The Human Condition In Faulkner's A Rose For Emily

Many scholars have already analyzed and scrutinized over Faulkner’s “A Rose for Emily”, but there is always something new to learn. In a quote by Michael Ovitz, he says, “ The generality of situations that humans face in 'getting along with each other and the world'”. He talking about the human condition. William Faulkner was born on September 25, 1897, almost the turn of the century. He was born in New Albany Mississippi, and where he grew up influenced much of his work. Later in his life, he won the nobel peace prize and was a hero for the South. Many people saw him as a normal person with incredible talents and he effected many of the people in the South. A quote by Burns H. Weston states, “The protection of civilians”. With all of this,

When someone first reads this story, their first reaction is not, “oh, this is a pleasant story and will be one of America’s finest short stories”. It is usually, “what the heck is happening right now?” Then what exactly makes Faulkner’s “A Rose for Emily” so crucial in American literature? Other scholars have pointed out that it is the use of symbolism in the text. Many times the readers see and notice the symbolism and somehow relate it to their lives. Irwin Goldstein once stated, “The symbolic meaning of words can be so powerful that people are willing to risk their lives for them or take the lives of others”. That makes this story so universal. Some of the obvious symbols are the rose in the title and Emily herself. The rose is a symbol for both love and death. The red rose is the most common sign of affection, people give them all the time to show how much people mean to them, especially romantically. But the black rose is a sign of death, putting these two different signs in one symbol was genius by Faulkner. Emily symbolizes the new and old ways of life. “She could sure make her version of the reality remained the reality. She never paid taxes in