Original sentence: Deeply flawed characters, while often disturbing to read about, provide the author with greater narrative range and more opportunities to highlight unpleasant aspects in Southern culture without moralizing.One of the most notable features of the Southern Gothic is the grotesque, a stock character who possesses some cringe-inducing qualities, typically bigotry and self-righteousness, but enough good traits that the reader finds himself empathizing nevertheless.The Southern Gothic author usually avoids perpetuating antebellum stereotypes  such as the contented slave, the demure Southern belle, the chivalrous gentleman and the righteous Christian preacher.Unlike its predecessor, it uses these tools not for the sake of suspense, but to explore social issues and reveal the cultural character of the South
Edited sentence: Deeply flawed characters, while often disturbing to read about, provide the author with greater narrative range and more opportunities to highlight the unpleasant aspects of Southern culture without resorting to open moralizing.One of the most notable features of the Southern Gothic is the grotesque, a stock character who possesses some cringe-inducing qualities, typically bigotry and self-righteousness, but enough good traits that the reader finds himself empathizing in spite of himself.The Southern Gothic author usually avoids perpetuating the antebellum stereotypes the dominant culture would prefer to see, such as the contented slave, the demure Southern belle, the chivalrous gentleman and the righteous Christian preacher.Unlike its predecessor, it uses these tools not for the sake of suspense, but to explore social issues and reveal the cultural inequities of the South