The southern gothic style is one that employs the use of macabre, ironic events to examine the values of the American south. Two of the most iconic writers to use this style are Flannery O’ Conner and William Faulkner. O’Conner’s short story “A Good Man is Hard to Find,” which depicts a southern family’s demise at the hands of a ruthless murderer, and Faulkner’s “A Rose for Emily,” in which a well-to-do woman is discovered to have the rotting corpse of her lover in her bedroom, are two perfect examples of southern gothic stories. While both O’Conner and Faulkner use the southern gothic style, however, they use it to illuminate different aspects of southern culture.

The most important and defining aspect of southern gothic writing is the use of macabre, or grotesque, events. Such events are easily identified in both stories. “A Rose for Emily, told through the eyes of an entire southern town, depicts a woman named Emily, who is the last remaining member of a once great family. The town watches as Emily grows more and more estranged as years pass. Eventually, when she dies alone, the town enters the house and is shocked to find the badly decomposed body of her lover, who had been assumed to have left Emily years before, in the bed of an upstairs room. Faulkner ends the story on a decidedly gruesome note, writing “Then we noticed that in the second pillow was the indentation 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-gray hair” (p 555).

O’Conner’s story, “A Good Man is Hard to Find,” is equally gruesome. In it, a family’s car careens off the road and into a ditch. Stranded, they are relieved to see a car turn towards them. Their relief fades, however, when they come to the realization that the man driving the car is none other than “The Misfit,” an escaped convict. The convict’s two accomplices then take members of the family into the woods out of the sight of the grandmother and murder them, two at a time—first the father and young boy, followed by the mother and young girl. The story ends when the Misfit ignores the pleas of the grandmother and shoots her at point blank range.

Another defining aspect of the southern gothic writing style is the use of southern archetypes. In “A Rose For Emily,” Faulkner main character, Emily, is an archetype of the classic southern reclusive, aging spinster. She lives out her entire life in her family’s giant house, alone, save for the one remaining servant. When she finally does find a lover, she poisons him and keeps his body to prevent him from leaving her. The grandmother is “A Good Man is Hard to Find” is an archetype for the aging southern woman. She is obsessed with vanity and manners, and makes constant remarks about the family’s lack of respect for their elders. She goes as far as to dress her best for the car ride, so that in “…case of an accident, anyone seeing her dead on the highway would know at once that she was a lady” (p 375). Faulkner and O’Conner use these archetypes to illuminate and criticize the themes and values of the American south.

The final defining aspect of southern gothic writing is the use of irony, and it can be found in both Faulkner’s and O’Conner’s stories. In “A Good Man is Hard to Find,” for example, the Grandmother was the biggest advocate for the family taking a vacation. She did not, however, agree with the family’s choice. She wanted to go to Tennessee instead of Florida to visit her connections. To try and convince the family not to go to Florida, she tells them about an escaped convict who is headed there, saying “I wouldn’t take my children in any direction with a criminal like that aloose in it. I couldn’t answer to my conscience if I did” (p 374). The irony comes when, at the Grandmother’s behest, the family takes a detour that ends up leading them directly to “The Misfit.” More irony can be found at the end of the story, when the grandmother is alone with “the Misfit.” When the grandmother realizes that the man is going to kill her, she pleads for her life, saying, “You’ve got good blood! I know you wouldn’t shoot a lady! I know you come from nice people!” (p 384). The irony is that even though the man is from a good family, he is a convicted murderer. O’Conner uses “the Misfit” to show that social standing has no bearing on the character or worth of a person.

Faulkner’s “A Rose for Emily” also contains irony of a similar nature. Emily is a relic of a once great family, whose social standing is enough to keep her from having to pay taxes. Yet even though she is in the upper class of the southern social structure, she commits a heinous crime and loses her mind. Faulkner uses this irony to criticize the class system that existed in the south in that period.

While both Faulkner and O’Conner examined the theme of social structure in the south and the irony of its existence, O’Conner’s story has another aspect that Faulkner’s does not. At the end of “A Good Man is Hard to Find,” the grandmother and the Misfit are alone. As the grandmother begs for mercy, the conversation turns to religion:

“Jesus was the only One that ever raised the dead,” The Misfit said. “and He shouldn’t have done it. He thrown everything off balance. If He did what He said, then it’s nothing for you to do but throw away everything and follow Him, and if He didn’t, then it’s nothing for you to do but enjoy the few minutes you got left the best way you can—by killing somebody or burning down his house or doing some other meanness to him. No pleasure but meanness,” He said and his voice had become almost a snarl.

“Maybe He didn’t raise the dead,” the old lady mumbled, not knowing what she was saying and feeling so dizzy that she sank down in the ditch with her legs twisted under her.

“I wasn’t there so I can’t say He didn’t,” The Misfit said. “I wisht I had of been there,” he said, hitting the ground with his fist. “It ain’t right I wasn’t there because if I had of been there I would of known. Listen Lady, “He said in a high voice, “if I had of been there I would of known and I wouldn’t be like I am now.” (p 384)

O’Conner uses this discussion to examine religion in the south. She criticizes the Misfit’s view of religion by showing the brutality and coldness he is capable of.

Flannery O’Conner and William Faulkner are two of the most influential writers ever to emerge from and write about the American south. Both used the southern gothic style of writing in their stories “A Good Man is Hard to Find” and “A Rose for Emily” to examine and criticize the social class structure in the south, using similar examples of irony, southern archetypes, and gruesome events. While Faulkner’s story ended with that criticism of the social class structure, however, O’Conner went further and examined the heavier theme of religion in the south. Regardless of what themes and values they examine, however, “A Good Man is Hard to Find” and “A Rose for Emily” continue to provide perfect examples of an important part of America’s rich, yet young, literary tradition—the southern gothic style.