2022 IB Diploma Extended Essays

comparatively more shocking aspect involved in the ‘Grotesque’, as readers are provided with less insight as to what the character is personally feeling that leads to the provocation of their actions.

Conversely, Knockemstiff is told from a first-person point of view. This positions the reader to take a more involved perspective rather than a strictly detached one. Although it ‘gives a story credibility… [and] builds a rapport with readers by sharing a personal story directly with them’ (Atwood, 2021), the first-person point of view gives an appositely more limited outlook about the truth of the situation – as readers only know and experience what the narrator does. Hence, it is important to understand that reality is a crucial aspect that can be altered in the ‘Grotesque’, as it ‘differentiates that which we want to have separate from our sense of reality, but still powerfully experience as real’ (Elroy, 2009). From telling the story in a first-person perspective, Knockemstiff introduces casualness upon the disturbing acts, which gives readers a deeper perception as to how and why these characters behave the way they do – allowing further insight to the desperately grim spirit of its residents. A significant factor of the ‘Grotesque’ is a ‘man’s capacity for finding a unique and powerful fascination in the monstrous’ (Elroy, 2009). Desensitization plays a major role traversing the emotional and immoral spectrum of the genre and ultimately accepting the empathetic background of these characters. Throughout Child of God, the theme of individual versus society is potently demonstrated through the eyes of Lester Ballard. Even after his encounter with the auctioneer, Ballard continues to associate himself with the community around him only when necessary, yet this still results in conflict almost every time. After continuous disappointments caused by disputes between Ballard and society, the sheriff exclaims to him that “[he is] either going to have to find

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