her]… When [they] got home she’d trail off to her room like an unfinished sentence… searching for clues to what [she] had done to displease her” (Flynn 97). This quote is an important part of the book because while visiting her home down for work, Camille wishes for her mother’s love even as an adult because of the way she was treated as a kid. Camille’s recollection of her past caused her a great amount of suffering throughout the novel.
In the literary work Don’t Ask Jack, the jack-in-the-box the kids played with stuck in their memory forever.

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

forget.
In the literary work The Black Cat by Edgar Allen Poe, the narrators past actions cause him to completely change as a man. After killing his cat, Pluto, the narrator gets another cat to replace Pluto. This cat looks exactly like Pluto except for the fact it has a white speck on its chest. The narrator soon begins to build a hatred for the new cat because it reminded of him of the cat he had once loved, Pluto. The white mark soon appeared to the narrator as “the representation of an object that [he] shuddered to name” (Poe 10). The reader can infer the object the white speck on the new cat represented to the narrator was a noose, the object he used to kill Pluto. Because the new cat reminded him of his past actions, the narrator “loathed, and dreaded , and would have rid [himself] of the monster had [he] dared- it was now, [he said], the image of a hideous- of a ghastly thing- of the gallows”(Poe 10). The new cat now brought the narrator great fear and horror because it reminded him of the evil acts he had committed on his old cat. He ends up killing the cat because he could not stand its presence anymore. Throughout the story, the narrators past brings up new challenges he has trouble dealing with which causes him to completely deviate from the man he once was.
The authors in these works all used the literary element of fascination with the past to bring up adversity and show how the characters handled it. The past plays a significant role on a person and can leave certain memories that create a lasting affect.