Southern Gothic Romanticism
Southern Gothic Romanticism is usually based in the southern United States, and usually has to do with 'old south' type of towns and people. Southern Gothic Romanticism also has to do with old buildings that are usually in a less than outstanding condition. The short stories, "The Life You Save May be Your Own" and "A Rose for Emily" ooze Southern Gothic Romanticism, both stories take place in the south. Both stories also have an elderly woman as one of the main characters, and both of these women own old and worn down homes that once had much grandeur. The stories compare to Gothic, and Dark Romanticism because the endings leave you as the reader wanting more.In " The Life You Save May be Your Own" you want to know what happens to the hitchhiker, you also want to know what happens to Mr.Shiftlet. The story leaves you wondering if he ever gets back to his mother, or if that is what he was doing at all. The author leaves the story open ended to leave the rest to your imagination. The hitchhiker is how the author introduces the conflict between Mr.Shiftlet and his mother. Once the author reveals this peace of information to us then we are able to understand why it is so important to him to treat a woman right, specifically his wife. Learning about the conflict, whatever that may be, with his mother it also shows Mr.Shiftlet's thinking process as to why he doesn't want to take Lucynell from her mother.
In "A Rose for Emily" the murder of Homer Barron goes undetected for so long because people think that Homer has left Emily. This can relate to today's time, when a couple breaks up you don't bring the topic up because you don't want to hurt anyone's feelings, we always leave the subject alone unless the person involved wants to discuss it. With this mind set the public has sympathy for Emily and they don't want to seem rude by telling her that her house stinks. They feel bad for Emily because she has had so much tragedy in her life, and so the public doesn't want to offend her. Since Emily taught children how to paint china they didn't suspect her to be capable of committing such a horrific crime, she was doing people a service by teaching their children how to paint so they thought they would return the favor by not mentioning anything abut her house smelling.
"A Rose for Emily" is ended by the townspeople finding Homer Barron's decayed body in a sealed off room in Emily's house after her death. But not only is a body found, " Then we noticed that in the second pillow was the indention of a head. One of us lifted something from it, and leaning forward, that faint and invisible dust dry and acrid in the nostrils, we saw a long strand of iron-grey hair" (Faulkner 8). The ending leaves you wondering is Emily's spirit still living in that house, it leaves you wondering what they did with the house. Was it cleaned out and resold? If so what happened to the new owner's? Again the story leaves it up to your imagination.
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