This short story is from the view point of the towns people; you will notice a lot in William Faulkner’s writing of A Rose for Emily that it mentions the word “we” or “the town” talking about the people as a whole. From reading this story it seems the townspeople are revisiting old moments that have happened with Miss Emily in the past. It begins by talking about how the whole town went to Miss Emily’s funeral either out of respect or simply out of curiosity since no one had seen the inside of her house in over ten years. When Miss Emily was alive she was viewed as an obligation to the town, she was someone they always had a problem with, but they had to tip toe around to fix any problems involving her. They then go into talking about how
Setting often provides more then just a mere backdrop for the action in the story. It is probably the most important part of the putting together a story. In this story the setting is a reflection of the character as much as the town. The physical setting, time setting and cultural settings are all important parts of this short story,
In both short stories “A Rose for Emily” and “Barn Burning” both written by William Faulkner, the point of view is one of the areas where the two stories bare a similarity. This point of view allows the reader ample time to analyze the various clues provided by the narrator, to discover the final outcome. In addition, the use of clues, or foreshadowing is another similarity found in both stories. Although, the point of view and the use of foreshadowing is similar, the delivery of these elements are not. In ‘’A Rose for Emily” the narrator uses a first-person-plural (community/group) point of view in which those telling the story have a limited perspective compared to “ Barn Burning” where a third-person individual (ten year old boy) point
Symbolism is the use of an object or a word to represent an abstract idea. It's often used by writers to represent a hidden message or a hint in a story. The short Stories " A Rose for Emily" by William Faulkner and "Everyday Use" by Alice Walker are great examples of the use of symbolism. In "A Rose for Emily" Faulkner uses symbolism to create a Story about a woman called Emily whose life is surrounded by mysteries, especially after the death of her father and the disappearance of her beloved Homer. Falkner uses symbolism to hide several messages through the Story which, in my opinion, sounds very morbid as things happen. In "Everyday Use," Alice Walker symbolizes her messages through a beautiful detailed story where Mrs. Johnson also
In a rose for Emily, the narrator was an unnamed younger townsperson. They didn’t identify with the women that went to comforted Emily after her father past or the men sneaking to her house chasing a smell. However, the narrator uses the words we when referring to the townspeople in whole. This also shows the narrator is participating in the story events like a fly on the wall. The narrator says thing like “we believed that she was fallen” and “we all said, "She will kill herself"; and we said it would be the best thing” to show the town’s objective. They dislike her even after the support her family had once given the town. These same family feeling of degust was shared by Emily toward the narrator. Emily keeps a barrier between her and the
In, “A Rose For Emily”, by William Faulkner, the rose symbolizes the town’s respect for Emily or can disclose the irony of Emily never receiving a rose from Homer. At the beginning of the story Faulkner talks about the death of Emily. “When Miss Emily Grierson died, our whole town went to her funeral... respectful affection for a fallen monument.” Emily has, metaphorically, always been in the town and symbolizes the past for her town. Since the town respects their elders, they feel like it’s their duty to honor Emily after she passes away. She separated herself from the town, like the south separated themselves from the north in the Civil War. Once she died, like when the confederate states lost, she was welcomed back into the town, country, when everyone came to her funeral, instead of letting her be off by herself. Homer publically let people know that he was gay and that he did not feel like he would be a good husband or father. “He liked men... he was not a marrying man.” Based on this quote, Emily would never get a rose from Homer because there was no chance of him loving her the way she loved him. The second part of the quote indicates him feeling like he was not the type to marry and settle down to start a family, which is something Emily indicated that she wanted to do with him. The title revealed the way the town views Emily and shows her hope of receiving love from Homer.
Humanity has a funny way of contradicting itself. We often want to believe that we live
A necrophiliac is described as a person who has an obsessive fascination with death and corpses (Mifflin 1). Emily, a necrophiliac in the story, “A Rose for Emily,” is a deranged, lost, and confused woman. A story filled with many symbols that help the stories meaning. The only man Emily knew growing up was her father. He taught her to trust no man, and no man would ever be good for her. He was highly favored through the town and everyone looked to him. The small town of curious and nosey people makes the story of “A Rose for Emily.” The town’s people are curious to know Emily’s every step, or wondering what she is going to do next, her appearance, and where the horrible smell in her house comes from. She meets a man in this small town and
A Rose for Emily, by William Faulkner shows many different symbolic ideas after the civil war in the south. Emily is a younger close-minded sheltered woman. The only way of life that Emily knows is the life with her father and after her father’s death Emily tries to preserve how she remembers life with her father. The use of the characters in the story shows the change that was happening between the south and north after the war.
William Faulkner has done a wonderful work in his essay “A Rose for Emily.” Faulkner uses symbols, settings, character development, and other literary devices to express the life of Emily and the behavior of the people of Jefferson town towards her. By reading the essay, the audience cannot really figure out who the narrator is. It seems like the narrator can be the town’s collective voice. The fact that the narrator uses collective pronoun we supports the theory that the narrator is describing the life of “Miss Emily” on behalf of the townspeople. Faulkner has used the flashback device in his essay to make it more interesting. The story begins with the portrayal of Emily’s funeral and it moves to her past and at the end the readers realize that the funeral is a flashback as well. The story starts with the death of Miss Emily when he was seventy-four years old and it takes us back when she is a young and attractive girl.
When creating a story the author has to incorporate elements which give the reader a hint as to what message they are trying to get across. These elements contour the story’s plot and determine whether a reader will remain interested or not. In A Rose for Emily, William Faulkner uses foreshadowing and symbolism to add suspense, keeping the reader on their toes until the story’s conclusion.
In fact, Faulkner’s short story titled “A Rose for Emily” rivals As I Lay Dying, detailing the tale of Emily Grierson, a once prosperous Southern belle with a macabre secret regarding her lover, Homer Barron. In short, Emily is a burden on her town named Jefferson, slowly becoming a hermit and locking herself in her home after the death of her father and the abrupt departure of Homer. However, after Emily’s death, the people of Jefferson discover what she was hiding during all those years that both she and her home fell into disrepair: hidden away in a locked room lies Homer’s corpse. With that being established, throughout William Faulkner’s “A Rose for Emily,” the theme of the grotesque manifests through the image of the Grierson house, the character of Emily, and the moment that reveals Homer Barron’s ultimate fate, all of which Faulkner’s use of the collective “we” point-of-view further
“And now Miss Emily had gone to join the representatives of those august names where they lay in the cedar-bemused cemetery among the ranked and anonymous graves of Union and Confederate soldiers who fell at the battle of Jefferson.” (Faulkner 82). William Faulkner utilizes a fictional southern town in the post Civil War era as the setting for the short story, “A Rose For Emily”. The entire story is steeped in the ideals of characters relying heavily upon the setting, time and place. The post Civil War southern setting, particularly the ideals of each character in “A Rose For Emily” must be continually considered by the reader in order to properly interpret the story.
In “A Rose for Emily,” by William Faulkner, the townspeople view Emily as an outcast and burden in their conservative southern community. With Emily being the last member of the entire Grierson family, the townspeople think of her as a type of “fallen monument,” who is nothing more than “a tradition, a duty, and a care; a sort of hereditary obligation upon the town” (Faulkner 75). Since Emily’s family was once so well-respected in the community, the town sees her as the disappointment who has fallen from her former graces, and become secluded from the town. Because of her family’s role in the town’s past, the townspeople know that they must keep Emily around, however, they do not feel the need to include her in the community, merely because
William Faulkner uses a very strange point of view through his writing of “A Rose for Emily”. At just a glance, the narrator has this off-putting take on things using disconnected words such as “they” and “we”. If it had not been for this sections emphasis on point of view, it seems like a very niche writing style. Upon further investigation though, the odd, almost omniscient, detached, yet self-aware “we” seems to be in a way the town itself or rather, the embodiment of the town. At first, “A Rose for Emily” appears to have a simple detached narrator relaying the story to the audience.
When reading “A Rose for Emily” by William Faulkner, you may be quite confused. This is because William Faulkner wrote this short story in anachronic order, which occasionally confuses the reader and causes them not to fully understand the story. To understand it you must take parts of story apart and analyze the section. Faulkner uses tons of symbolism, foreshadowing, and history in the passages to help the reader understand what is going on. Literary devices in stories are a great way to analyze what is going on and to help you understand the passage clearer.