Southern Novels

Paper Summary:

This paper discusses that the romanticized South appears to be a land of plenty, blessed with a temperate climate, and filled with happy people for whom hospitality is almost a religion; but, the other South, the nightmare version, offers stifling heat, which engenders uncontrollable passions and senseless acts of violence, and "secret sin" poisoning even the mainstream of life. The author points out that the themes of "To Kill a Mockingbird" and "Cold Sassy Tree" are very different; about the only thing that holds them in common is that one took place in Georgia and the other in next-door neighbor, Alabama. The paper relates that "Cold Sassy Tree" scratches the surface of "Southern-ness"; where "To Kill a Mockingbird" digs deeply and brings the rotting roots up to the light of day.

From the Paper:

"Indeed, there are no obvious class distinctions in "Cold Sassy Tree". When such technological marvels as the automobile, the indoor plumbing and so on are introduced, it seems as if very ordinary people, Will's relatives, who have them. There is none of the racial strife so obvious in "To Kill a Mockingbird". In fact, anything even resembling bona fide racial tension is so lacking in the book that the book seems beyond romantic. It is both melodramatic and sentimental; the same sort of unrealistic symbolism seen in "Gone with the Wind", and the same one that ensured Cold Sassy Tree would get a chilly reception from the critics, despite its popularity."

More papers on Southern Novels:

• Analytical Essay # 9908 : "Slavery Novels"
• Term Paper # 95648 : "Antebellum Southern Plantation Household"
• Book Review # 111456 : "The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn" and Southern Lifestyle"

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