In the book, Since You’ve Been Gone by Morgan Matson, the main character, Emily, changes greatly from who she was before she began the list, to who she was after. During flashbacks, we see glimpses of who Emily was, which was rather disappointing. To show this, Emily says, “‘Yes,’ I said immediately. This was my identity at school, but I never minded it- and now, I’d never been so happy to be recognised this way.” (Matson 9). Here, she was asked if she knew Sloane. Sloane was her best friend, who was popular and well-known by everyone. Because she mentioned her identity being known only as Sloanes best friend, it leads me to believe that she was insecure and dependent on Sloane, even though she didn’t mind it. She never made any friends, because
“A Rose for Emily” demonstrates the conflict between the North and South through the characters and relationship of Emily and Homer. Miss Emily represents the South and Homer Barron represents the North.
According to Faulkner, “After her father’s death she went out very little; after her sweetheart went away, people hardly saw her at all” (805). Occurrences such as these are private instances that took place within Miss Emily’s life. They are very important instances that undoubtedly caused Miss Emily to shift to an isolated lifestyle. On the other hand, actions displayed by the townspeople provide a viewpoint of Miss Emily’s relationship with the public. “Arguably, the townspeople’s actions serve to protect Miss Emily’s privacy- by preserving her perceived gentility-as much as they effectively destroy it with their intrusive zeal” (Crystal 792). The actions of the townspeople fuel Miss Emily’s desire to remain isolated from everyone else in her
Her unwillingness to change after the civil war was one of the reasons she was so isolated. The narrator tells us twice that Miss Emily is similar to an idol, probably because she was raised to think she was above others, and others were raised to look up to her as well. She was stuck with the mindset that she was better than others, even when the community was changing she believed that she didn’t have to obey the law. She also kept to herself and no one knew anything about her. According to Faulkner, the quote “…A note on paper of an archaic shape, in a thin flowing calligraphy in faded ink…” shows me in a symbolic way, that Emily is stuck in time. The story of Emily is old and dated itself. The author uses the words archaic, calligraphy, and faded. It took me back in time while reading these words, which is exactly what Emily is.
The information that we do have about Miss Emily's genuinely mysterious life was obtained through her prying neighbors. They did everything possible, without disrespect, to find out more about her. They knew where she had been, with whom, and when. The secrecy of Miss Emily's life fascinated everyone that knew her. The more that time went on and the more that neighbors pried, the less Miss Emily appeared until soon she was hardly seen at all and let no one into her home. Even at Miss Emily's funeral the whole town came to satisfy some of their curiosity. Miss Emily seemed to enjoy being secretive and did her best to be so.
Criticism from the townspeople caused Emily to go insane. What did Emily ever do to the townspeople? They were always criticizing her in how she was to who she dated. She was already in a struggle with herself, the environment and all those who surrounded her. The society was forcing her to stray in her role of “noblesse oblige.” When Emily’s father died the “people were glad…they could pity Miss Emily. Being left alone…she had become humanized.” Townspeople were jealous that she always had money and her life was set good unlike them. Not knowing the struggle she was going through they made it worse for her by criticizing. She
To Catch A Killer is a story that follows Erin, who is a girl who is known by everyone she encounters. As a young girl she was left alone for three days aside her mother, who had been murdered. No one knows who had killed her mother and just let Erin live. She is now fourteen, Erin finds herself in the center of another murder when she finds her biology teacher dead. While she is a little frighten of what happen, Erin thinks this might be connected to her mother's murder. At the scene of the murder she had spotter her long-time crush which becomes a fellow suspect with Erin. Being very intelligent, she uses her self-taught forensic skills as well as her uncles FBI know-how, to strive to solve her mother's murder, find her father, and clear her own name. Through this book Erin Blake changed a lot, when the climax hit that when she made a full circle and changed.
Emily's father suppressed all of her inner desires. He kept her down to the point that she was not allowed to grow and change with the things around her. When “garages and cotton gins had encroached and obliterated…only Miss Emily's house was left, lifting its stubborn and coquettish decay above the cotton wagons and the gasoline pumps” (Rose 217). Even when he died, she was still unable to get accustom to the changes around her. The traditions that her and her father continued to participate in even when others stopped, were also a way that her father kept her under his thumb. The people of the town helped in
Miss Emily was a dynamic character because she changed and became withdrawn from the people in her community over the course of the story. In the exposition, she is a prominent and active figure in her community. Her character changed as she encountered the tragedy of her father’s death. However, she still was spotted occasionally by the townspeople. Faulkner shows this by declaring, “She carried her head high enough- even when we believed that she was fallen. It was as if she demanded more than ever the recognition of her dignity as the last Grierson; as if it had wanted that touch of earthiness to reaffirm her imperviousness” (Faulkner 36-37). After Homer’s disappearance, Miss Emily became a true introvert. The author supports this idea when he states, “After her father’s death she went out very little; after her sweetheart went away, people hardly saw her at all” (Faulkner 34). The townspeople noticed changes
Throughout the novel, Krissy convinced herself that “strength came in numbers and identity came as part of a group” (Gregorio 186). However, this is a mentality that is very wrong. Nothing other than your actions can define who you are, and Krissy did not seem to understand this. Gretchen made it a point to explain to Krissy “to be careful of letting other people define who – and what – you are” (Gregorio 238). She also explained that “the Mona Lisa is a masterpiece whether it’s in a pitch-black room, under a strobe light, or in the sun” (Gregorio 244).
Emotional support also plays an important role of Emily’s well being. The idea mother suppose to care, support, and value their children needs. Emily needed this nourishment. She needed her mother to smile at her in order for her to feel a connection with the person that she supposed to be able to depend on. Emily’s mother did not know how to communicate with Emily. The mother-daughter relationship has an element of coldness, it lacks warmth. “There were years she did not want me to touch her” (Olsen 262). Emily’s mother inability to interact with her, leaves Emily unloved and in return, she shall not express any love toward her mother. Emily’s mother feels her “wisdom came too late” (Olsen 262). With this thought in mind, Emily’s mother shall never show communication or love to Emily, therefore the relationship shall continue to be doomed.
The story “A Rose for Emily” has many relations to the themes: loneliness, social status, gossip, and loyalty. In the story the theme loneliness is presented by the death of her father and the desertion of her sweetheart. Also, Emily wasn’t close to any of her relatives from other places. Because of her family wealth, she had a high social status. Due to her father’s death, her social status went down, along with being in relations with a laborer who is gay. In addition, gossip was a big factor that brought her social status down. It seems to me like the whole story revolved around gossip. Whether she was out of the house or stayed in, gossip arose. When the people would say “Poor Emily” gossip would form about something. For instance, when
The main character in the novel " Since you've been" is Emily. Emily is on her adventure with the help that totally unexpected from Frank to find her best friend-Sloane- back. Through few pages of this book I can imagine that Emily is a good friend. Good examples that shows Emily is a good friend is her emotions and actions when Soloane disappeares " After three days, and still no word, I worried. After five days, I panicked." also " If nobody was there, it at least meant I could stay awhile." These evidences show that Emily really do care about Sloane, Emily fells panic and lost faith when she can't find her best friend, worries that something bad might happen to Sloane that lead Emily to drive her car to Sloane's house many place that Sloane
In the text of “ A Rose for Emily” there are multiple examples of the townspeople not being very nice towards Emily. “Alive, Miss Emily had been a tradition, a duty, and a care; a sort of hereditary obligation upon the town”. This quote proves that the townspeople felt that emily was more of a hassle
Emily lives in self isolation or what was perceived to be isolation. The only person Emily came in daily contact with was her servant. Isolation exacerbated the reality that Emily was truly alone. When left to themselves in isolation, many killers, often live out their world in a fantasy. Fantasy serves to relieve anxiety or fear and most people have them to one extent or another (Douglas, J.E., Burgess, and Ressler, R.K. 1995.) We may not know what really fed Emily's behavior, some theories are that she could have suffered from separation anxiety due to her father's death, others suggest that she was suffering from a form of neglect. This can be concluded by her longing for a companion.
Emily has few friends. She reports that her closest friend is all the way in Michigan. She is in LA, that’s the same as having no friend at all because she can’t be there when she needs her. She hasn’t had a relationship with a man in 10 years and in the past has dated alcoholic men who treat her poorly. She doesn’t think that she deserves anything good because her mother was always telling her that she was not good enough to do anything. She has feelings of worthlessness. She feels that she is not able to move forward and tends to sabotage anything good that comes her way. She doesn’t have any children, but she is a substitute teacher, which might mean that she probably would have wanted to have children. Emily said that she had learned to be invisible. Emily is a lonely woman.