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How Does Wilder Present Emily In Our Town

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The works of Thornton Wilder in Our Town inspects two families to their inevitable end, while unraveling the simple aspects of every single human experience. The use of certain characters displays these aspects. Emily, in particular, plays a large roll showing the diverseness of every being. She shows the logical thinking young woman who dreams to one day be a leader, while also showing the emotional bride to be who eventually becomes a mother. With the introduction of Emily, Wilder uses a line that lays out the basis for the character. This line is probably what most people first see in Emily. Emily states, “I’m both, Mama: you know I am. I’m the brightest girl in school for my age. I have a wonderful memory.” (15) Her peers in school most
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 Miss Emily and Nae share their stubbornness and determination while also showing their differences.   Miss Emily and Nae’s differences in their settings and family helps in foreshadowing how the story unfolds.  Once Miss Emily’s dad passes away and her sweetheart has left her, she spends most of her time in her house alone where she has always lived.  Most of her belongings and ways of life were from her father because of his controlling figure.  

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-“So the next night, after midnight, four men crossed Miss Emily 's lawn and slunk about the house like burglars, sniffing along the base of the brickwork,” (Faulkner II). -“When her father died, it got about that the house was all that was left to her; and in a way, people were glad,” (Faulkner II). -“The day after his death all the ladies prepared to call at the house and offer condolence and aid,” (Faulkner

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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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Both Emily and Robert are prematurely judged by the narrators in both stories, and the assumptions are so far fetched from the reality. Miss. Emily is perceived to be a lonely old woman, whom nobody ever spoke with. Since they never talk with her or learn anything about what is going on in her life, the townspeople begin to gossip to make up for this. They knew her father had driven away any man from becoming close to her, and they just thought to themselves, “ poor Emily” (32).

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William Faulkner shows how committed Emily is to her family’s beliefs, in which she refuses to let go of the men in her life. The customs of her family has taught that marriage is an important part of life. It’s almost as if her family holds marriage higher than most or any other beliefs for the matter. Faulkner shows how an obsession with a person could intensify even after their death. Faulkner explains the importance of marriage in Emily’s life.

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Not only that, as Homer becomes a popular figure in town and is seen taking Emily on buggy rides on Sunday afternoons, it scandalizes the town and increases the condescension and pity they have for Emily. They feel that she is forgetting her family pride and becoming involved with a man beneath her station. Even though Emily is from the high class family, it does not mean that she is living up to the pleasant lifestyle. As a matter of fact, she is actually living a gloomy and desolate life, which is essentially the opposite lifestyle expected for Emily's rank in society by the townspeople. Although Emily once represented a great southern tradition centering on the landed gentry with their vast holdings and considerable resources, Emily's legacy has devolved, making her more a duty and an obligation than a romanticized vestige of a dying order.

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It is clear that in her era, Miss Emily was seen as traditional American Southern women, who lived to become an inferior women to man but was later a burden to her society. She was a lady who was secluded from society, lived a psychopathic life, which at the end, and was no secret for the town’s people. While Miss Emily was alive, she lived in a secluded home of a single father, thus leading her to be dependent upon him. She did not have much of a socially engaged life, for her father drove men away. When he finally died, Miss Emily told the townspeople that he was not dead, and finally, on the third day, let the town’s people buried him (William Faulkner 1105).

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In many situations, the people within the town notice Miss Emily’s odd behavior, but they choose to maintain peace with her instead of helping her when she clearly needs it the most. However, this need to preserve the respectful image of Miss Emily ultimately leads to her emotional breakdown of isolation and

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To compare, Faulkner shares a slice of evidence as to why Emily has an uncontrollable obsession for the dead, “After her father 's death she went out very little; after her sweetheart went away, people hardly saw her at all.” (Faulkner) Given these points, her father becomes arrogant and isolates her from society, or anyone who is willing to take Miss Emily from him. When her father, the only man in the world who has loved her,

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Because her family was prominent in the town of Jefferson, Emily Grierson was watched her entire life and wondered about by everyone. The townspeople had a lot to do with Emily’s changing mental condition because they constantly gossiped about everything that happened in her life. It generally

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Telling the story in an irregular order, Faulkner develops a sense of suspense by adding details to the mysterious Miss Emily. “Alive, Miss Emily had been a tradition, a duty, and a care: a sort of hereditary obligation upon the town” (451). The reader learns that Miss Emily had been seen as an eccentric woman that the people of the town had to take care of and overlook, ultimately overlooking her as a suspect in Homer Barron’s disappearance. Miss Emily often disappears into her house for months and years at a time,

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In the essay, “ Why We Take Pictures,” the author Susan Sontag states that photography is not only a simple tool for seeking pleasure but can also be used against anxiety and as tool of power. Sontag emphasises the importance of photography during traveling by stating the anxieties that people can face if they are not taking pictures. First, Sontag points out that people feel disorientation in a new place the uncertainty of what the new place will be like can cause people to panic. However, taking picture enables people to have certain control over the new environments the fact that one knows where he or she is at and where he or she has been, helps individuals cure their anxieties. Second, Sontag indicates that anxieties during traveling can also be caused by the guilt of not being at work.

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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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Emily’s lifestyle affects her version of reality greatly. The townspeople and Emily do not share the same versions of reality due to the fact of her being brought up alienated from society. Bell, Chris. " Isolation in A Streetcar Named Desire. " McClinton-Temple, Jennifer ed.

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Faulkner writes the story as if it is through the community’s eyes. In just the first few sentences the town finds Emily’s body. She is dead and the entire town is at her house for her funeral that is, “set on what is our most select street. CHECK QUOTE”(#) Faulkner uses the word, our, to give the town their own sense of unity. Faulkner also tends to write the town as a single character which is why the point of view can also be described as in-we.

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