ipl-logo

Feast Of Snakes: Literary Analysis

1677 Words7 Pages

One of the most important aspects of “grit lit” is the violence that occurs in almost every novel. The violence that reoccurs throughout all of the “grit lit” novels allows for a more exciting plot and character conflict throughout the novel. One of the most influential and famous southern writers is Harry Crews. Crews is responsible for many different novels, short stories, and autobiographies, and almost all of his works include some type of violence. The main reason for violence in southern literature is due to the unordinary, low-life characters that the author includes to allow for a violent plot. “The “violence” that must take place in Southern literature is often a final resort of the character when all other alternatives have failed” …show more content…

In the excerpt of Feast of Snakes in Grit Lit, the main character Joe Lon is just out of high school living in a trailer with his wife Elfie. Joe Lon was the star quarterback for the Mystic Rattlers, but he was unable to go to college due to his grades. Joe Lon attends a Rattlers football game where he becomes drunk from drinking Jim Beam under the bleachers. Joe Lon decides to drive home drunk and arrives back at his trailer to see his wife Elfie. He walks inside and immediately criticizes his wife for her looks and cooking. Eventually, Joe Lon leaves his trailer to go down to the local corner store to buy alcohol in preparation for the annual Rattlesnake Roundup (Carpenter 650). The Rattlesnake Roundup is an annual event in Mystic the brings together many hunters to hunt rattlesnakes. This event brings together all the people of Mystic to compete in games such as the sac race and horse pulling contest. These events lead to many fights among the drunk people of Mystic. In addition to the alcohol, many people such as Joe Lon and Candy are often high during parts of this excerpt (Carpenter

Show More
Related

  • Examples Of Violence In Frederick Douglass

    1636 Words  | 7 Pages

    Just Versus Unjust Violence: A Rhetorical Analysis of Violence in Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass and Uncle Tom’s Cabin Frederick Douglass and Harriet Beecher Stowe present slavery in vastly distinct ways. In Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass, author Frederick Douglass dives into a grisly world filled with bloodshed and in the middle of it a man willing to do what it takes to be educated and in control of his own person, narrated with the voice of reason. In Uncle Tom’s Cabin, author Harriet Beecher Stowe depicts a variety of characters, their struggle with slavery and religion, their personal relationships, and their deep inner feelings, with no small degree of emotion and sentimentality. Douglass and Stowe’s use of

    Read More

  • Book Review Of Co Aytch Or A Side Show Of The Big Show By Sam Watkins

    572 Words  | 3 Pages

    Watkins illustrates the history of the Civil War through the perspective most like an average, gentle man; he even writes small eulogies for those fallen before him. In addition to his outstanding use of descriptions that allow readers to visualize his experiences and share his emotions, Watkins also uses slightly humorous tactics to bring ease to the horrors of the greatest, bloodiest war in history. After the enactment of laws like the conscription act and the law allowing only those with twenty negros permission to go home, Watkins described the Civil War as “a rich man’s war, a poor man’s fight.” Watkin’s main purpose was to portray those “fellows who did the shooting and killing, the fortifying and ditching, the sweeping of the streets, the drilling, the standing guard, and who drew eleven dollars per month and rations, and drew the ramrod and tore the cartridge.” Unlike most writers, Watkins does not leave the reader questioning what or how things were during that period; he writes very descriptively and spares little to no detail about the subject,

    Read More

  • Summary Of Blood Done Signed My Name

    1479 Words  | 6 Pages

    Before we begin to dive into the crimes that occurred in the book, Blood Done Signed My Name, we must first ask the question, what is crime? According to Michael Lynch, crime can be defined as “exactly what the law states” (Lynch 2015). Like anything else a strict definition like this can have both positive and negatives associated with it. With using such a strict definition of crime it allows people to have no room to try and get around it. If we use a loose interpretation then it allows for people to use said definition on more of a case by case period.

    Read More

  • Harry Crew Research Paper

    1215 Words  | 5 Pages

    Harry Crews is one of the most well-known and influential southern writers of the twentieth century. He has written many novels, short stories, and biographies throughout his life of being a writer. His stories often pertain to the dramatic and exciting life of living in the south in small towns such as the one he grew up in as a child. Throughout Crews’s life, he was involved with a lot of violence and family problems such as divorce that led to anger. All of the problems that Crews had throughout his life allowed for his writing to be extremely detailed and exciting for the reader.

    Read More

  • Mississippi Trail Sparknotes

    869 Words  | 4 Pages

    His childhood had embedded racist ideas into him, but as he sees these events transpire his eyes are opened to the reality of the south and the truth about racism. In this novel, Mississippi Trail, 1955 by Chris Crowe, the actions of the characters and the events of the story show how silence and indifference perpetuate hate and violence. In chapter 2 of Mississippi

    Read More

  • Symbolism In One Foot In Eden By Ron Rash

    1170 Words  | 5 Pages

    Ron Rash’s novel One Foot in Eden tells a story of murder in a small South Carolina town. However, this novel is more of “why-dunnit” as opposed to the much more common “who-dunnit”. Rash utilizes the viewpoints of multiple characters to tell the story; this feature aids the reader in gaining a more in-depth understanding of the novel. The setting and imagery of this novel also help shape the character’s minds and, therefore, their actions and reactions as well. One Foot in Eden is the epitome of the Southern Gothic novel: it portrays Southern culture and its shortcomings, and the effect that characters have one another.

    Read More

  • Summary Of In Louisiana By John William De Forest

    823 Words  | 4 Pages

    Another life given, another instance of martyrdom by the North and the Union army in an attempt to “redeem the South” (40). With this in mind, the speaker continues on, with the single purpose to “march with eyes aligned”

    Read More

  • Death Of Prince Carmen Jones Analysis

    224 Words  | 1 Pages

    The death of Prince Carmen Jones (whose name echoes that of an important movie in the history of film’s portrayal of black characters) never achieved the wide notoriety that the deaths of Trayvon Martin, Michael Brown, and Jordan Davis did: it is portrayed here, however, as having a more profound personal effect on the author than those deaths, drawing the specter of violence towards young black men even closer to home, and arguably even closer to the life of the author’s son. Meanwhile, the references to Jones foreshadow further contemplation of his death by the author in forthcoming sections, and also the focus of his writing in Section 3, in which the author recounts a sometimes surprising, sometimes affirming, consistently enlightening

    Read More

  • Examples Of Seeing The Big Indian By Oedipus The King

    464 Words  | 2 Pages

    It is ironic how Joe assumes that the three "winos" always "drink their lunch", although their actions seems to be the opposite because they are the ones who were drinking beers and not the three "winos" which could mean that they are the alcoholic ones and not the three "winos" (King 286). Then, when they ask the three "winos" (King 286) about the solution that needs to be done they trick Joe and Red saying that they need to build a bench for the big "Indian" because he is tired of

    Read More

  • The American Dream In Truman Capote's In Cold Blood

    1053 Words  | 5 Pages

    In the book, “In Cold Blood,” Truman Capote takes us through the lives of the murderers and the murdered in the 1959 Clutter family homicide, which transpires in the small town of Holcomb, Kansas. The first chapter, “The Last to See Them Alive,” vividly illustrates the daily activities of the Clutter family—Herbert, Bonnie, Nancy, and Kenyon—and the scheming plot of Dick Hickock and Perry Smith up to point where the family is found tied up, and brutally murdered. In doing so, he depicts the picture-perfect town of Holcomb with “blue skies and desert clear air”(3) whose safety is threatened when “four shotgun blasts that, all told, ended six human lives”(5). Through the eyes of a picture perfect family and criminals with social aspirations, Capote describes the American Dream and introduces his audience to the idea that this ideal was no more than an illusion. Herbert Clutter: the character Capote describes as the epitome of the American Dream.

    Read More

  • The Serpents Of Paradise Edward Abbey Analysis

    391 Words  | 2 Pages

    In Edward Abbey writings he talks his descriptive encounters with nature in the deserts mostly about the snakes that he is watching. Abbey has a love for the deserts and this is why he writes about “The Serpents of Paradise”. In this story he used a lot of detail to make it feel like you know what is constantly going on, it almost felt like I was their and could imagine in my mind every moment I read. The way Abbey writes only makes me want to just keep reading. Abbey uses his senses to describe what he is seeing like the greasy wings of the ravens and what they sound like pretending to talk to him.

    Read More

  • Analysis Of John Berendt's Midnight In The Garden Of Good And Evil

    750 Words  | 3 Pages

    In the nonfiction novel, “Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil,” American author, John Berendt, gives his account of a 1981 murder case that took place in Savannah, Georgia. Even though during the 1980s, United States as a whole is heading towards prosperity as the Cold War ends in 1981, he repeatedly touches back on the undercurrent southern racism. Berendt draws a vivid picture of Southern Gothic weirdness to convey, using real life occurrences and characters, the idea of what kind of people exist in the community to readers of all places. The writer uses rhetorical devices such as description, foreshadowing, and dysphemism to successfully depict the occurrences in suspenseful yet humorous tone.

    Read More

  • How Does Octavia Butler Use Feminism In Kindred

    1931 Words  | 8 Pages

    “I thought I would die on the ground there with a mouth full of dirt and blood and a white man cursing and lecturing as he beat me. By then, I almost wanted to die,”– or so Dana physically and socially identifies the skewed dynamics existing within the South that greatly impact her overall character (107). In Kindred, a novel that collides science-fiction with historical fiction, Octavia Butler tells the story of an African American women who is forced to reconcile with oppression of the past as she is sent through time from 20th century California to 19th century Maryland, where she must protect the slave-master’s son: Rufus. Her experiences in the South greatly challenge and inform her sense of morality, or principles that influence the measures

    Read More

  • Literary Devices In The Rattler

    656 Words  | 3 Pages

    The Rattler In the passage The Rattler the author depicts the narrator of the story as regretful of having the obligation to take the life of the snake that could potentially harm others at the ranch. The author, throughout the story, uses literary devices and techniques to explain mankind’s power over nature. This is also seen as the narrator’s sense of duty to the ranch vs the respect he has for all life. The author’s diction throughout the passage is a clear indication and example of the overlapping theme of duty to the ranch’s inhibitors against morals for killing the snake for the man, the narrator.

    Read More

  • The Scarlet Ibis And The Silver Wind Literary Analysis

    377 Words  | 2 Pages

    Can you ever imagine a world of unaccepting individuals, constant fight, and the loathe differences and disabilities? Could you imagine a world where no one could get along? Unfortunately, we as a clique and community are reaching nearing such a world. Adversely but sadly true, some communities and countries have already begun to discriminate against young adolescents and adults with special needs, or different views, turning into a constant fight for survival. James Hurst's short story, The Scarlet Ibis and Ray Bradbury's, A Golden Kite, The Silver Wind, Hurst and Bradbury discuss themes of allegory, rivalry, vanity and pride through characters in both stories, The narrator of The Scarlet Ibis and The Mandarin of The Golden Kite, A Silver

    Read More

More about Feast Of Snakes: Literary Analysis

Open Document