Stories can share many themes even when being written in different eras. In A Rose for Emily by William Faulkner, Emily is a woman who had been shielded away from everyone for her whole life. When she grows up, her father dies allowing her some freedom in the way she lives her life. When she tries to chase after the person she loves the most, she is denied their affection. In another story, The Red Convertible by Louise Erdrich, Lyman's brother Henry is sent off to fight in the Vietnam war. When he comes back he is visibly changed, acting violent and quiet at times. Even when Lyman tries to bring back Henry the way he was before, it does not work. A Rose for Emily and The Red Convertible both share themes of mental illness, symbolism, and tragic …show more content…
Mental illness can stem from inner and outer factors. When Henry, Lyman's brother, comes back from the Vietnam war,” [he] was very different… he was quiet, so quiet, and never comfortable sitting still anywhere” (Erdrich 5). During the Vietnam war, it was very common for soldiers like Henry to come back with extreme cases of PTSD. Having flashbacks of traumatic things he saw affected him deeply, never allowing him to move on with constant reminders. Henry also suffered from depression. When they are hanging outside together, Henry gets in the water and, “[his] boots are filling [with water]... then he’s gone” (Erdrich 12). The PTSD drove him over the edge along side with his depression contributing to his suicidal thoughts. He can not handle all the trauma he went through and commits suicide to finally make them stop. Emily is not any different since she also suffers from depression. Due to being left alone all her life she became isolated to the point that, “she went out very little… people hardly saw her at all” (Faulkner 1). A key point in depression is isolation. The sadness she felt had accumulated to the point where she could no longer face people anymore. That is how deeply mental illness affected
He tried everything he could in his power to help his brother. The beginning of the downfall started with the vehicle they both shared. Since the vehicle couldn’t save Henry he didn’t want to hold on to it anymore. The memories of the car were shared only between those two. The condition of the car was always in the same condition of the relationship between the brother’s.
Before Henry leaves for the war we believe that his relationship with his brother will only be slightly affected with his departure for Vietnam. Prior to the war, we see Henry driving around in the red convertible, which emphasized his freedom. When he returns from the war he has no interest in driving the car, a symbol that he no longer has freedom or control over his life. Henry is portrayed as the selfless character that attempts to give the red convertible, once a prized possession entirely to his brother. After the debacle over which brother should keep the red convertible, Henry drives the red convertible into the riverbank and commits suicide by jumping in.
"My sister seemed almost scared of him sometimes. I remember this one time when Kathy..." (O'Brien 27) This shows that John's PTSD effected Kathy's mental and possibly her physical wellbeing. In actuality, mental illnesses do not just effect the person who has it, the illness effects their close relatives, friends and society as a whole.
“A Rose for Emily” is about Emily who all the townspeople were interested in only because they didn’t know what she was like. She stayed secluded from the town and when she died everyone was curious. Both characters lived in social isolation as they were put away
Also at the end of A Rose For Emily one citizen mentions “One of us lifted something from it, and leaning forward, that faint and invisible dust dry and acrid in the nostrils, we saw a long strand of iron-gray hair” was when they found out she had killed Homer Barron and slept with the rotting corpse. At this time both characters had snapped and the final spark was lit up. These two similar characters were driven insane throughout the story. One took weeks, the other years. However the longest the character was isolated, the greater effect it had on them.
When she was young, her father forbade any male suitors. Though she had limited relationships with men, Emily still socialized with the other townspeople ever so often, even holding pottery classes on some days. However, “After her father's death she went out very little” (Faulkner 2). Since her father was a dominant figure in her life, she could not cope with having to live by herself and adjust to life itself. Furthermore, because her father did not let her
“A Rose for Emily” is a dark, suspenseful Gothic tale in which a young girl is put on a pedestal by a town who sees her as haughty and scornful. Miss Emily Grierson’s father controls her and her love life, pushing away all people until he dies and Emily is left alone. As her life goes on the townspeople watch her and judge Emily, almost turning her life into a spectacle to be talked about. At her death, a gruesome sight is unfolded when her lover of over forty years ago is found decomposed in her upstairs room. William Faulkner effectively builds epic suspense in “A Rose for Emily” by the unchronological order of the story, the treatment of Emily’s father towards her, and her family’s history of mental illness.
"A Rose for Emily," a short story by William Faulkner, was ahead of its time for the 1930s. This short story takes place in a town where Emily Grierson lived and died, leaving a mystery as to what the smell in her house was. Emily had lost her father and her boyfriend Homer, who was secretly a homosexual. After Emily's death, the town decides to investigate the smell, discovering a casket upstairs with Homer Barrons' dead body as well as a lock of Emily's gray hair on the empty head space beside his. In this short story, Faulkner uses imagery, tone, and irony to really show the points of this story as well as the overall themes such as letting go of the past and looking forward to the future.
The story “A Rose for Emily” is a horror story. In the story, there is death and fear. The story is a genre of horror that has ancient origins with roots in folklore and mystery, focusing on death in a person. A Rose for Emily is a horror story because Emily, who is mentally ill, is a woman whom many people are afraid of. She is a very mysterious woman who also has a strong smell because of the dead body she had in her house.
When people hear the words, “mental illness,” they think of insane asylums and psychiatric wards, but that’s not necessarily the case. Yes, back in the 1800’s they did have asylums for people with mental disorders. But that was when doctors didn’t fully understand mental illnesses and disorders. But currently, doctors are able to comprehend illnesses and disorders.
Such problems become so overbearing that each woman ends up in their own delusional world which in turn, leads to their isolation and insanity. "A Rose for Emily," basically serves to tell the life story of Miss Emily Grierson, a member of one of the respected families in the town of Jefferson. However, Emily has a strict father who allows her very little freedom growing up, and he looks
The Loneliness of Miss Emily There are many people that have been driven to insanity because of various reason. Insanity can cause numerous unwanted things to happen just to be somewhat sane again. For example, one could maybe murder a love interest because they do not want to be alone. In “A Rose for Emily,” William Faulkner uses the symbolism of a tableau, gray hair, and a house to convey isolation, loneliness, and refusal to change.
William Faulkner writes, “ She told them that he was not dead. She did that for three days.” This shows that Emily was unable to let go off the past and focus on the present because she wouldn't even let go of her father's body. Secondly, Emily knew that her lover was going to leave her and she was unable to deal with that so instead, she killed him and once he died,
“A Rose for Emily” is a unique short story that keeps the reader guessing even though its first sentence already reveals the majority of the content. William Faulkner’s “A Rose for Emily” is the epitome of a work that follows an unconventional plot structure and a non-linear timeline, but this method of organization is intentional, as it creates suspense throughout the story. William Faulkner’s “A Rose for Emily” follows an unusual plot structure, which creates an eccentric application of suspense to a short story. Throughout the story, there are no clear indications of standard plot structure in each section, such as intro, climax, and denouement. Instead, there are sections, which are not in chronological order, that describe a particular conflict or event, which in turn creates suspense, as each conflict builds upon each other to make the reader question the overall context and organization of the story.
The story "A Rose for Emily¨, tells the years of Emily´s life after her father's death and the towns reaction and thoughts based on her actions and events in her life. After her father's death she isolated herself from the whole town and rejected every man in the town.