S-Town Of Woodstock: Southern Gothic Literature

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The town of Woodstock is in Southern Alabama. Most people consider stories that involve the South are classical just because of its setting and history. But how S-town describes their way of life and the woodsy setting, it can be classified as contemporary. Although S-town is a wonderful story, most people today do not know the difference between contemporary and classic. This is a contemporary piece of Southern Gothic Literature. S-town is a piece of contemporary piece of Southern Gothic Literature because of its use of social issues, irony, and macabre and grotesque.
Every town has social problems even in a town of only 200. Social issues are themes in the story that include honor, betrayal, integrity, loyalty, and others that are central …show more content…

Irony is when an author or character says something, but means the opposite. Irony is used in Southern Gothic Literature relating mostly to the history of the South. In S-town there is a significant amount of verbal irony. S-town uses multiple examples of irony and a few relating to Southern Gothic Literature as well. One main use of irony is when Bubba told Brian that he thought John sacrificed his skin to help the guys at Black Sheep Ink make cash while also working for it. John makes many references in the story of how much he hated tattoos, but how much he loves helping people out. It is ironic that John said he hated tattoos, but then he goes and gets a ton of them weekly. Bubba stated “And I think he sacrificed his skin to help us out.” This quote shows that S-town is a piece of contemporary Southern Gothic Literature because clearly john hated tattoos, but he gets them as a way to help alleviate pain. Tattoos haven’t always been popular, but there has been an uproar of tattoos ever since 2000. Everyday people are slowly opening up about topics that are usually swept under the rug, including things like climate change. Climate change has always been a big thing to John, and his property and house showed how much he loved the environment. John has a huge maze and tons of little gardens with it. When John died the person who bought his house just so happened to be the owner of the lumber yard in Woodstock. It is ironic that the Burt’s ended up buying John’s property. Kendall Burt said “I bought John McLemore's place when he committed suicide and left his mother here alone.” As we can only assume that Kendall Burt only bought the property because he knew that there may have been gold hidden on the land. Also because of all the lumber that is on the property. The Southern elements of irony tend to use things specifically dealing with the history of the south. After the war the south went broke, so

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