The title of the collection asks a question: where is the Grotesque in these stories? In the story, "Poor Bibi," the answer is found in the family's decision to put down a member of their family, which the reader then learns was actually not a human but a dog. In that story, the grotesque aspect of the plot is that humans casually assume that animal lives are worth less than humans, and Joyce Carol Oates seems to be asking, "Why make that assumption?" Throughout the stories, this focus on regular human assumption as the source of horror continues.
For Rose Mallow, the "Bingo Man" is the horrifying element. She is nearly a forty-year-old virgin, and her life has deviated so far from the natural course of animal life that she struggles to imagine herself able to become intimate with anyone. This story shows horror as the experiment of intimacy, something that was so horrifying to Rose that she let time tick by for her entire life without ever breaking out of the cage that kept her lonely and isolated. The reader knows that perhaps she will be hurt or disappointed when she realizes that there are legitimate obstacles to intimacy.
Intimacy continues to be a scary process. There is a story called "The Doll," in which Florence identifies with her doll house, a symbol that represents the horror of her existence. She is so skillful with her personality that she always wins people over, but deep down, she knows she is manifesting herself in an inanimate way by stifling her animal instincts. In this case, personality is keeping her from true intimacy, and she starts to become a doll, as if to say she is being encased in her own emotional limitations. These are quite horrifying experiences, no ghosts necessary. The characters are Haunted by themselves.
