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A Rose For Emily Symbolism Essay

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The Gift of a Rose A Rose for Emily is one of the “best-known short story by William Faulkner” (Mays 633). It is a short story filled with mystery, suspense, and tragedy. In this short story Faulkner uses symbolism to show logical tragedy, insanity, loneliness, and pride. Faulkner accomplishes this by letting symbolism help characterize the complex main character: Miss Emily Grierson. Symbolism is the act of using a person, place, thing, or event that figuratively represents or stands for something else (Baldick 633). When trying to explain anything to a reader you can do it directly but by using a symbol to achieve this it adds more meaning to what you are saying. The reason most authors use this literary device is to make the meaning of something more powerful and observable to the reader. When determining the meaning of symbols in literature there is never a wrong or right answer. Therefore the use of symbolism means having the story interpreted in a different perspective from reader to reader. This results in having the story passed on from generation to generation. William Faulkner was born in Mississippi in 1897 (Biography.com Editors). He is consider one of the greatest novelist and in 1949 he was awarded the Nobel Prize for literature …show more content…

The reason this short story is one of my favorites is because of Faulkner’s use of symbolism. For me it makes the story much more suspenseful and mysterious. I think Miss Emily Grierson is a very complex character and since she never spoke much while she was alive, after her death her life is like puzzle pieces that all the townspeople want to put together. The first time I discovered this story was for an English class in high school, since then I have studied the story a couple of more times and each time I discover more or question the symbolism. With that being said there can be so much more to what I believe the symbols are or mean right

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