Cathy Pham

Professor McClure
8 November 2015
Writing 39B
RA Essay
There is a societal consensus that some of the most horrific acts an individual can commit
includes kidnapping, raping, and killing. One man in particular was notorious for all three of
these crimes. He confessed to the murders of 36 women in five separate states. His own defense
attorney was quoted calling him the very definition of heartless evil (Douglas). This man was
Ted Bundy - the epitome of an evil human being. Even before he received the title as one of the
twentieth centurys most foul, sadistic sexual predators, he won the hearts of each of his female
victims by exploiting his charisma and good looks to manipulate them. To lure women into his
car, he would commonly feign injury and ask for their help. Ironically, such intrinsically human
traits - kindness and a desire for companionship - became the victims fatal flaws.
Mary Gaitskills The Other Place, narrated in the perspective of an outwardly ordinary
man, simulates this experience in which one is manipulated to leave the monster undetected until
it is too late. This short story forces the reader to evaluate their cultural values, such as sympathy
and tolerance, as tools safety and self-preservation. While Gaitskills tale pertains to the horror
genre - whose criteria is outlined in Louis Carrolls essay The Nature of Horror, and explored
in a modern context in Tony Magistrale and Michael Morissons A Dark Nights Dreaming - it
also subverts a number of those conventions. These conventions distort the audiences ability to
recognize the protagonists true monstrosity. This effect is achieved through rhetorical devices,

most effectively, untraditional narrative point of view and unique plot structure. The Other
Side perplexes the audience by making it difficult for them to perceive the protagonist as both a
man and a monster. The audiences inability to label the protagonist as a monster or a man serves
as Gaitskills metaphor for the inherent flaw in our humanistic inclinations.
By subverting the audiences expectations of what a monster is, The Other Side distorts
the audiences ability to recognize the protagonists true nature. In The Nature of Horror,
Carroll identifies a monster as abnormal disturbances of the natural order (Carroll).
Initially, when the narrator discloses details about his life, a family and a successful career in real
estate, the audience defaults to characterize him as an ordinary man. However, this immediate
label inhibits the audiences ability to recognize the subtle details that attest to his monstrosity.
For example, when the narrator recalls his earlier years walking through neighborhoods alone,
looking at houses, seeing what people did to make them homes, the audience merely perceives
his actions as a bizarre but innocently curious. Even when he confesses that he would watch
Jenna Legge [sleep] on the ground floor and look in her window and watch her breathe
(Gaitskill), the audience maintains their original views. Rather than recognizing that the narrator
is stalking Jenna and invading her privacy, the audience rationalizes his abnormal actions as
youthful affection, and not juvenile objectification. Gaitskills story exposes a substantial flaw in
the way we are predisposed to viewing others with leniency and sympathy, regardless if these
traits pose a threat to our own safety. Thus, unable to distinguish man from monster, Gatskill
comments on the fact that we are under constant threat of harm.
Additionally, by subverting the convention that Carroll defines as responses of
characters [that] often seem to cue the emotional responses of the audience, Gaitskill further

prevents the audience from recognizing the protagonist as a monster. As horrific and abnormal
his thoughts and actions are, a vast majority of the characters throughout the story regard him not
as a monster, but as a friend, father, and husband. With his friends, Chet and Jim, [he] would sit
with them and yet be completely apart from them, talking and laughing about normal things in a
dark mash of music and snakes children running from psychos and girls being eaten.
Recognizing that his friends are oblivious to his monstrous tendencies, the narrator admits
[These] images that took me someplace my friends couldnt see, although it was right there in the
room with us. However, without the aid of his friends responses, the responsibility is left to the
audience to look to other means to verify their suspicions.
The interactions between the narrator and his wife, Marla, are similarly unhelpful. When
the protagonist confesses many of his murder fantasies to her, her response is one of sympathy
and justification: [she] believes that we were that way because we were both addicts expressing
our pain and anger through violent fantasies However, the protagonist recognizes the
intrinsic dissonance that separates his wifes murder fantasies to those of his own, remarking
privately, I see no similarity. By flouting this convention of the horror genre, Gaitskills story
sheds light on another intrinsic weakness our dependence upon the affirmation of others to
validate our own thoughts.
Gaitskills unconventional plot structure mirrors the difficulties we face in properly
characterizing others in our chaotic, nuanced, and unstructured world. Outlined in The Nature
of Horror, the discovery plot is a prominent plot structure of the horror genre: the monster
arrives, unbeknownst to anyone gradually the protagonist discover[s] that a monster is
responsible the authorities dismiss the very possibility of the monster the energies of the

narrative are then devoted to proving the monsters existence. In The Other Side, the narrator is
the monster, unbeknownst to virtually everyone in his world. The authorities who reject the
protagonists monstrosity include his friends oblivious to his morbid behavior and his own
wife ignorant to the inner workings of her dormant-killer husband. Rearranging the roles of
each character, Gaitskills story forces the audience to actively participate as the individuals who
wield the knowledge of his true identity. Unfortunately, this revelation does not come to light
until the plots climax when the narrator attempts to fulfill his deepest monstrous yearning to
gut-shot the bitch. Without the conventional structure of the plot to guide the audiences
understanding, the audience does not truly grasp that the narrator is the monster until it is too
late. The story simulates a real world experience, as one struggle to predict future outcomes due
to the erratic whims of ones world. The experience as a reader reflects peoples inability to
recognize danger before it manifests into irreparable tragedy, namely, the victims of Ted Bundy.
Gaitskills story also employs a number of rhetorical devices to simulate the issues that
arise with our culturally idealized characteristics. A powerful example lies within the authors
choice to place the narrative point of view - in the hands of the monster himself. This rhetorical
strategy forces the audience to directly receive his thoughts and, more importantly, empathize
with however monstrous they may be. This point of view forces us to respect the honesty that
accompanies blatantly monstrous behavior: Suddenly, when I was about fourteen, I started
getting excited by the thought of girls being hurt. Or killed. I would go invisibly into an invisible
world where I sometimes passively watched a killer and other times became one. The
narrator places his evil nature on a silver platter and the audience receives it with sympathy in
order toto rationalize his behavior with ideas such as he was only a teenager or he never
actually committed the crime. Rather than calling him a monster, the audience perceives him as

an honest, and troubled man, a contrived persona that runs contrary to the literal content of his
words. These responses demonstrate the dangers that our cultural values pose.
Structured as a series of vignettes, the reflective narrative is another rhetorical strategy
employed to humanize the monstrous narrator. He initiates the story with an ordinary
conversation starter among adults their children: My son, Douglas, loves to play with toy
guns. The structure of the rest of the story mirrors the same way that we befriend others one
story at a time. While talking about the dumb pranks of his earlier years to the times with his
teenage friends wed smoke week drink cheap wine wed play loud music and tell
dumb jokes the narrator also spoke candidly of his monstrous side: I didnt think about
killing anyone I actually knew. Interwoven in his ordinary, conversational story are details that
blatantly reveal the narrators monstrosity, but the audience still struggles to fully recognize it as
such. Rather, his monstrous remarks are regarded as random details that dont detract
significantly from his human side as a husband, father, and friend.
The irony of the storys structure also extends to the conflict that arises between the
narrators conversational tone and the literal content of his words. During a scene in which he
reflects upon the time he saw a thirtyish blond, he states rather blunt and ordinarily: I didnt
plan to do it. Initially, the implications of his words, based solely upon his blas tone, are
conversationally ambiguous. However, from the literal context surrounding that sentence, we
realize that the it he so lightly refers to is indeed murder. The irony between what he says and
the way he delivers it derails the audience from immediately grasping the gravity of his words.
Through this rhetorical strategy, Gaitskill creates a tension that simulates the cognitive

dissonance that we experience in the real world, between what is being said and how we receive
it.
Gaitskill employs various strategies in her story to exemplify a major threat that is
intrinsic to such qualities as sympathy and compassion. Just as Bundy exploited the kindness of
the young women to lure them to their deaths, the narrator manipulates our own humanistic
inclinations to the point at which we misinterpret the extent of his monstrosity. Upon the basis of
a question, The Other Side explores the situation when our values compromise our ability to
distinguish the humans from the monsters, and, ultimately, our own safety. But although such
cherished qualities are, at times, threatening, they are also intrinsically human. With them, we
risk our lives, but without them, we cannot truly live to experience such things as trust,
belonging, joy, and love. The rewards that accompany vulnerability that have propelled societies
farther than they have inhibited them and the duality of the two will continue to exist long after
we are gone.