Southern Gothic Literature Analysis

Southern Gothic literature was conceived in post-antebellum 19th century America upon the yarns of Samuel Clemmons; known to his followers by the pen name “Mark Twain”, the master comic distortion of his contemporary society. Twain wove the instinctive world into absurdity, unattractiveness, and parody by Henry Clay Lewis. The birth of Southern Gothic literature wouldn’t come to full radiance until the 20th century upon the concepts of Dixie humor, dark romanticism, and literary naturalism; forming a new force in social judgment. The characteristics of Southern Gothic Literature are direct descendants of the American Gothic and its distant cousin, the European Gothic style. However, the representative setting of Southern Gothic is distinctively

different from its ancestors; being based within a Southern setting. The use of anfractuous rural communities displacing the ominous slave plantations of the antebellum period as described by the authors Flannery O’ Connor and William Faulkner sparked a period of growth that influenced the South, encouraging it to grow and to embrace contemporary society.
Sadly, the term “Southern Gothic” was originally purposed to be interpreted as a debasing and rejective reference. Ellen Glasgow introduced the phrase “Southern Gothic” while describing the literary works of William Faulkner and Erskine Caldwell. Glasgow included other authors of similar literary styles into a category that she described as the “Southern Gothic School”. In the year 1935, Ellen Glasgow made the point that any works falling into the “Southern Gothic School” simply were composed of nothing but “pointless violence” and “fantasy nightmares”. Key characteristics of these works included decay, the exploration of madness, and the continuous pressure evident in Southern society as a result of the region’s horrific past as seen through the eyes of a dispossessed and unfortunate aristocracy left with little more than racial bigotry to rebuild upon. Therefore, “A Good Man is Hard to Find,” “Good Country People,” and “A Rose for Emily” are prime examples of Southern Gothic Literature due to their damaged and delusional characters, social denial of a suppressive idyllic past, and a blurred line between villain and victim.
A Good Man is Hard to Find,” successfully conveys a multitude of signatory traits associated with Southern Gothic Literature; most prominently, the use of damaged and delusional characters. A second trait frequently found in this style is the illustrated perception of the family’s internal interaction being one of opposition and contempt. Evidently, vanity and selfishness are personal traits that embody the recurring theme of characterization of some key characters; illustrated by the first three lines used to describe the grandmother. Specifically, “The grandmother didn't want to go to Florida. She wanted to visit some of her connections in east Tennessee and she was seizing at every chance to change Bailey's mind” (O’Conner 1). As portrayed self-centered individual unwilling to conform to the traveling wishes of her family, the grandmother insists that her personal wishes dominate all others. In a like manner, The Tower café spectacle exhibits habits of delusional self-indulgence partaken by the family. Finally, the ignorance of the family throughout the impromptu plantation escapade illustrates a willful denial and blindness.
Illustratively, in “A Good Man is Hard to Find,” the grandmother and Misfit adhere to moral codes that determine their decisions; attempting to make sense of social denial by a suppressive idyllic past.

By definition, a moral code is a set of beliefs a person follows to live a fulfilled life. “One cannot deny that the concerns of this story are the basic concerns of Christian belief: faith, death, salvation. And yet, if one reads the story without prejudice, there would seem to be little here to inspire hope for redemption of any of its characters” (Bandy Stephen 1). Particularly significant, the word moral is not synonymous with good; it is simply a code of conduct; the righteousness of a person’s morals remains subjective. From the beginning, we see that the morals of Misfit are misguided, in comparison with the flexible morals of the grandmother. The grandmother placed great significance on ladylike character, emphasizing that appearance was, in fact, a higher priority than substance. Simultaneously, she persistently deceives her family; presenting a lack of modern awareness. Despite her Christian ideology, she remains unable to pray during times of extreme adversity, ultimately leading her to question her

faith.
The blurred line between villain and victim is also a recurring factor within Southern Gothic Literature as seen in “A Good Man is Hard to Find”.

Illustrating this point, the grandmother criticizes the children’s mother for their upbringing and compares the mother’s face to a cabbage. She also takes liberty to criticize others within her world, yet never analyzes her own selfishness or hypocritical actions. Unlike the grandmother, who simply assumes that she is morally superior to everyone else, the Misfit seriously questions the meaning of life and his role in it. “But as in all of O’Conner’s stories, the violent surface action only begins to suggest the depths and complexities of meaning embedded in the story” (Desmond, John 1). When the Misfit murders the family, the grandmother never begs him to spare her family. She does, however, plead for her own life because she can’t imagine the Misfit being willing to kill a lady. As the grandmother faces death at the hands of the Misfit, she realizes where she has gone wrong in life. Instead of being superior, she realizes that she is flawed; evidenced as she tells the Misfit that he is “one of her own

children.”
Illustrative of the recurrent theme, “Good Country People” contained a character platter of similar taste: impaired and delusional. The character Mrs. Freeman in, “Good Country People” was depicted as an individual unwilling to admit wrongdoing or to apologize for her behavior. In fact, Mrs. Freeman displayed only three predominant facial styles described as reverse, forward, and neutral. Meanwhile the Mrs. Hopewell character experiences her own dilemma, one she shares with her self-complacent tenants believing her to possess no struggles of her own. The character’s name Hopewell ironically suggests a preference to see the best in situations; while being undermined by her pride as a member of good country people. Hopewell’s inability to discern between bad and good is revealed when a young boy tells her he possesses a physical heart condition which she subsequently dismisses as an emotional condition. This failure is one of the multitudes described, “All her characters are flawed in some way most are spiritually and morally corrupt. However, the greatest flaws can often be found in those characters with physical impairments; bodily handicaps symbolize the greater handicaps of the intellect, the heart, or the soul” (Kate Oliver 1).
Throughout “Good Country People” the framework of social denial of a suppressive idyllic past remains a primary tenet of the Southern idyllic past recognized that women would carry the burden of sharing the “news you can use”. Typically, postmodern society would refer to this news as gossip. In “Good Country People”, Hulga is presented as being extremely agitated by what she presumes to be small-talk; hiding in the bathroom to avoid such conversation. Hulga’s dislike for gossip is definitely funneled into the nicknames she gives to Mrs. Freeman’s daughters. As previously stated, Mrs. Freeman carried an attitude of correctness