Page Four: "America's self-mythologization as a nation of hope and harmony directly contradicts the gothic's most basic impulses" (Goddu, 4)

Combined with other literary forms and adapted to native themes, the American gothic consists of a less coherent set of conventions. Its more flexible form challenges the critically unified gothic genre and demands a reassessment of the gothic’s parameters. As a result, a definition of the American gothic depends less on the particular set of conventions it establishes than those it disrupts. (Goddu, 4)

Cobbled together of many different forms and obsessed with transgressing boundaries, it represents itself not as stable but as generically impure. (Goddu, 5)

I love this stanza the most in these poems, for the fact alone that the ending is such a poignant way at showing how quickly a life can end. The idea of the speaker dropping, finding hidden worlds and understanding that was not there before their time was up, only to finally meet their end, it so moving and telling. There is no true guaranteed ending, especially not to life.

This line really speaks to me, especially in reference to the stanza above it, describing what poets and song writers go through in order to have material to write about. There is such a sense of outer surveillance in being a writer, and Fields captures this so beautifully in the first stanza with describing how many ways a writer will find inspiration.

This quote along with the one above it that I highlighted I believe really shows the dynamic between the sisters, while also allowing the reader to know how much pain and trouble they went through. For these two women to be older, with no prospects at marriage but now finally be able to be free, only makes their later loss that much worse. It reminds me of Kate Chopin's short story Story of an Hour where the main woman character finally feels like she has freedom, only to have it so cruelly ripped away so shortly after.

There is such a strong theme throughout this about people misguidedly calling their awful actions "revenge". Not just Will, who I believe's actions were the worst and most unforgivable of the characters in the story, but also Jenny. The dishonesty of the characters only makes the setting of this story that much more gloomy and morbid. Jenny's death was rightly deserved, and Will having to deal with the pain of losing his family, his love, and allowing for his brother to be locked up is his rightful punishment. This story was much darker than the other two we had to read, and I think it is in part because Jewett pays more attention to the characters than she does the nature.

I would not necessarily call this a good annotation but I think this is hilarious. A very dark humor way of announcing this mans death.

This line really stood out to me in this reading. So much of this story is the description of the natural land around the narrator, and the natural abilities of the all the people she comes into contact with, and yet she so pointedly says that so often these types of lives are ignored. The lives of these people are so interesting and full of character, yet no one pays them any mind because they are not living in the "modern" age, but rather sticking to the natural land and allowing themselves to be secluded.