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A Rose For Emily Change Analysis

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The short story “A Rose for Emily” by William Faulkner, discusses the south in the 1900’s as it is rapidly changing while still trying to keep respect for long held traditions. Much of the older generation refuses the change and stands tall on their beliefs, while the young generations are heavily pushing for new traditions. This tension causes a separation between the generations, leaving some to feel pushed out and isolated; such as Emily Grierson, a complex woman who suffered many horrible losses in her life. Emily Grierson is a symbol of the old southern ways, as she holds tightly to her traditions in the quickly changing world she lives in.
Emily Grierson was a woman of the old traditions who refused to abolition her ways. She was a symbol …show more content…

She refused to pay taxes in the town, “’I have no taxes in Jefferson. Colonel Sartoris explained it to me. Perhaps one of you can gain access to the city records and satisfy yourselves’” (1). She was exempt from paying taxes when she was much younger but as new officials took offices they no longer respected old verbal agreements. However, Emily hold firm to her beliefs that she owed the town nothings and therefore was no going to pay taxes. Emily refused to take part in the modern mail service, “When the town got free postal delivery, Miss Emily alone refused to let them fasten the metal numbers above the door and attach a mailbox to it” (5). Emily did not want to forgo the tradition of getting your mail at the postal office, she did everything she could to no be part of the change. Faulkner uses the word “alone” to describe her refusal showing how Emily stood alone in the battle, reinforcing how she was seen as both an outsider and a burden to the town. Miss Emily held tightly to her ways and tried her hardest to prevent change and her last attempt to stop change cost a human life.
Emily spent her life trying to prevent the changes that were evident all around her, leading her to create a bridal chamber. Miss Emily was unable to prevent the change in the town but she felt she could stop it inside her home. She does the extreme to

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Miss Emily comes from an old wealthy line of family in the deep south. Faulkner story is highly symbolic, enhancing miss Emily’s values and character. “Miss Emily is described as a fallen monument to the chivalric American South”(Allmon). Faulkner uses the setting of the story to show the emotional state of Emily. The female-male relationship between Emily and her father is strict, oppressive, and controlling; Their relationship has a major impact on Emily’s character Throughout the short story.

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“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.

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“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.

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A literary analysis on who is the narrator: The Narrator in A Rose for Emily is First Person Plural There is a mystery that seems to be unsolved throughout the years. Many important and influential literature critics have tried to discover who is the narrator in A Rose for Emily. After an extensive period of research, the mystery of who the narrator is has been solved. There are different points of view and information collected by the main narrator.

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There are many themes represented in William Faulkner’s story “A Rose for Emily”, but the most prevalent is the fear of change. In the story, Emily Grierson is raised by an overbearing father that lets her go out very little and has her follow a distinguished traditional lifestyle (Schwab). When Emily’s father dies her desire to keep her life from changing is shown in her reluctance to remove his body (Schwab). She does not accept what is going on until townsfolk come and force her to hand over the body and face reality. Emily is lost at this point, the one controlling her actions is gone and she is stuck in a changing society that she refuses to go along with it to where the townsfolk call her “a tradition, a duty, and a care; a sort of hereditary

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In William Faulkner’s short story, A Rose for Emily, Emily Grierson, a prominent member of her small town, dies alone in her home. Upon her death, curious townsfolk entered her home trying to learn her secrets. It was thought she was crazy. Emily Grierson was not crazy; she was isolated by her father, which led to her odd social tendencies and unique interactions with others. A Rose for Emily is a short story based in a small town.

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One critic believes this is due to her complete denial to yield to anything in her life that will cause an unwanted change. He says, “But we can tackle the problem of Miss Emily’s motivation more effectively if we say at once that the trouble with her is her obstinate refusal to submit to, or even to concede, the inevitability of change. Hence her refusal to pay taxes. A procedure has been set and must be allowed to continue” (Johnson, 526). Johnson believes that her constant rejection of change is what drives all of her motivations throughout the story and views it as a major character flaw.

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