Southern Gothic Romanticism: "A Rose For Emily" and "The Life You Save May Be Your Own"

 Southern Gothic Romantisicm is a subgenre of the Gothic genre. The Gothic genre combines elements of horror and romance, giving off the effect of a pleasing sort of terror. It's plot is generally guided by supernatural, ironic, and unusual events. Southern Gothic's focus is on the American South. It acts unique to American literature, and usually includes some of it's common traits/themes. The combination of these elements come together to create Southern Gothic Romanticism.
 The stories "A Rose For Emily" and "The Life You Save May Be Your Own" and their authors exhibit Southern Gothic Traits. "A Rose For Emily," takes place in a small town in the American South, while "The Life You Save May Be Your Own" takes place out in the country at Ms. Crater's house, also in the American South. Both stories include Southern Gothic traits, such as a character with a sense of freakishness (Mr. Shiftlet and Miss Emily), being set apart from the world in their own way. These characters are also identified as grotesques, and are searching for a sense of place. These stories and their literature compare to Romanticism, the examples being Mr. Shiftlet's obsession with the old car, and Miss Emily's inability to let go of her lover Homer Barron. The extent these characters will go as a result for their romance is what adds Gothic Romanticism to these stories. The fact that Miss Emily would poison Homer Barron to keep him from abandoning her, and then keeping his body in her bed adds a dark sense to the story. In the other story the fact that Mr. Shiftlet would fool the old Ms. Crater, marry her deaf and dumb daughter, and then leave the sleeping daughter at a resturant miles from her home all to get the old car Ms. Crater had made part of the deal, adds a dark and sickening effect and falls under the Southern Gothic Romanticism catergory.
 
 In "A Rose For Emily," Miss Emily's crime goes undetected until her death. One reason for this is because no one had been in the house in years. In the begining of the story it says, "no visitor had passed since she ceased giving china-painting lessons eight or ten years earlier."  A second reason could be the reluctance of the townspeople to call upon Miss Emily because of the difference in social status. The first example is when the tax delegation people come to collect taxes from Miss Emily, she does not even ask them to sit. A second example of this is shown when the text says, "A few of the ladies had the temerity to call, but were not received." A third reason is that Homer Barron is a construction foreman, who is not even from the South. When he is no longer seen around town, no one suspects anything, except that he may have just decided to leave. That is why no one thinks much of his absence until they find his body in Miss Emily's home after her death.

 At the end of the story, "The Life You Save May Be Your Own," Mr. Shiftlet picks up a young boy off the side of the road, who appears to have run away from home. Although the boy wasn't pointing for a ride, he takes up the offer and Mr. Shiftlet tells how he ran away from his mother too, years ago, and he has regretted it ever since. When the boy doesn't listen,and speaks bad of his and Shiftlet's mothers, he jumps out of the moving car. This scene "makes the story work" because the boy represents Mr. Shiftlet. Not only have they both left their mothers, but both are wandering, looking for a sense of place. When Mr. Shiflet gives adivice to the boy, he rejects it, symbolizing how Mr. Shiflet should have stayed with Lucynell and made something of himself.