A Rose for Emily by William Faulkner
Summary: "A Rose for Emily" is about Miss Emily Grierson. Miss Emily dies and everyone in town comes out to her house. Throughout her life she has looked for love, but because of her father she has never been able to find it. When Miss Emily's father dies she has a hard time dealing with it and denies that he is dead for three days. Miss Emily then falls in love with a man named Homer Barron. When he refuses to marry her she buys poision. Everyone thinks that she will kill herself...will she?
Story Connections:
Literature: The story "A Rose for Emily" has character connections between Miss Emily and Boo Radley in "To Kill A Mocking Bird" by Harper Lee. In the story "To Kill A Mocking Bird" Boo was misunderstood and rarely came out of his house just like Miss Emily. Also both Boo and Miss Emily were emotionally damaged by their fathers.
Real Life: In the story Miss Emily faces hardships and obstacles that real people face everyday. "After her father's death she went out very little...", this statement from the story shows how Miss Emily reacted to her fathers' death. Many people can relate to this, because anytime we have lost someone close to us, we have a rough time dealing with it and we sometimes feel disconnected from the world.
Story Connections:
Literature: The story "A Rose for Emily" has character connections between Miss Emily and Boo Radley in "To Kill A Mocking Bird" by Harper Lee. In the story "To Kill A Mocking Bird" Boo was misunderstood and rarely came out of his house just like Miss Emily. Also both Boo and Miss Emily were emotionally damaged by their fathers.
Real Life: In the story Miss Emily faces hardships and obstacles that real people face everyday. "After her father's death she went out very little...", this statement from the story shows how Miss Emily reacted to her fathers' death. Many people can relate to this, because anytime we have lost someone close to us, we have a rough time dealing with it and we sometimes feel disconnected from the world.
Why Choose It?:
Are you looking for an emotion yet good short story with a twist? Well, " A Rose for Emily" by William Faulkner is what you should be reading. It has gotten many good reviews and it is quite interesting. Once you strat reading it, you begin to like it even more. The conflict is upsetting but with the details it is very good. In the book it leads to a curious question, will she kill herself?, and it makes people wonder what will happen. In the story it has good descriptions and deatil to keep the reader at interest and they end up enjoying it instead of the boring stories in out textbook. It also keeps the reader focused because of the upsetting and interesting conflict that goes on. We chose this short story because it had good descriptions of everything and did not bore you when you read it. This story should be in the textbook because it's not like the same old long short stories people are used to reading.
Critic Review: William Faulkner once said, “Given a choice between grief and nothing, I'd choose grief” (Brainyquote). He further explains why he’d do this in “A Rose for Emily”; although the story is not about him, he details the loneliness and selfishness of a poor woman, Miss Emily. Miss Emily is unable to grip the idea of death and suffers great deals of denial. After the death of her father, the townspeople expected her to be in a state of grief but alas she is not. Instead she proceeds to say that her father is very well with her, alive. William Faulkner’s idea of grieving is clear in this story because he shows his audience that it is better to accept death than to ignore it through the accounts of Miss Emily’s journey. William Faulkner’s story takes place in the South, during a time period of racial discrimination and major political change. By using reader response criticism, a reader can analyze “A Rose for Emily” through the aspects of the secret held within the story, race found through anthropology, and gender found through anthropology.
To begin with, one can analyze “A Rose for Emily” by examining the underlying hidden message found within the story. The hidden message that William Faulkner tried to convey in his story was the themes of death and change. Death looms through the story from the beginning right on through to the end as the narrator begins describing the beginning of Miss Emily’s funeral. Miss Emily herself chooses not to accept the fate of death when her extremely controlling father passes away. “Miss Emily met them at the door, dressed` as usual and with no trace of grief on her face. She told them that her father was not dead” (Faulkner). This quote from A Rose for Emily clearly shows how Miss Emily tried to defy death by holding on to her father’s corpse and treating it as if he were still living and how fearful she was of change. She later killed Homer to ensure that he would never leave her. Miss Emily continually tried to prevent any sort of change through death or other means from occurring in her town. She was so frightened of change that she wouldn’t allow the city to put numbers on her house for mail. “Miss Emily alone refused to let them fasten the metal numbers above her door and attach a mailbox to it. She would not listen to them” (Faulkner). Through this quote one can see the struggle that Miss Emily had to maintain her traditions and her attempts to force the town to remain at a standstill. “What was left of him, rotted beneath what was left of the nightshirt, had become inextricable from the bed in which he lay; and upon him and upon the pillow beside him lay that even coating of the patient and biding dust” (Faulkner). This is Miss Emily’s most severe attempt to preserve her life and the time period in which she lived. She would rather have nothing than grief over something lost.
The next step to analyzing “A Rose for Emily” is to examine race found through anthropology. The South was once known for its extreme prejudice and racism. William Faulkner’s attempts to convey this racism is made clear in “A Rose for Emily”. “They were admitted by the old Negro into a dim hall from which a stairway mounted into still more shadow” (Faulkner). This use of the derogatory term “negro” clearly shows the author’s intentions. Mr. Faulkner truly conveys the experience of the African American in the time period that this story was written because he is able to show how stripped of their identities they were. By using the terms “negro” or “nigger” to describe African Americans, people were stripping them of their human qualities. This was so severe that in some cases African Americans became “property” to some, which Mr. Faulkner was able to convey. Mr. Faulkner’s use of these derogatory terms also helps to explain the prejudices suffered by African Americans in the South. “Alive, Miss Emily had been a tradition, a duty, and a care; a sort of hereditary obligation upon the town, dating from that day in 1894 when Colonel Sartoris, the mayor –he who fathered the edict that no Negro woman should appear on the streets without an apron-remitted her taxes, the dispensation dating from the death of her father on into perpetuity” (Faulkner). One can clearly see that Colonel Sartoris’s intentions were to enforce rules in which African Americans were to be seen as workers, not people who socialized. This strongly prejudice of not allowing African Americans to be seen outside of labor as human beings is clearly seen through “A Rose for Emily”.
The final step in examining “A Rose for Emily” is by analyzing gender found through anthropology. Mr. Faulkner explains the roles of women in the South and how they were seen through the eyes of men. “When Miss Emily Grierson died the whole town went to her funeral: the men out of respectful affection for a fallen monument and the women mostly out of curiosity” (Faulkner). One can clearly see that through the opening sentence of the story, the narrator is stating that women gossip while men are caring and serious. This is only one of many passages that show that Mr. Faulkner is attempting to make men the stronger gender. “Only a man of Colonel Satoris’s generation could have invented it and only a women could have believed it” (Faulkner). Colonel Satoris is described as being an ingenious man but in this sentence, Miss Emily’s name isn’t even mentioned when the two are compared. Colonel Satoris is made to be an almost godly figure that is described as being more supreme than the entire female gender. The statement made in this story is that men are the better gender.
In conclusion, there are many aspects that were incorporated into “A Rose for Emily”. William Faulkner was able to create a story involving many ideas about society and how it functioned in a specific time period in the South. To further examine “A Rose for Emily”, one can use the reader response criticism and analyze the aspects of the hidden message found within the story, race found through anthropology, and gender found through anthropology. “A Rose for Emily” is an important element in literature due to examination of the effects of change created in the olden South. This story serves a good example for future generations.
To begin with, one can analyze “A Rose for Emily” by examining the underlying hidden message found within the story. The hidden message that William Faulkner tried to convey in his story was the themes of death and change. Death looms through the story from the beginning right on through to the end as the narrator begins describing the beginning of Miss Emily’s funeral. Miss Emily herself chooses not to accept the fate of death when her extremely controlling father passes away. “Miss Emily met them at the door, dressed` as usual and with no trace of grief on her face. She told them that her father was not dead” (Faulkner). This quote from A Rose for Emily clearly shows how Miss Emily tried to defy death by holding on to her father’s corpse and treating it as if he were still living and how fearful she was of change. She later killed Homer to ensure that he would never leave her. Miss Emily continually tried to prevent any sort of change through death or other means from occurring in her town. She was so frightened of change that she wouldn’t allow the city to put numbers on her house for mail. “Miss Emily alone refused to let them fasten the metal numbers above her door and attach a mailbox to it. She would not listen to them” (Faulkner). Through this quote one can see the struggle that Miss Emily had to maintain her traditions and her attempts to force the town to remain at a standstill. “What was left of him, rotted beneath what was left of the nightshirt, had become inextricable from the bed in which he lay; and upon him and upon the pillow beside him lay that even coating of the patient and biding dust” (Faulkner). This is Miss Emily’s most severe attempt to preserve her life and the time period in which she lived. She would rather have nothing than grief over something lost.
The next step to analyzing “A Rose for Emily” is to examine race found through anthropology. The South was once known for its extreme prejudice and racism. William Faulkner’s attempts to convey this racism is made clear in “A Rose for Emily”. “They were admitted by the old Negro into a dim hall from which a stairway mounted into still more shadow” (Faulkner). This use of the derogatory term “negro” clearly shows the author’s intentions. Mr. Faulkner truly conveys the experience of the African American in the time period that this story was written because he is able to show how stripped of their identities they were. By using the terms “negro” or “nigger” to describe African Americans, people were stripping them of their human qualities. This was so severe that in some cases African Americans became “property” to some, which Mr. Faulkner was able to convey. Mr. Faulkner’s use of these derogatory terms also helps to explain the prejudices suffered by African Americans in the South. “Alive, Miss Emily had been a tradition, a duty, and a care; a sort of hereditary obligation upon the town, dating from that day in 1894 when Colonel Sartoris, the mayor –he who fathered the edict that no Negro woman should appear on the streets without an apron-remitted her taxes, the dispensation dating from the death of her father on into perpetuity” (Faulkner). One can clearly see that Colonel Sartoris’s intentions were to enforce rules in which African Americans were to be seen as workers, not people who socialized. This strongly prejudice of not allowing African Americans to be seen outside of labor as human beings is clearly seen through “A Rose for Emily”.
The final step in examining “A Rose for Emily” is by analyzing gender found through anthropology. Mr. Faulkner explains the roles of women in the South and how they were seen through the eyes of men. “When Miss Emily Grierson died the whole town went to her funeral: the men out of respectful affection for a fallen monument and the women mostly out of curiosity” (Faulkner). One can clearly see that through the opening sentence of the story, the narrator is stating that women gossip while men are caring and serious. This is only one of many passages that show that Mr. Faulkner is attempting to make men the stronger gender. “Only a man of Colonel Satoris’s generation could have invented it and only a women could have believed it” (Faulkner). Colonel Satoris is described as being an ingenious man but in this sentence, Miss Emily’s name isn’t even mentioned when the two are compared. Colonel Satoris is made to be an almost godly figure that is described as being more supreme than the entire female gender. The statement made in this story is that men are the better gender.
In conclusion, there are many aspects that were incorporated into “A Rose for Emily”. William Faulkner was able to create a story involving many ideas about society and how it functioned in a specific time period in the South. To further examine “A Rose for Emily”, one can use the reader response criticism and analyze the aspects of the hidden message found within the story, race found through anthropology, and gender found through anthropology. “A Rose for Emily” is an important element in literature due to examination of the effects of change created in the olden South. This story serves a good example for future generations.
Critic Review: the Hunger Games hype that engulfed us last week, it was hard to avoid
all the discussion of similar works that existed. Of the many titles that I came
across, two stood out particularly - a short story called The Lottery and a Japanese novel (and movie) called
Battle Royale (which I'm reading right now and just cannot put down). The
novel will be fodder for another post, so for now, I just want to rave about the
awesomeness that was The Lottery.In contemporary America, villagers across the
country are gathering on the 27th of June (and some a day earlier) for an annual
event called the Lottery. Children, women, men, all come to the main square of their village or town, where
the lottery master keeps a black box full of paper chips. One of these chips is
marked has a special mark on it to identify the winner (the person who draws
that chip). Not everyone draws however, but only the head of the family.
Husbands are viewed as the head of their families/households, and if the husband
is absent for some reason, a son above the age of sixteen will be the head. If
there is no son, then the wife can be the family head, but of course, she is
questioned publicly about whether she didn't have any son who met that criteria
before they accepted her for the drawing. There is an air of excitement and
nervousness and the general first impression is that of
willful acceptance. The lottery begins, and it is then we begin to see some interesting reactions. The
winner isn't too happy, but the others are giddy with relief and insistent on
the following through with traditions.Can I begin by saying just how
much this story blew my mind? I had heard that it was awesome, and that when it
was first published, there was such strong reaction to it - many of them
negative of course. On a side note, it's fascinating how people then ridiculed
the story and sent the author a lot of hate mail (stuff like this happens now
too) but our first reaction is varying degrees of acceptance.Anyways,
like I said, I was totally blown away, even though I knew there was something
evil going to happen in the story (which isn't revealed until the very end). But
more than that, I loved how multidimensional the story is. The author leaves a
lot of hints through the story, so that when I reached the end, I couldn't say
that it sprung up on me. The evidence was there all along, but the kind of
evidence you don't think twice about, but later makes you go - oh my god, how
did I miss that?But mostly, I loved the people characterizations.
The beginning of the story almost gives the impression that this is a million
dollar lottery. People were somewhat excited. But there was also an air of
restraint - an indication that there is something wrong with this happy American
picture - as if people wanted to be there and not be there as well. A few men
talk about how the lottery is being canceled in a few towns, and the oldest man
in this village scoffs at that, saying it's the young people to blame for that,
and that the lottery is the best thing that ever happened. But when the lottery
winner is revealed, the winner alone cries how unfair it is despite how
participating that person was earlier.And despite how much I sat
expecting something crazy to happen, I was still shocked at the ending.
all the discussion of similar works that existed. Of the many titles that I came
across, two stood out particularly - a short story called The Lottery and a Japanese novel (and movie) called
Battle Royale (which I'm reading right now and just cannot put down). The
novel will be fodder for another post, so for now, I just want to rave about the
awesomeness that was The Lottery.In contemporary America, villagers across the
country are gathering on the 27th of June (and some a day earlier) for an annual
event called the Lottery. Children, women, men, all come to the main square of their village or town, where
the lottery master keeps a black box full of paper chips. One of these chips is
marked has a special mark on it to identify the winner (the person who draws
that chip). Not everyone draws however, but only the head of the family.
Husbands are viewed as the head of their families/households, and if the husband
is absent for some reason, a son above the age of sixteen will be the head. If
there is no son, then the wife can be the family head, but of course, she is
questioned publicly about whether she didn't have any son who met that criteria
before they accepted her for the drawing. There is an air of excitement and
nervousness and the general first impression is that of
willful acceptance. The lottery begins, and it is then we begin to see some interesting reactions. The
winner isn't too happy, but the others are giddy with relief and insistent on
the following through with traditions.Can I begin by saying just how
much this story blew my mind? I had heard that it was awesome, and that when it
was first published, there was such strong reaction to it - many of them
negative of course. On a side note, it's fascinating how people then ridiculed
the story and sent the author a lot of hate mail (stuff like this happens now
too) but our first reaction is varying degrees of acceptance.Anyways,
like I said, I was totally blown away, even though I knew there was something
evil going to happen in the story (which isn't revealed until the very end). But
more than that, I loved how multidimensional the story is. The author leaves a
lot of hints through the story, so that when I reached the end, I couldn't say
that it sprung up on me. The evidence was there all along, but the kind of
evidence you don't think twice about, but later makes you go - oh my god, how
did I miss that?But mostly, I loved the people characterizations.
The beginning of the story almost gives the impression that this is a million
dollar lottery. People were somewhat excited. But there was also an air of
restraint - an indication that there is something wrong with this happy American
picture - as if people wanted to be there and not be there as well. A few men
talk about how the lottery is being canceled in a few towns, and the oldest man
in this village scoffs at that, saying it's the young people to blame for that,
and that the lottery is the best thing that ever happened. But when the lottery
winner is revealed, the winner alone cries how unfair it is despite how
participating that person was earlier.And despite how much I sat
expecting something crazy to happen, I was still shocked at the ending.
Critic review: The short story A Rose For Emily written by William Faulkner is a tale
about an old woman named Emily living in the town of Jefferson. The story is
written in the classic Faulkner method of a streaming consciousness. A Rose
For Emily illustrates the theme of decay in the town, the house, and in Miss
Emily herself. Set in the early nineteen hundreds, the story opens with the town
finding out about Emily's death. The story is told by an unknown narrator who
lives in the town of Jefferson. We learn of the life and times of Emily, and her
relationship with the town, her father, and her lover. At the end of the story
we find out about the disturbing truth that Emily Grierson was hiding.
As Emily grows older so does the town that she has lived in for her entire
life. While she had once lived on one of the nicest streets in Jefferson, the
street in now considered to be one of the worst in the town. It would seem that
the street had aged and decayed with Miss Emily. In her youth, Emily and her
family were respected and known as some of Jefferson's finest citizens. As Emily
has grown older the town sees her in a different way. In her old age she is seen
as a monument to the past that is never seen outside of her house. All of the
respect that her father had earned died with the old men and women of the town.
The old ways of the town of Jefferson decayed and passed away with all of the
men and women that had called it home. The house that Emily lives in was at one time one of the most beautiful
homes in the whole town of Jefferson. In Emily's youth the house was always well
kept. As Miss Emily aged so did the house she lived in. The house became an
eyesore for the entire town. With faded paint and an unkempt yard it even began
to smell at one point. The men of the old Jefferson would never tell a lady that
her house smelled so they cured the odor themselves. It would seem that the
house and Emily where connected in a way. Both of them had grown old and lost
their splendor. The house was also looked at in the same way as Emily. They
where looked at as a monument to the past. Emily had once been one of the most beautiful ladies in Jefferson. With her
father alive no man dared to court her. As Emily grew older she began to decay
and lose some of her looks. In her old age she became a fat and gray haired old
women. It would also seem that her mind had decayed as well. She had one love,
Homer Barron, which the town had believed had left her. It is revealed at the
end of the story that he in fact did not leave Miss Emily. Emily had poisoned Mr
Barron and left his body in her bed. Emily's mind had decayed to such a point
that she was not aware of what was right or wrong. She could not even understand
what was normal. The state of mind that she was in explains why she and the
house had decayed to such a point. While Faulkner had many themes in "A Rose For Emily", the theme of decay
was the most prevalent throughout the entire story. The town of Jefferson, the
house, and Emily all grew old. Miss Emily lost her mind and her looks. The house
lost the beauty it once held due to old age. The town of Jefferson changed and
grew old. What had once been a nice southern town had decayed. William Faulkner
truly wrote a wonderful story about an old women who loses her mind. "A Rose For
Emily" shows the way in which we all grow old and decay.
about an old woman named Emily living in the town of Jefferson. The story is
written in the classic Faulkner method of a streaming consciousness. A Rose
For Emily illustrates the theme of decay in the town, the house, and in Miss
Emily herself. Set in the early nineteen hundreds, the story opens with the town
finding out about Emily's death. The story is told by an unknown narrator who
lives in the town of Jefferson. We learn of the life and times of Emily, and her
relationship with the town, her father, and her lover. At the end of the story
we find out about the disturbing truth that Emily Grierson was hiding.
As Emily grows older so does the town that she has lived in for her entire
life. While she had once lived on one of the nicest streets in Jefferson, the
street in now considered to be one of the worst in the town. It would seem that
the street had aged and decayed with Miss Emily. In her youth, Emily and her
family were respected and known as some of Jefferson's finest citizens. As Emily
has grown older the town sees her in a different way. In her old age she is seen
as a monument to the past that is never seen outside of her house. All of the
respect that her father had earned died with the old men and women of the town.
The old ways of the town of Jefferson decayed and passed away with all of the
men and women that had called it home. The house that Emily lives in was at one time one of the most beautiful
homes in the whole town of Jefferson. In Emily's youth the house was always well
kept. As Miss Emily aged so did the house she lived in. The house became an
eyesore for the entire town. With faded paint and an unkempt yard it even began
to smell at one point. The men of the old Jefferson would never tell a lady that
her house smelled so they cured the odor themselves. It would seem that the
house and Emily where connected in a way. Both of them had grown old and lost
their splendor. The house was also looked at in the same way as Emily. They
where looked at as a monument to the past. Emily had once been one of the most beautiful ladies in Jefferson. With her
father alive no man dared to court her. As Emily grew older she began to decay
and lose some of her looks. In her old age she became a fat and gray haired old
women. It would also seem that her mind had decayed as well. She had one love,
Homer Barron, which the town had believed had left her. It is revealed at the
end of the story that he in fact did not leave Miss Emily. Emily had poisoned Mr
Barron and left his body in her bed. Emily's mind had decayed to such a point
that she was not aware of what was right or wrong. She could not even understand
what was normal. The state of mind that she was in explains why she and the
house had decayed to such a point. While Faulkner had many themes in "A Rose For Emily", the theme of decay
was the most prevalent throughout the entire story. The town of Jefferson, the
house, and Emily all grew old. Miss Emily lost her mind and her looks. The house
lost the beauty it once held due to old age. The town of Jefferson changed and
grew old. What had once been a nice southern town had decayed. William Faulkner
truly wrote a wonderful story about an old women who loses her mind. "A Rose For
Emily" shows the way in which we all grow old and decay.