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William Faulkner's A Rose For Emily

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William Faulkner wrote about the rise of the poor white family and the simultaneous decline of the “aristocratic” families (Faulkner, 2013, p. 2180). In A Rose for Emily, Faulkner shows the life and attitude of the people residing in the American South after the conclusion of the civil war. Many changes both political and social were implemented as a result of the Union winning the war, however, many individuals in the South still considered themselves Confederates and wanted to maintain this status quo. The study of William Faulkner’s, A Rose for Emily illustrates the main character’s resistance towards the physical and emotional changes instituted within the post-civil war era.
The conclusion of the American Civil War, the victory of the …show more content…

Homer is a laborer from the North, that has come to the south as part of a modernization project of the town. Emily fancies herself in love with him and intends to marry him, however, Homer professed that “he liked men,” meaning he liked hanging out and would not be tied to one woman for the rest of his life (Faulkner, 2013, p. 2185). Again, one can note that even though Emily had plans for herself, she was not the decision maker. But her passivity, as the reader had come to expect, erupted into rage and she had to have her what she wanted, one way or another. So, she snaps, kills him and entombs him within her bedroom, illustrating her growing necrophilia. Here again readers acknowledge the nod to Southern values in that they dare not inquire about the fool smell emanating from the Grierson home, it’s like Judge Stevens said “will you accuse a lady to her face of smelling bad?” (Faulkner, 2013, p. …show more content…

2187) They have come to say goodbye to one of their own, whether it be because of her father or that she too played some role in the war. “Believing that they had danced with her and courted her perhaps, confusing time with its mathematical progression,” therefore time seem blended for these veterans, they could not see the change in the situation, even though it stared them in the face (Faulkner, 2013, p. 2187). Further illustrating the role, Emily played in the war is her place of interment. Emily is laid with “the ranked and anonymous graves of Union and Confederate soldiers,” a somewhat military or even a state burial of some sorts (Faulkner, 2013, p.

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In “A Rose for Emily,” the author, Faulkner, describes the life of a women after the death of her family and the abandonment of her friends. The story is about a female named Emily whose father dies of natural causes, and she is left with little money except for her house and an African American manservant. The manservant is a very loyal person who stays by Emily’s side till her own death. This story is depicted from the neighbor’s point about the lady Emily. It recounts her life as she lived it from an external perspective.

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America’s Overlooked Economy The United States is known for training world class athletes. America comes out on top when our athletes compete on the national level. Likewise, this is the case when David Brooks defines our current economic standing. “Is Our Country as Good as Our Athletes?”

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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 Williams Faulkner 's ‘A Rose for Emily’, a local narrator provides a very personally nuanced and chronologically disjoined narrative. Through this lens Faulkner uses the imagery and symbols of the Grierson home, Emily as a monument, Homer’s body, in “A Rose for Emily” to convey the theme of change vs. decay, especially as it relates to the American South and its traditions. Although he describes particular individuals within Jefferson (Miss Emily, the older men and ladies, the town leaders), he seems to be using them as symbols for the larger issues that the South was facing at the turn of the twentieth century. This paper discusses how Faulkner uses imagery and metaphor to highlight on the necessity of adaptation in changing times. This

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Section I functions as a recollection of memory, as the narrator recalls the funeral of Emily, describing her death as a “fallen monument”, and her life as “a tradition, a duty, and a care”, setting up the plot for later conflicts and events that exemplify her life and death as such. The section also introduces symbols of southern tradition such as “when Colonel Sartoris…remitted her taxes” to introduce Emily’s strong upholding of tradition and her connections to the few characters that have severely influenced her life and values. Section II builds upon the ideas mentioned in Section I, but takes place 30

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Homer Barron is described as “a big, dark, ready man, with a big voice and eyes lighter than his face” (Faulkner 4). No woman wants to feel as if they’re unattractive, especially when it comes to someone they like in an intimate way. However, Emily’s problem wasn’t that she was unattractive because according to Faulkner, she was quite beautiful in her youth. The ultimate issue did not lie on Emily, but on Homer Barron because of his odd remark that he liked men. Emily must have been confused and a tad bit sad to find out that the man she liked didn’t like her back.

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“We remembered all the young men her father had driven away” (453). Miss Emily’s father drove away young men interested in her, not allowing her to have a love life and therefore a life outside of him. This controlling treatment of Miss Emily by Mr. Grierson coincides with Emily’s fight to control her love life with Homer. “Because Homer himself had remarked - he liked men, and it was known that he drank with the younger men in the Elks’ Club - that he was not a marrying man” (454). If it weren’t for the fact that Miss Emily murdered Homer, he would have left her, therefore she used the murder as a way to keep him close to

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Faulkner is one of the most celebrated writers in American literature usually and southern literature specifically. His first published Story “A rose for Emily”, is one of the most famous that an American has written. Faulkner captured Southern Gothic in this short story by giving the story a moody and forbidding atmosphere. “A Rose for Emily” depicts southern gothic literature through the characters, the setting, and the mysteries and secrets.

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He also shows the relationship between Emily and her dead father and how Emily cannot let go of people that show a love interest in her or the people who look after her in that she must be attached to them even after death. Faulkner depicts an Emily that was once young and vibrant, who maintained the Grierson home and kept it in a pristine condition. Faulkner relays to readers that because Emily was unable to control her own destiny and was powerless under her father’s hand, she became a recluse and ultimately went into a downward spiral. After sensing and believing that her first real love will leave her, Emily purchases arsenic and it is believed that she will kill herself because there is no point in living if no one will love her

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Frank Guercio Mrs. Wagner English 102 19 September 2014 A Rose for Emily William Faulkner once wrote the short story A Rose For Emily, even in its time it was considered to be rather spooky considering the ending; however, since then there have been a great number of theories based around Faulkner’s story and I find Nicole Smith’s to be one of the few that stood out from the rest. Her article begins with a short summary of William Faulkner’s life, from his birth in the South in 1897 to his Nobel Prize in 1949. As his history draws to a close Nicole begins to shed light on the story itself and how his past is a heavy influence in his writing.

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As the story goes on, Faulkner describes Emily’s death: “When Miss Emily Grierson died the whole town went to her funeral: the men out of respectful affection for a fallen monument and the women mostly out of curiosity” (Faulkner). Faulkner emphasizes that while men are caring and respectful women act only based on curiosity. Indeed, the role of women in the southern society is less significant than the role of

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She told them her father was not dead. She did that for three days, with the ministers calling on her, and the doctors trying to persuade her to let them dispose of the body." (247) This stubborn act is not only disturbing but displays the true madness of not only Emily but the tradition of the Old South as

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Many critics have seen in Faulkner “a credible authority on the South, a writer of fiction who had something important to offer about the regions and the meanings of its past”. The story of “A Rose for Emily” is told by one of the townspeople. The protagonist is seen from the outside and described by a first-person narrator, who tells the readers his point of view and others’ from the town. The narrator and these people had always regarded the character from the outside.

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William Faulkner is a complex writer who knows how to set a great pace in his stories. He is also a very flexible writer which allows the openness of many topics to write on because of his unconventional style. In his short story, "A Rose for Emily", you can interpret how times are so different from today. Although it was not during slavery times, things were not much more advance than that. The dominance of gender or social roles shown on women, particularly Miss Emily, may be seen as harsh or unfair.

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The Civil War took place in 1861-1865. Since Emily was raised in the South, her family had the same values and morals of the confederate side. Emily’s family was very wealthy and owned a beautiful home. Unfortunately, after the South lost the Civil War they

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