Analysis
In the chilling tale of "The Lonesome Place", two young boys compare terrifying stories of some unidentified creature that lives in an abandoned grain elevator. Although neither of the boys ever have a believable close encounter their imagination drives them and the story to unthinkable places.
Uncannily, the story starts off with the unidentified narrator confessing to a murder, one that he committed. By the end of the story, the reader realizes that the crime really wasn't an act of murder, rather it was the act of apathy by keeping silent about a long-time secret lurking in the shadows of the community. Set in a small town, the story is grounded in real life with science-fiction like events. The boys felt they killed Bobb, but they didn't. They just felt because they created this creature with their imagination that they should have done something about it before they grew up and forgot about the creature. Derleth, a well-acclaimed Science Fiction writer, brings these themes and ideas into his Gothic writing. The monster is part of Gothic Fiction and is also part Science Fiction. In his book, "Writing Fiction" Derleth describes writing for the masses by keeping the story "true to life". Derleth was one of the editors for HP Lovecraft, a well-known author who wrote, " we must give (a fictional novel) the most elaborate possible approach."
Derleth does just that in "The Lonesome Place". Not only is the story centered in the reality of a suburban community but is also uses two young seven year old boys (the heroes) who have one fear and it's the dark. Who couldn't relate to that? which makes this story so real to all of us because everyone was or is afraid of the dark at one time or another.
In the beginning of the story the narrator confesses to being guilty of murder an uncanny opening because the reader isn't expecting it. This beginning leaves the reader feeling anxious and nervous. Is he unstable? Is his fear so paralyzing that he is unable to function in the real life? An unreliable narrator is another theme throughout American Gothic Fiction.
Another theme that is so prevalent in Gothic literature is the theme of using domesticity as a way to create horror and terror. This theme is most prevalent in Charlotte Perkins Gilman's "The Yellow Wallpaper". Charlotte Perkins tells a story where, by yellow wallpaper, drives a woman to insanity. In "The Lonesome Place", Derleth uses a domestic, small town as a backdrop which has a grain elevator and an abandoned lumber yard. This presents a similar backdrop of many suburban lives. This setting is one distinction that separates American and English Gothic literature. English Gothic uses Gothic Architecture in its castles, churches and mansions for the dark settings for monsters and ghosts to prey, whereas American Gothic, devoid of castles and mansions, relies on more colonial settings. Drawing from the child's imagination, Derleth creates fantastic shadows and depths to every dark corner to create the creature's features. The reader never actually sees the creature but are forced to use their imagination, much like the two main characters. Using a Gothic-like atmosphere, the unstable narrator, and a monster that thrives in our nightmares, Derleth plays on one of the most natural and ordinary fear that almost everyone understands, the fear of loneliness and what lurks in the dark.
Read more about this topic: The Lonesome Place
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