A Rose for Emily by Charles Faulkner - 965 Words

In â€Å"A Rose for Emily†, Charles Faulkner used a series of flashbacks and foreshadowing to tell Miss Emily’s story. Miss Emily is an interesting character, to say the least. In such a short story of her life, as told from the prospective of a townsperson, who had been nearly eighty as Miss Emily had been, in order to tell the story from their own perspective. Faulkner set up the story in Mississippi, in a world he knew of in his own lifetime. Inspired by a southern outlook that had been touched by the Civil War memory, the touch of what we would now look at as racism, gives the southern aroma of the period. It sets up Miss Emily’s southern belle status and social standing she had been born into, loner or not. As the story begins you see†¦show more content†¦Between the smell and the purchasing the arsenic it provides enough of a background to the story that perhaps she is to kill someone. While the town suggested it amongst themselves that she was to use the arsenic to commit suicide following the death of her father, the arsenic is forgotten about once the suitor, Homer Barron, comes into the picture. However, it seems that Homer abandoned her. With the Negro manservant giving no information, as he speaks to no one while going to market, everyone is still clueless. In the end, with her death, which is where the story begins, Miss Emily is the talk of the town. Not because people truly mourn her, but because people are curious about the life she had lived in secret, in her big house, for all those years. People pitied her, it was as had been left alone in the world and seemed to have wished it that way. Perhaps Miss Emily had wished it that way. Faulkner tells of her two cousins, who come at her death notice at once, the same cousins who visited when she was courting Homer Barron. It was the cousins who had been there when she was ordering men’s things, giving the town belief that Miss Emily and Homer had wed. That she had changed the proclaimed bachelor’s opinion on nuptials. At her death it was known that there was a room above the stairs that no one had seen in forty years. Not even the few who were allowed in the home for china painting classes some years ago at least. The townspeople explored theShow MoreRelatedâ€Å"Resistance to Change†: An Analysis of Not Changing with the Times854 Words   |  4 PagesIn his short story, A Rose for Emily, well-known American writer and Nobel Prize laureate, William Faulkner, narrates the consequences of people not changing with the times. He lived in the south when slavery was acceptable and includes this in many of his stories. Faulkner’s purpose is to emphasize to his audience that people must accept change and evolve or risk isolation and ultimately dying alone. Faulkner’s views on change are brought out effectively in â€Å"A Rose for Emily† through his use of settingRead More William Faulkner Essay1234 Words   |  5 Pages Faulkner grew up in Mississippi in the beginning of the twentieth century (William Faulkner; 699). He was the son to Murray C. and Maud Butler Faulkner (Hoffman 13). Growing up in the South in the early 1900s meant being exposed to harsh racism. He watched the blacks endure unbelievable amounts of cruelty and was amazed at how the blacks conducted themselves with such dignity. He witnessed, first hand, what discrimination is and could not comprehend why this goes on. In many of Faulkners worksRead MoreThe Reconstruction In William Faulkners A Rose For Emily1243 Words   |  5 PagesAfter an extended period of the Civil War and the Reconstruction, William Faulkner published his short story â€Å"A Rose for Emily† in 1930. In his fictional Jefferson, Mississippi (the county seat of Yoknapatawpha), Faulkner tells a story about Emily, an unhappy woman. The story begins at Emily’s funeral, and all the villagers in the town come to see the inside of the abandoned building (n obody has entered the house for at least ten years). The story flashes back decades before the funeral, Emily’sRead MoreCharacter Analysis Miss Emily995 Words   |  4 PagesVidrine Dr. Fontenot English 1002, Section 05 30 April 2013 Miss Emily Grierson William Faulkner makes it very clear in his short story, â€Å"A Rose for Emily,† who the protagonist of his story is. Within the first few paragraphs of the story, we can tell that Miss Emily Grierson was not an ordinary woman of her times. It is said in paragraph two that â€Å"no Negro woman should appear on the streets without an apron.† However, Miss Emily was not like the other women. The mayor of the town had â€Å"remittedRead More Embittered Woman in Great Expectations, A Rose for Emily, and Sunset Boulevard2125 Words   |  9 PagesThe Embittered Older Woman in Great Expectations, A Rose for Emily, and Sunset Boulevard      Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   The character of the delusional, embittered older woman is prevalent in literature and movies. Since Dickens created the memorable Miss Havisham in Great Expectations, she has evolved with the times into many other well-known characters, including Miss Emily in Faulkners A Rose for Emily and Norma Desmond in the film Sunset Boulevard. In each of these incarnations, the woman seeks revenge afterRead MoreThe Characteristics of Hemingways Works2503 Words   |  11 Pagesthe most distinctive characteristic of his works. The minimalist style is the core of Hemingway’s writing style. His writing style contrasts with William Faulkner’s meticulous writing style. Margaret Anne OConnor and John Alberti described, â€Å"If Faulkner confuses readers because he offers so many details for readers to sift through in order to understand whats going on, Hemingway confuses by offering so few† (par. 8). Hemingway developed his simple writing style while he was a r eporter for the KansasRead MoreGothic Literature : Gothic Writing1974 Words   |  8 Pagesand architectural setting, the deposed noble heir and the ghostly, supernatural machinations. (Emandi) This lead to wonderful writings than later became movies and books that are still being read in high schools today, like Beauty and the Beast by Charles Perrault and Canterbury Tales by Geoffrey Chaucer. (Snodgrass) As the colonists began settling in the Americas writers began writing of racial warfare and the new settlers plan to drive the Native Americans from the frontier in notable writingsRead MoreThe Roaring Twenties3168 Words   |  13 Pagessomething unheard of to get a civilian in a plane, and thankfully for the freedom for the skies, America found Charles Lindbergh. Lindbergh, or â€Å"Lucky Lindy† as he is known today, made aviation history in a daring flight across the Atlantic. This had been attempted before, but it had never been successfully completed. The nonstop trip took him about 33 hours, but despite all odds, a stunned Charles landed â€Å"The Spirit of St. Louis† in Paris, where he was greeted by hordes of excited Paris citizens and instantRead MoreEudora Welty a Worn Path12166 Words   |  49 Pageshow old and frail Phoenix is, what will become of him once she dies and he is left without anyone to care for him. Resurrection Phoenixs name points to the them e of resurrection in A Worn Path. The phoenix was the bird in ancient mythology that rose from its own ashes every 500 years to begin a new life cycle. Phoenix Jackson, whose statement that she was too old at the Surrender to go to school—1865—hints that she is probably over eighty at the time the story takes place, but she refuses toRead MoreEudora Welty a Worn Path12173 Words   |  49 Pageshow old and frail Phoenix is, what will become of him once she dies and he is left without anyone to care for him. Resurrection Phoenixs name points to the theme of resurrection in A Worn Path. The phoenix was the bird in ancient mythology that rose from its own ashes every 500 years to begin a new life cycle. Phoenix Jackson, whose statement that she was too old at the Surrender to go to school—1865—hints that she is probably over eighty at the time the story takes place, but she refuses to