Landscape as Death: The Gothic Borderlands of Flannery O'Connor's "A Good Man is Hard to Find"

    There is an inseparable bond between Death and the Gothic. One cannot speak on either subject for long before aspects and elements of other begin to come into play. Flannery O'Connor deals in both in "A Good Man is Hard To Find", highlighting their interconnected nature, while also rightfully treating each as its own unique thing. By using the landscapes in her story to create distinct borderlands, O'Conner is able to craft a story whose narrative becomes both a literal and figurative journey from Life into Death. The ultimate Gothic roadtrip. 

Haunted Landscapes: The Evoking of Gothic Themes in Margaret Atwood's "Death by Landscape"

Margaret Atwood’s classic short story accomplishes many things in a brief number of pages. With a tight and atmosphere focused narrative, it is a long shot of a life looking back, brought into focus by the memory of a haunting tragedy. That atmosphere is created in large part by the landscapes in which the story unfolds, the potential malevolence of which is boldly declared in the title.