The Pathological in American Gothic

What would've happened if Hazel Motes had the right help when he returned from the war?
     Earlier today, I viewed an episode of ESPN's Outside the Lines.  On this show, a young woman had all the potential in the world.  She was an excellent basketball player, an excellent student, and seemed to have her act together.  However, all that came crashing down when on a whim, she decided she would play basketball in Italy.  She dropped out of school, went to play professional basketball in Europe, was recruited by a WNBA team in Los Angeles, and then became homeless all within a three-year span.  Her story was one that weighed on me for a while.  I realized at that moment that mental illness takes a toll on Americans each and every day - from all walks of life.  This young lady was diagnosed with schizophrenia, and without the proper medication and professional help, she wanders and lives on the streets of Washington, D.C.  Hazel Motes is not far from this same situation.  Haze left his home for the army to serve in World War II.  He returned to no home, no job, and no family to support him.  Today, many who return from service in the military normally have something.  But how many return with nothing - like Hazel did?
     It is fairly obvious that in this time and place, the mind played dirty tricks on Hazel just as it continues to do on the young lady who struggled with schizophrenia in the story from ESPN.  I dare say that this same scenario plays out in reality for many people.  Haze lost all that was familiar to him.  He lost his home, his religion, and the potential of a familiar livelihood in the mountains of Tennessee.  His thoughts and visions of what society would deem normal are definitely not that.   His anti-Christ outbursts at the movie theater in the middle of town and at the top of the steps in front of Hawks and his daughter are both examples of the mind justifying questionable behaviors.  Haze desperately needed a medical and psychological intervention.  We know that in post World War II, this was not something that was done.  But to me, Haze is clearly suffering.  His erratic behavior is beyond a comic stance in a novel.  His behavior demonstrates pathological tendencies that leave not only other characters scratching their heads but the reader as well.

     Pathological tendencies.  They are found in American Gothic literary works.  A character displays abnormalities that are only found in the mind but not necessarily in external actions.  These tendencies shape a character and create a story that leaves a reader pondering on the fictional actions of characters and the real actions of the living.  After reading several texts in American Gothic literature, I must say that the idea for the pathological is definitely there with each one.  The protagonist does not always have to represent the abnormality, but someone who interacts with him or her does.  In the works read in our American Gothic Literature course, a character with an obvious pathological issue sets the action in motion and demonstrates how the imbalance of one triggers the imbalance of many.  Diving into Wise Blood, Blackwater, and "Saint Marie" we see where the actions of just one character send the other characters into a spiral of decline.
     Wise Blood by Flannery O'Connor is an excellent example of how one's actions are obviously pathological in nature and change the lives of not only the protagonist but other minor characters also.  Haze's behavior as mentioned above does just that.
     Blackwater by Joyce Carol Oates is another work where a character - this one happens to be a senator - who due to extreme self-centered tendencies left a young woman to die.  She died due to his careless actions.   His actions, in my opinion, were pathological.
     "Saint Marie" by Louise Erdrich is another example of a pathological character whose actions developed the story.  Sister Leopolda's actions are at best pathological.  Her treatment of Marie were reprehensible and demonstrated a mind that does not reside in the world of normalcy.
     As I wrap this up, I realize that I could list many, many works of American Gothic literature that could place a character in the category of pathological.  These behaviors of characters are, in my opinion, definitive hallmarks of American Gothic literature.

Premise and ideas derived from:  The Cambridge Companion to Gothic Fiction edited by Jerrold E. Hogle