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Citation Information
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Manser, Martin H. "American Gothic." Writer's Reference Center. Facts On File, Inc. Web. 17 Apr. 2025. <http://fofweb.infobase.com/wrc/Detail.aspx?iPin=DOA00110>.
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American Gothic

Definition 
That aspect of the American provincial character that is stiff, conservative, and narrow-minded. The allusion is to a famous painting of the same title painted by Grant Wood (1891–1942) in 1930, which depicts a stern-faced pitchfork-wielding farmer and his wife before their immaculate, white-painted home. Today, the painting is celebrated as a satirical comment on American provincial life, although Wood himself protested that he was simply portraying the values of the rural communities of Iowa in which he grew up. The family represented to him all that was stifling and hateful in American Gothic.

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