[Article] We are Family: Family Dynamics in Poppy Z. Brite's Lost Souls

Article – approximately 4,059 words. The concept of family is a huge part of life in the United States South. Ancestors play as integral a role as current patriarchal / matriarchal figures who shape and groom their charges in a manner that is consistent with honoring and upholding the family’s public and community-oriented image. In Poppy Z. Brite’s Lost Souls, the idea of the southern family is transgressed on all fronts with predictably disastrous results. From the disregard of the matriarch to ineffectual patriarchs who deny their birthright to descendants left to their own devices, author K.J. Pierce briefly explores dysfunctional family life in Lost Souls.