In The Other Side, a collection of vignettes told through the perspective of an

outwardly ordinary man whose thoughts and actions reveal those belonging solely to a
monster, it is through a multitude of Mary Gaitskills rhetorical techniques and flouts of
conventions of the horror genre that enables the novels audience, modern Americans,
to experience conflicting emotions towards the narrator, and, through those
contradictions, reassess the effectiveness of our modern cultural values and ideals that
inhibit our evolutionary, intrinsic processes and ultimately obstruct our abilities for selfpreservation and survival.

Acts as a metaphor Leveraging the horror genre

1. Horror Genre - Gaitskills story contains a man who is both ordinary and
extraordinary, human and simultaneously monster
a. He possesses qualities of a monster
i. Define monster Carrol
ii. List narrators thoughts that align with definition of monster
1. He loves violence morbid, creepy
2. He has unnatural relationship with parents bizarre
upbringing
3. The Other Place is where he becomes a murderer
frightening, element of surprise, you never know his trigger
iii. List narrators actions that further align with defined monster
1. He was grossly turned on by his sons fear
2. He attempted to kill a lady
iv. Therefore, by definition, he is a monster
b. He also has redeeming characteristics that, by definition of what a
monster is, show he is not a monster
i. Internally, He does not want to hurt anyone
1. He has a family, a wife, a son natural, normal
2. He is successful as a real estate agent
ii. Externally, he has never actually hurt anyone
1. The marbles in the engine never affected the family,
although it could have
2. He could not actually kill the lady
iii. Therefore, he is not completely a monster
c. We are given all of the signs of this monster, yet we reason, we justify, we
seek to sympathize with him evolutionary instinct, all of the signs say to
stay away from him; yet our society says to give him the benefit of the
doubt through Gaitskills flout of horror genre convention, we withhold
our judgment that something is very wrong with him and allow ourselves
to sympathize, our reaction to this fictional character is an example of the
byproduct weve become of our societys values
d. IN the horror genre, a character is a monster through the reactions of the
characters in the plot, we mirror their reactions if they are credible Carrol
i. However, no one reacts to him as a monster
1. His friends do not recognize
2. His wife does not recognize
ii. Therefore, we do not recognize him as a monster Gaitskills
choice to flout convention and not have the monster in the story
readily identifiable for the readers
e. Another flouting of horror genre - Discovery plot

i.

rather than the character discovering that the monster is responsible, the audience is
forced to discover the monster, while everyone in the story does not react accordingly
(wife, friends, son) to his monstrous qualities
ii.
we must realize that ourselves, given not too many details other than our gut instinct
that something wicked is inside of him versus our culturally ingrained belief that we
should withhold judgment
iii.
we use our energy to prove that he is indeed a monster Gaitskills rhetorical devices
2. Rhetorical devices that reveal his monstrous qualities and conflict with his
redeeming qualities
a. Told in the monsters POV
i. We discover his thoughts, his rationale, his own explanations
ii. They are honest, but they are also horrifying
iii. We experience conflicting emotions of how to think of the narrator
because we are taught to value honesty, regardless of the content
sometimes
b. Reflective narrative, vignette structure
i. uncover the narrators monstrosity, layer after layer while
simultaneously humanizing him, we are both mortified and grasping
at straws to rationalize, justify, and sympathize
ii. Acts as a mirror of the way we get to know other humans, one story
at a time we treat the narrator the same way we would a friend
and the way society tells us to do, withhold judgment, although in
the midst of telltale signs of monstrosity
c. Tone vs Content conflict between his normal, blas, detached,
conversational tone and the content of his shocking inner thoughts
i. Creates unsettling tension, suspense, and confusion for the
audience, we realize he has monstrous qualities when he fails to
truly grasp the gravity of his statements
ii. Societally we assume he is mentally deranged rather than assigning
to him the term monster and we continue to withhold judgment
even when the signs are slapping us in the face
d. This conflict results in time wasted, indecisiveness, and then its too late

3. This indecisiveness also poses an issue in our modern society

Elliot Rodger therapist and family members and classmates dont act upon the
triggers (his manifesto, his youtube videos) he kills people
4. Therefore, societally ingrained value is ineffective and we need a new form of
action which is to embrace our evolutionary instinct to categorize and
analyze, our gut instinct
a. Arguments against it
i. This enables other social issues such as racism, unfair stereotypes,
inequality, the cons outweigh the pros
b. Rebuttal for arguments
Evidence that it will be successful (measure of success = survival)
1. Its ingrained in us evolutionary
ii. The benefits of using this
iii. Why it is not popular

5. because we cannot let our fear

some may argue that this enables racial profiling, racism, unfair stereotypes
this is not mutually exclusive, we can prevent danger from occurring while also treating
each other respectfully, there is a middle ground if we work towards finding it rather
than allowing our results to be affected by the age-old perception of viewing solutions
and consequences as black and white
Dont let fear stop us from treating people with respect, but dont completely discount
the evolutionary importance of stereotyping, categorizing as an effective means of
survival