Final Post - Fight Club

   Fight club is claimed to be a Gothic Story. I think that it does have several of the elements essential for a gothic novel, but it is also missing a few (at least in the movie). There is definitely the old gothic castle represented in Tyler's house. Is is old, falling apart, and there are odd problems that occur in it that can seem "supernatural". There is also the element of the grotesque. This is without a doubt. It is not a fantasy, but that actions and the imagery could easily fall within this category.
   Unfortunately, there is no heroine. Marla is a prominent female character, but she is not a heroine in distress. She meets the narrator in these support groups, but is not in need of rescue from the narrator; Marla simply interacts with the narrator to give us clues about his condition that is revealed at the end. There is also no real moral closure. We do come to an understanding at the end of the novel/ movie, but it does not really teach us anything. There is no moral lesson learned from viewing the movie.

The Yellow wallpaper, A jury of her Peers

   For the last week of reading, it was fairly straightforward. Both of these stories had a strong element of female literature. The yellow wallpaper was the most obvious expression of this. She was confined in her room by her husband, and was concerned for her physical health. After some time, he beings to notice her declining mental health. He puts her on the notorious "Rest Cure" that basically confines her to a room without anything in it in an attempt to cure her mind. She slowly starts to loose her mind as shown by the mysterious images and objects that "appear" in the wallpaper. They continually get worse and worse just as a woman is supposed to feel when confined by men. This is an obvious punch at the idea that men are superior to women, and gives a little suggestion towards equality among men and women.
   A Jury of her Peers is slightly more subtle about their attempts to make an obvious jab at the social norms of the time. The women figure out what has happened at the murder seen far before the men do. They know that the woman of the house has murdered the man, but it goes to show that the women are able to figure it out due to the close relation between their life styles.
   Both of these stories are obvious jabs at the current establishment of men as the dominate figure in society. One, in my opinion, slightly more obvious than the other.

Desire, A GoodMan is Hard to Find, Where are you going...

These stories are getting into more modern times, and the plots are more predictable to our modern minds, probably due to more of a realistic and natural protrayal of the dark side of human nature.

In the previous novels, all of the actions taken by the characters have some moral purpose in the end. Whether it is to make up for some past deed, or to simply help the character in immediate peril, there was always some obviously un-realistic action taken by the characters. Take for example Romance of the Forest, no one in their right mind would have not charged La Motte with attempted murder of a Marquis even if Adaline was on the table. There is no reason, with this position, that he could not have taken control of the law and manipulated Adaline anyways (because she had no idea who he was). Of course this would have made for a reasonably uninteresting and short story, but the idea is made.

Now we are getting to the point where the actions are more believable. There are many examples of this, lets start with Blanche. She has had a somewhat bad series of events in her life (some caused by herself) and we can see why she takes the manipulative actions that she does. This is also shown in the grandmother... The family is argumentative, and "normal". The elite-st grandmother is argumentative and annoying, and ends up actually getting shot by the muggers... as would happen in this tangible world.

Poquelin, A Rose for Emily, Old Gardiston

      Jean-ah Poquelin as well as A Rose for Emily, are very dissimilar but at the same time have many common elements.
      Poquelin is not really a story of wretched deeds by the main characters as many of these recent novels or short stories have been. When looking back into the recent stories, all of the main characters have something to hide and/or more serious problems do deal with. Poquelin is seen by the town as a crazy old character with an obsession with keeping his privacy in his old home. Many people start to make ridiculous accusations about the old man due to fear and/or suspension. As the story progresses, you realize that it was in fact the people of the town that were the "gothic stereotype". The main character is actually only trying to protect his brother that is now a leper. He knows that the town will ridicule and probably sentence him to death from fear. One could say that the town really does have justification in knowing that something is "off" about the house, but they have the conclusion based on the wrong reason.
      One has to wonder if the justification behind all of this is true. Even though the people are terrified of this disease throughout this time, it even shows up in the literature. This disease is currently still around, but humans are immune to this disease, but at the time, myth and fears were so high that people even began to believe that body parts and such would fall of with the disease... this is a myth that still exists today and shows the true petrification of the people at this time.

George Cable, Charles Chestnutt

Racial issues were prevalent in all of these readings. During this time period that surrounds the civil war, you can see the opinions of the authors regarding emancipation and/or the feeling of blacks and mixed races in society.


In the Goophered Grapevine the old slave that sits and tells the story of the old vineyard is obviously used as a stereotype of black Americans in the south. His dialect is very strong, and his grammar is less then on par to the white characters in the story. His story is of deviant slaves that would eat the crop of the vineyard making it difficult for the slave owner to make a profit. The slaves were then cursed on the command of the vineyard owner, not to be able to eat the grapes. When a new slave does eat one of the grapes, he is then cursed and re-cursed to have to eat the vines in order to stay alive. This slave is then sold and re-sold over and over again as a freak show (not directly stated, but that's what it resembles). The negative connotation of the slave shows the feelings of slaves and the reactions of the movers shows little indifference. This is most likely representative of this time.

In The Sheriff's Children the main twist of the story is a conflict which shows the problems many bastard children of slave owners had during this time. Tom is now in trouble for killing an old Civil war hero that the town adores. While we never know if he actually committed this crime, we know that he is doomed to hang by public opinion. The sheriff knows quickly that the young man is his son and leads him to protect him while he is in jail. The story goes on to show that while he probably was innocent, the fact that he was of black descent, he was doomed to hang. He, eventually, is shot in the arm but survives, then chooses to commit suicide as opposed to death of a slave by a hanging or worse.The reader is meant to feel a subtle pity for Tom and the sheriff to both of their actions. The sheriff made cruel decisions as to his son's fate, but the context of his decisions make sense, and the reader understands although probably disagrees.


We as readers can now see the relations between the these racial connections, but at their time of writing, these relations would probably not have been realized. The white readers of the time would most likely have read the stories at face value. It obviously would have been more obvious if the public knew that he was of mixed race.

"The Fall of the House of Usher" and "Behind a Mask"

These two stories are very different from one another and for this week will have to be discussed separately.

The Fall of the House of Usher is a more obvious gothic novel. The elements of scenery, death, and cruel intentions of the people are very obvious. The scene is located in a dilapidated house with large cracks and obvious weathering. The house itself is secluded away from the town that is located, but has become related to the inhabitants themselves. This is in fact directly stated in the story, which is somewhat uncommon compared to the other stories we have read. Generally, the gothic novels have no stated direct relationships between characters and setting, but rather leave the reader to distinguish the differences between where the characters live and what interactions they have with the world. Death is also a very obvious characteristic of this novel. The whole story is based around the fact that Roderick is going to bury his sister alive, or knows that she will come back from the dead. This goes right into the subject of the intentions of the characters. In most gothic novels, and this one is no exception, there are always main characters with cruel intentions to be placed on another.

Behind a Mask is somewhat new in its approach to gothic literature. This probably due to the source of the writing being American both in style and origin. The setting is only similar in the fact that it is secluded. It is not in the woods, the darkness, or does it give off an "eerie" feeling. What does hold true is the characterization. Jean Muir is portrayed as someone that has the will to do evil upon this family. We are not completely sure of the cause yet, but we are able to tell that there is something obviously wrong in the relationship between Muir and the primary family.

Sleepy Hollow - Hawthorne

This weeks readings were both stressed the obvious dark sides of gothic literature. The settings are apparently dreary and designed to induce horror in the reader. There are also more morbid designs of the antogonists than in the previous novels or stories.

In sleepy hollow, the setting is a "Dutch-like" community that is isolated by in a peaceful location. This "peaceful" location is portrayed in a sense that the peacefulness is more like isolationism than a place that one would venture on vacation. It states that the isolation prevents these people from living as most people do during this time. This sets the tone for the novel being in a "haunted castle of home" although this is now not a castle, but an entire town that is "haunted". As for morbid designs, the past novels we have read deal more with rape/being caught by some supernatural being. This instead puts a headless horseman as the antagonist that runs around scaring people or killing them. In previous novels, we have not had a character run around and kill people with no apparent motive.

Young Goodman Brown has a similar setting. It is set in the woods along a path that is dark and he constantly fears things being behind and around the trees until he finds the devil. The devil as a morbid character is obvious, but the devil has never been introduced directly as a character before (at least in the novels we have read). This devil tires to steal the soul of the character. In my personal opinion, while rape and imprisonment are bad things, stealing ones soul is far more morbid than previous actions.

Although these books/stories are far different from the previous novels we have encountered, they still fit into the gothic in their own ways, and no one can deny that they fit in this genera.