"The crime confronted the townsfolk of Holcomb with their own isolation. Neighborliness evaporated. The natural order seemed suspended. Chaos poised to rush in. They distrusted and came to suspect not terrible strangers, but themselves"

This source provides good examples and statements of the Gothic theme of isolation in the novel.

"Dick and Perry do not fit into the exemplary American image that Holcomb and its citizenry desire. Both men exhibit symptoms of mental illness. They have criminal backgrounds. Perry has a history of abuse. Their antisocial behavior places them in sharp contrast to the American ideals of Holcomb and the Clutter family"

Although this source mainly outlines the theme of justice in In Cold Blood, it also provides a good overview of how Perry and Dick were seen as outcasts.

"Nina had never been close to Truman, chiefly because she was embarrassed by his effeminate ways. She terminated two pregnancies she conceived by Joe, saying, 'I will not have another child like Truman and if I do have another child, it will be like Truman.'"

This source provides an overview of Capote's life. It provides a little explanation to why Capote connected so well with Perry, as they both had very neglected childhoods.

"Through flashbacks we learn that both Dick and Perry have been physically deformed in accidents. Dick was in a car accident in 1950. "It was as though his head had been halved like an apple, then put together a fraction off center … the left eye being truly serpentine, with a venomous, sickly-blue squint …" (Capote 43). Perry's injuries, acquired in a motorcycle accident in 1952, are more serious: "… his chunky, dwarfish legs, broken in five places and pitifully scarred, still pained him so severely that he had become an aspirin addict" (Capote 43)"

This source gives a thorough overview of the nonfiction novel. This part specifically focuses on the fact that both Perry and Dick sustained injuries through accidents. This makes them both seem more monster like.

"Capote's recounting of Smith's childhood and family life begs the question whether Smith's crimes stem from inherent criminal tendencies, or whether he is pushed onto that path through circumstances beyond his control"

This source outlines the nature vs. nurture debate in the form of Perry and his actions. It cites examples proving Perry may have preformed the crimes out of mistreatment as a child.

"Accusation, recrimination, pity, regret, fear, and just plain hatred soil those perspectives as the Smiths relentlessly repeat the pain they have shared and continue to share"

This source shows the relationship between Perry and his family. It highlights the tensions and issues that can be used to prove that Perry's upbringing may have caused him to commit the crimes.

"Faulkner uses the experimental forms associated with modernism to depict the impact of the sociocultural era called modernity, and the processes of urbanization and industrialization known as modernization, on poor whites in the rural South. As I Lay Dying makes clear that Faulkner's rural modernism has not simply a geographic logic but also a sociopolitical significance. Rural modernism critiques the conflation of the urban and the modern, in part by revealing how the country is used as a foil against which urban modernity is defined"

This source examines the novel from the perspective of modernism in Faulkner's writing. It discusses how it is used and how it effects other themes. This brings a new perspective to the groups of themes.

"perhaps because, for Addie, words are both the container and the contained; the empty vessel and the shape to fill that emptiness. They have the power to reveal and give form, as when she sees Anse flow out of the darkness and into the vessel of his name, but they also have the power to conceal"

This source provides an overview of the novel based solely on the language usage of each narrator. It examines specific language like Addie's, that is empty and useless because that's how she feels life is.

"Absurdist comedy is juxtaposed with existential tragedy, complicating the reader's assessment of the Bundren family and the significance of their actions"

This source is a literary criticism of the novel. It provides solid details to the black humor used in As I Lay Dying, and speaks more of the style of Faulkner's novel.

"Faulkner's use of multiple narrators underscores one of his primary themes: every character is essentially isolated from the others. Moreover, the characters in the novel do not communicate effectively with one another"

This source outlines the themes in As I lay Dying, as well as giving examples. This quote provides an overview of Faulkner's style of using the different characters as narrators in order to further emphasize that the characters do not communicate well.

"The more sensitive characters, especially Addie and Darl, recognize their alienation from others. In particular, Addie is a striking example of someone who both longs to transcend this isolation and stubbornly works to maintain an impenetrable individuality"

This source outlines the theme of isolation in the novel very well. It discusses the characters that recognize the isolation, as well as the isolation that is forced on them by Addie, who wants solitude.

"The most prolific narrator is Darl, the second-oldest son, who has unusual perceptive abilities but is committed to an insane asylum for setting fire to a barn in a futile attempt to end their ridiculous journey, a ten-day ordeal in July without the aid of embalming"

This source provides a short but thorough analysis of the basic themes in the novel. The quote focuses on Darl, and his seemingly insane actions, which also seem very reasonable. This goes along with the theme of sanity vs. insanity.

"The love and devotion Anse ostensibly shows for his wife may be, from his point of view, partly genuine, but his motives are also self-serving. Ironically, Addie had despised him for years, calling him dead and the promise she asked of him, that she be buried with her ancestors, had no meaning for her, except as a cruel and capricious trick"

This source provides a good overview of the novel. It also sums up the whole situation with Anse and Addie and their real motives that drive them, contrary to the standard of love.

"Self-confinement exacerbates Victor's bizarre tendencies. Like the house bound heroine of domestic fiction, he retreats into an emotion-free state while dabbling in forbidden secrets in "a cell, at the top of the house, and separated from all the other apartments by a gallery and staircase"

This source again identifies the main themes of isolation and the lack of human connections in Shelly's novel. They help to highlight the basis of these themes and how they reoccur in the novel.

"will acquaint readers with Mary's parents, her own troubled childhood, the circle of people with whom she and her husband associated, and the hardships she experienced throughout her widowhood as a result of her liaison with Shelley and other Romantic writers"

This source takes a detailed look at Shelly's life. Her upbringing and other events both in her childhood and adulthood, suggest why she wrote with romantic values and help to understand her authorial purpose better.

"At the heart of Frankenstein is the tension between the power science confers on individuals and the just restraints of community. Frankenstein, both creator and creature, stands not for science in general but for the acquisition of scientific power foolishly pursued without the wisdom of the world"

This source takes a detailed look at the ethics of science, and how the novel was written as a commentary on these ethics. This also follows the pattern of Shelly's romantic side, as she created Frankenstein to have a lack of personal connections, and for it to be his downfall.

"that indicated that the model for Victor Frankenstein was Dr. James Lind (1736-1812), Shelley's scientific mentor at Eton in 1809-10. Lind had become fascinated with the ability of electrical impulses to provoke muscle movement in the legs of dead frogs"

This source provides commentary on Shelly's inspiration for her character Dr. Frankenstein. It brings up Shelly's authorial purpose of writing the story as a warning of what science could become.

"Victor's inquisitive nature causes his emotional and physical peril because he cannot balance his intellectual and social interactions. For instance, when he leaves home to attend the University of Ingolstadt, he immerses himself in his experiment and forgets about the family who lovingly supported him throughout his childhood"

This article provides a detailed overview of the novel. It also provides an overview of the themes including alienation or isolation. This example could be used as support for the basic theme.

"Frankenstein is a novel that is deeply interested in a particular kind of social union, namely, the political community. Written in 1818 and in the moment between revolution and reform, Shelley's novel invokes contemporary discussions and theorizations of political community"

This source goes into the role the community plays in the novel. As the romantic value of human connection comes up, so does the community in a changing role. This is another one of Shelly's criticisms of her society.

"We may visualise Frankenstein's doppelgänger or Monster firstly as representing reason in isolation, since he is the creature of an obsessional rational effort"

This source provides a detailed look at the monster and his role as a doppelganger to Frankenstein. It explains the monsters role, and how it evolves through the story.