The Role Of Isolation In William Faulkner's A Rose For Emily

Two people, who have never met before in their life, are given a choice: One being to accept everyone’s demands and the other being to ignore them and to defy rationality itself. In A Rose For Emily by William Faulkner, Emily favors the second choice, while in Taking a Husband by Ha Jin, Hong decides to take the first choice. Her mother and society pressure Hong to accept the role of being someone’s wife. She determines that it would be better if she accepts her fate rather than combat it. Emily is forcibly turned away from marriage and the prospect of becoming someone’s wife. Her increasing isolation eventually leads her desire for a partner to evolve to a strong craving for a man, causing her to make irrational decisions. Although both Hong

Marriage is the only way to regain all that was previously lost at the time of her father’s death, but Hong is apathetic. Hong told the matchmakers that “she [is not] interested in marriage, but her mother persuade[s] her, saying, if I die tomorrow, I [will not] be able to close my eyes unless [Hong has] a good husband” (Jin 3). Hong and her mother are forced to rely on each other given that no one else was willing to help them. By bending to her wishes, Hong shows how much she cares about her mother. This demonstrates that Hong is willing to change her entire life because of her mother’s desire. Although she may have agreed to the wedding, Hong did not like any of her suitors, so instead, she looked at their official positions and future prospects. Hong decides who she will marry through drawing lots. Whichever one she draws is the person who she will marry (Jin 3). Her lack of care displays the fact that she does not want to marry for love, but she only cares about power. She feels no desire for the men and from that decides that, if it is not love she is marrying, she should marry for the next best thing―power. Hong remembers the times when “her father dominated Dismount Fort” and that she wanted “people [...] to look up to her again” (Jin 3). Hong desired to be looked up to and respected once more so that she will not have to continue living her life as it is before the marriage. In a highly patriarchal communist society, women were not expected to be working. Whatever position the man of the house had equated to the amount of respect and authority the family receives. Without marriage, there was only so much she could do by herself without a man. The only way she could climb the ladder of social class and power was through