12/27/2019 0 Comments A rose for emilyIn “A Rose for Emily,†the structure of the story is one that typically does not appear in many stories. It starts off with the ending which eventually leads to what really happened to Miss Emily. This story Is surrounded around the Ideas and visions of someone that lives in the town. It lets us know of what the people In the town thought of Miss Emily, and the things she was going through. The structure also does not follow a chronological order which plays out Like that of a detective story. Also the story has different sections that don't go detail to detail It skips some detailed parts of the story that keeps us guessing.This story Is not a traditional because It does not start off with a beginning to ending type of structure. Usually stories start off with a beginning and goes In an order that we understand since all of the details are put Into perspective and order. We see that In the beginning MISS Emily passes away and are left with the ideas of what might have happened since we do not know anything about the story. Later, we find out about Miss Emily, and the troubles she went throughout her time to the point where she died, and Homer was found dead in her bed. Throughout the story the narrator seems as though he is someone that is art of the town.He tells us of what is going on in the town through Miss Emails life. The narrator has obviously been following Miss Emily, and her many struggles, loves, and to the point where she no longer alive. In the beginning of the story everyone in the town get's together to see what is in Email's house because they are curious to find out what really has been going on in the house. In the town that Emily lives in the townspeople think she is crazy. They only complain and talk about how her house smells, and that it is extremely dirty. Since the Judge will not do anything they take eaters into their own hands.The townspeople discover that Emily buys poison, and think it is for her but they think that it is better if she is dead anyways. That is not the case though Emily uses the poison for something else. The townspeople seem as though they are an audience to Miss Emily show. The story is also not in a particular chronological order. It Jumps from section to section which skips certain details, but it still portrays what is going on in the story. It goes from Colonel Astoria showing up at her house to claim the taxes to them vanishing. So we really don't know what happened.Faulkner structures the story like that of a detective story to keep us guessing when he goes from section to section. Moreover, “A Rose for Emily', has many structures that make the story unique and Interesting because It Is not Like many other stories. We see the point of view of the townspeople as though they are always up to date with Employs life. The story has a unique beginning because It starts off like the ending and ends with an ending. Also the chronological order jumps from section through section, which Is not In order that still keeps the reader Interested because It Is Like that of a detective novel.A rose for Emily By monomaniac really happened to Miss Emily. This story is surrounded around the ideas and visions of someone that lives in the town. It lets us know of what the people in the town not follow a chronological order which plays out like that of a detective story. Also the story has different sections that don't go detail to detail it skips some detailed parts This story is not a traditional because it does a beginning and goes in an order that we understand since all of the details are put into perspective and order. We see that in the beginning Miss Emily passes away and part of the town.He tells us of what is going on in the town through Miss Emily life. Showing up at her house to claim the taxes to them vanishing. So we really don't Emily', has many structures that make the story unique and interesting because it is not like many other stories. We see the point of view of the townspeople as though they are always up to date with Emily life. The story has a unique beginning because it starts off like the ending and ends with an ending. Also the chronological order Jumps from section through section, which is not in order that still keeps the reader interested because it is like that of a detective novel. A Rose for Emily The short story “A Rose for Emily†by William Faulkner tells about the story of a young woman who murders her lover and keeps him inside her house for years. Emily Grierson has lived her entire life locked up in her own house because her father had kept her there, refusing to let her live as an ordinary woman. When the chance of love and life finally comes to Emily, she desperately holds on it even if it meant killing the person she loves. Faulkner adds crucial details to this seemingly simple tragic love story. First, the story is set in a town steeped with racial strife. At one point, the story mentions a certain Colonel Sartoris imposing dress codes for Negros (Faulkner 457). Second, Emily’s father is described to be a tyrant—locking up his daughters and depriving them of a normal life. These two elements points to the theme of racial and gender discrimination which pushed Emily to commit murder. Faulkner disrupts the chronological sequence of the story and begins with the death of the curious old lady named Emily in order to highlight the attitude of the town towards her and the things that had happened in her life. At the beginning, we see how she was locked by her father who overruled her life and how people around them thought this has turned Emily crazy. Perhaps there is reason to agree that Emily’s traumatic situation has made her unstable, but what Faulkner asks in the story is whether she can be blamed for her instability. The townsfolk seem to ignore the fact that Emily is a victimized woman and that there is no reason for them to treat her tragedy as a spectacle. While Emily’s tragic past reveals the belittling and oppression of women during that generation, the tragic affair of Emily with Homer Baron reveals the steep racism plaguing the town. Upon learning that Emily is having an affair with a common, Black construction foreman, people started to pity her, referring to her as “Poor Emily†because it is not proper for a white woman—one with a “noblesse obligeâ€â€” to have an affair with a Negro (Faulkner 460). Despite the rumors about her, Emily “carried her head high enough†and proved to everyone her dignity (Faulkner 460). However, the oppressive reality presses the relationship of Emily and Homer. Thus, Emily is left with no choice but to murder her one true love in order to keep him forever. Her little town has left her with no option but to commit this cruel act. Faulkner ends the story with a testament of Emily’s genuine love for Homer. The strand of gray hair beside the bones of Homer proves that her love goes beyond the grave. The story’s grotesque images, specifically at the end, render the story to be a creepy, disturbing tale at first. However, Faulkner includes in it details grounded in his immediate reality, creating a rich layer of meaning in one simple, tragic love story. A Rose for Emily The short story “A Rose for Emily†by William Faulkner tells about the story of a young woman who murders her lover and keeps him inside her house for years. Emily Grierson has lived her entire life locked up in her own house because her father had kept her there, refusing to let her live as an ordinary woman. When the chance of love and life finally comes to Emily, she desperately holds on it even if it meant killing the person she loves. Faulkner adds crucial details to this seemingly simple tragic love story. First, the story is set in a town steeped with racial strife. At one point, the story mentions a certain Colonel Sartoris imposing dress codes for Negros (Faulkner 457). Second, Emily’s father is described to be a tyrant—locking up his daughters and depriving them of a normal life. These two elements points to the theme of racial and gender discrimination which pushed Emily to commit murder. Faulkner disrupts the chronological sequence of the story and begins with the death of the curious old lady named Emily in order to highlight the attitude of the town towards her and the things that had happened in her life. At the beginning, we see how she was locked by her father who overruled her life and how people around them thought this has turned Emily crazy. Perhaps there is reason to agree that Emily’s traumatic situation has made her unstable, but what Faulkner asks in the story is whether she can be blamed for her instability. The townsfolk seem to ignore the fact that Emily is a victimized woman and that there is no reason for them to treat her tragedy as a spectacle. While Emily’s tragic past reveals the belittling and oppression of women during that generation, the tragic affair of Emily with Homer Baron reveals the steep racism plaguing the town. Upon learning that Emily is having an affair with a common, Black construction foreman, people started to pity her, referring to her as “Poor Emily†because it is not proper for a white woman—one with a “noblesse obligeâ€â€” to have an affair with a Negro (Faulkner 460). Despite the rumors about her, Emily “carried her head high enough†and proved to everyone her dignity (Faulkner 460). However, the oppressive reality presses the relationship of Emily and Homer. Thus, Emily is left with no choice but to murder her one true love in order to keep him forever. Her little town has left her with no option but to commit this cruel act. Faulkner ends the story with a testament of Emily’s genuine love for Homer. The strand of gray hair beside the bones of Homer proves that her love goes beyond the grave. The story’s grotesque images, specifically at the end, render the story to be a creepy, disturbing tale at first. However, Faulkner includes in it details grounded in his immediate reality, creating a rich layer of meaning in one simple, tragic love story. A rose for emily Getting into the Faulknerian world of Emily Grierson would take an incubation of thought and lots of heart. The title itself invokes a certain feeling of thrill on wanting to know who Emily is and to what prestige is the rose for, only to make us realize in the end how we could be no different from the people we would learn to detest in time.The beginning of the story is its end – the death of the ‘fallen monument’. So from the very start, the author had warned the readers to the complexity of the paradoxical overlay. And true enough, as we continue to delve into her life, we have learned to offer our own rose for Miss Emily as we began to see her frailty as her strength and her failure as her success.She ‘was’ a picture of beauty, and prestige was embossed in her name that ‘none of the young men were quite good enough’ for her. Her father drove them all away.  For a long time, people looked for a reason to pity her. At last when her father died, ‘people were glad’. ‘Being left alone, and a pauper, she had become humanized’.The plot also led us to her affair with Homer Barron, a Yankee day laborer. As expected, the whole town buzzed about ‘Poor Emily’ while ‘she carried her head high’ still to reaffirm her ‘imperviousness’.These two instances are crucial in examining the course of Miss Emily’s life; her questioned sanity and the manner she ‘chose’ to live it all until the end.It is incontestable that being brought up in a commanding patriarchal environment took a toll on her behaviour towards people and circumstance. She was bounded to two authorities; her father at the foreground and the Southern society’s eyes at the back.For more than 30 years, she let these two command her life.Thus the coming of Homer Barron, a Northern foreman, only ignited her rebellious manifestation. What could ever top the love story between a noble woman and a day laborer? It was unacceptable, even appalling to the ‘older people’ who said nothing but ‘Poor Emily’.But that one man who could’ve renewed her cling to life was not the type of man a damsel in distress should cling to. He was a flirt. ‘Whenever you heard a lot of laughing anywhere… Homer Barron would be in the center of the group. ‘He was not the marrying type’. There is even a hint of his homosexuality since ‘Homer himself remarked – he liked men and that … he drank with the younger men in the Elk’s Club’.Again, she was bounded to a man, only this time, she stood at the foreground of the social stresses. She refused to bow like the Grierson she is. Finally, she took the matters to her hands; she killed that one man she longed to marry and imprisoned him in her doors that remained closed from anyone else.Was Emily a victim of time, her father, Homer and the society’s imposed values?Yes, she was. But she won them all.First, looking at the odd chronology of events, a reader finds it difficult to see order, yet, with each piece patched from one recollection to the other, we would begin to see how Faulkner views the frivolity of time (or age) and order. Much emphasis was given to her iron-gray hair and her obese yet small skeleton.This play of language turns Miss Emily into a picture of a living dead. Hence, clock time is not essential; rather, time is captured by experience and consciousness. Like a kaleidoscope, this opens us to the understanding of Miss Emily’s denial of her father’s death and Homer’s rotting corpse at the bridal chamber.Second, Miss Emily rejected her father’s patriarchal values upon developing affection towards Homer. She, who was brought up to reject any lover, for once chose to take one for herself. Her buying of a ‘man’s toilet set in silver… and clothing’ may have created hysteria of gossips but she refused to care anymore.Taking on Faulkner’s approach to the murder (delaying the matter until the end), the author tries to appeal for the reader’s sympathy than judge and loathe her directly for the crime. He rapt the readers first in his spell-binding narrative and let them reserve their judgment for later. She sought for love and whether it came in sanity or madness, she welcomed the consequences, even if it means living an individual life. Homer was at last hers… and hers alone.Third, she overcame Jefferson – the setting and the antagonist, as we begin to feel the thriving of compassion of the narrator towards her. The narrator is the voice of the society, its representation. She was judged in the beginning, pitied in the process and was saluted in the end. A Rose For Emily Definitely, William Faulkner is one of the most controversial writers ever studied, a lot of his stories bring about the issues and questions, which has bothered humanity for a substantial period of time.Faulkner is great at creating unusual settings for his stories, most of the personages he develops throughout the course of his stories are authentic and unique, and none of the other writers is able to reproduce the realistic appeal of the Faulkner’s characters.A Rose for Emily is the perfect example of the writer’s style, most of the readers are somewhat shocked by the unusual issues the author elaborates upon in his famous story. I believe that one of the fundamental questions discussed within the course of the story is the psychological instability of Emily, Faulkner is creating the atmosphere which facilitates readers to find out for themselves what were the reasons of her psychological breakdown, and what consequences it triggered.The main character is Emily Grierson, referred to as Miss Emily throughout the story. This story has many flashbacks and is told in five sections. The story starts with the death of Miss Emily and people going to her funeral. The narrator lets us know that the men where there out of respect and the women showed up to her house out of curiosity.The house is described, as once being white and decorated, “ set on what had once been our most select street. â€(Faulkner, p.2) Knowing this we can assume that Emily’s origins are of upper-class status, which later leads to issues with her and her father.The story obviously goes back and forth in time, telling the story of Emily’s life. The most significant part of her life is when her father dies. Emily’s father plays a large role in what type of person she becomes later in life. The fact that he felt “none of the men were quite good enough for Miss Emily and such,â€(Faulkner, p.25) foreshadows her actions later in the story. Critic Donald Akers hints, “ Emily’s repressive life contributes to her rather severe psychological abnormality: necrophilia.â€(Akers, p.67).Later we find that Emily is in great denial because she will not admit that her father is dead. It takes three days before she lets the townspeople take her father’s body away. That is rather strange, the townspeople do not understand why would Emily want to have a dead man’s body at her house, they believe that her psychological instability is in progress, however there is not much they can do about it.Most probably, Emily was mentally ill due to the fact that her father never let her have a boyfriend. She shows the first signs of instability when her father dies and she does not let anyone take him away. The next sign of this problem of denying death is when the aldermen come to collect taxes. She insists they go talk to Colonel Sartoris, when at this time Colonel Sartoris has been dead for ten years. Emily could not stand the thought that Homer might leave her; and that is where Faulkner lets us assume that Emily has killed him.Thus, Faulkner succeeded in creating the image of the psychologically instable woman, who was avoided by most of the townspeople and became the central part of the town’s gossips. Emily’s psychological problems appear to be the major topic of the story, the author does a great job in showing how her illness progresses and makes her do things, which a normal person would never even think about. Emily is neglecting her neighbors, she does not want to communicate with the townspeople and rarely leaves her house.She does not want to accept the very concept of death, the death of her father and his disapproval of her having a boyfriend being the primary reasons for her madness. Faulkner has created a great and unique story about a psychologically instable person, although a lot of readers are shocked at various facts and conclusions he makes, the story is remembered for a long time after anyone reads it.Bibliography:Faulkner William. Selected Works. New York: Random House Inc., 1980. Mellard, James M. “Faulkner's Miss Emily and Blake's ‘Sick Rose': ‘Invisible Worm,' Nachtrдglichkeit, and Retrospective Gothic.†Faulkner Journal 2.1 (Fall 1986): pp. 37-45.Akers, Donald. Overview of A Rose for Emily, for Short Stories for Students, Gale, 1999. Reproduced in Literature Resource Center.Burduck, Michael L. Another View of Faulkner's Narrator in `A Rose for Emily', in The University of Mississippi Studies in English, Vol. VIII, 1990, pp. 209-211. Reproduced in Literature Resource Center.Davis, William V., “Another Flower for Faulkner’s Bouquet: Theme and Structure in ‘ A Rose for Emily’, in Notes on Mississippi Writers, Vol. VII, No. 2, Fall, 1974, pp. 348 Reproduced in Literature Resource Center. A Rose for Emily A Rose for Emily by Faulkner is a conventional Freudian explanation of incest and necrophilia. The incestuous relation between Emily and her father had indelible impact on the future life of Emily.Her father’s motive to indulge her in assumed incestuous relationship is considered a protective tool. In order to protect Emily’s inviolability from future potential suitors, he must turn against her, unaware of the consequences on the psychological and emotional life of Emily.Freud asserted that sexual repression causes psychological abnormality. Emily's overprotective and domineering father deprives her of a normal liaison with the opposite sex by chasing away any probable mates. So denial of a normal relationship and incestuous relationship with her father makes her an introvert and outcast for society.She takes refuge in solitude. Since her relation with father was so intimate, her aberration at the death of her father is a natural phenomenon. She refutes his death and keeps his dead body.Later in the story, she wants to develop a normal mundane life, when she allowed the children to come in to her house for painting and herself extended her relation with Homer. But again social actors remain a hindrance in her way. Certainly, the storyteller proposes that Homer himself may not exactly be enthusiastic about marrying Emily.Finally, Emily’s poisoning Homer can be taken as necrophilic act as she waited for the body to decompose before endorsing her oedipal fantasy.The discovery of a strand of her hair on the pillow next to the rotting corpse suggests that she slept with the cadaver or, even worse, had sex with it. In the fantasy of necrophilism, she might have played the imagined coitus with her father.Emily's repressive life therefore adds to her psychological abnormality: necrophilia. Even if she commits a hideous crime, Faulkner portrays Emily as a victim of her circumstance.ReferencesFaulkner, William; contributing editor, Noel Polk. A rose for Emily. The Harcourt Brace casebook series in literature. Fort Worth: Harcourt College Publishers, 2000.  A Rose for Emily The short story “A Rose for Emily†by William Faulkner tells about the story of a young woman who murders her lover and keeps him inside her house for years. Emily Grierson has lived her entire life locked up in her own house because her father had kept her there, refusing to let her live as an ordinary woman. When the chance of love and life finally comes to Emily, she desperately holds on it even if it meant killing the person she loves. Faulkner adds crucial details to this seemingly simple tragic love story. First, the story is set in a town steeped with racial strife. At one point, the story mentions a certain Colonel Sartoris imposing dress codes for Negros (Faulkner 457). Second, Emily’s father is described to be a tyrant—locking up his daughters and depriving them of a normal life. These two elements points to the theme of racial and gender discrimination which pushed Emily to commit murder. Faulkner disrupts the chronological sequence of the story and begins with the death of the curious old lady named Emily in order to highlight the attitude of the town towards her and the things that had happened in her life. At the beginning, we see how she was locked by her father who overruled her life and how people around them thought this has turned Emily crazy. Perhaps there is reason to agree that Emily’s traumatic situation has made her unstable, but what Faulkner asks in the story is whether she can be blamed for her instability. The townsfolk seem to ignore the fact that Emily is a victimized woman and that there is no reason for them to treat her tragedy as a spectacle. While Emily’s tragic past reveals the belittling and oppression of women during that generation, the tragic affair of Emily with Homer Baron reveals the steep racism plaguing the town. Upon learning that Emily is having an affair with a common, Black construction foreman, people started to pity her, referring to her as “Poor Emily†because it is not proper for a white woman—one with a “noblesse obligeâ€â€” to have an affair with a Negro (Faulkner 460). Despite the rumors about her, Emily “carried her head high enough†and proved to everyone her dignity (Faulkner 460). However, the oppressive reality presses the relationship of Emily and Homer. Thus, Emily is left with no choice but to murder her one true love in order to keep him forever. Her little town has left her with no option but to commit this cruel act. Faulkner ends the story with a testament of Emily’s genuine love for Homer. The strand of gray hair beside the bones of Homer proves that her love goes beyond the grave. The story’s grotesque images, specifically at the end, render the story to be a creepy, disturbing tale at first. However, Faulkner includes in it details grounded in his immediate reality, creating a rich layer of meaning in one simple, tragic love story.
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Ralph Ellison in his essay, “An Extravagance of Laughter†demonstrated the living condition of black life in the segregated 1930’s. Ellison grew up in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma. Unfortunately, His father past away when he was only three. He lived with his mother and brother in absolute poverty, but always believe that he could overcome the limits of racial prejudice. Throughout the years, Ellison fell in love with Africa-American music (Jazz). He played Trumpet and thought himself Louis Armstrong solos. For Ellison and many other blacks in the south, personal choice (privileges) was something they were lacking. He states, “you lived in a Negro neighborhood because you were forced to do so, and because you preferred living among those of your own background. Which was easy to answer, because having to experience life in a mixed neighborhood as a child, I preferred to live where people spoke my own version of the American Language; and where misreading of the tone or gesture were less likely to ignite literal conflict†(Ellison 145). By this, people did not have any choice about where they live. At times, They preferred to live among those of their own background just because they did not want to deal with inferiority. Imagine living in a place were you were not wanted, and where people were aggravating you and your family from day to day. People really do not want to deal with negative attitudes and they certainly will not live around it. Many people believe it’s more comfortable to live around people with the same background as they are. By doing so, it’s easier to understand each other’s view about a certain point. Not only they were forced to live in places they did not want to live; public transportation was places of hallucinations for Negroes. Once their fares were deposited, they were sent straight to the rear. During such time, both the driver and white folks tormented them. Imagine the type of pushing and shoveling that occurred. Such dramatic and inconsiderate attitude can cause horrible effects on a pregnant woman. Getting push on a moving bus is very dangerous. After all the disappointments in the south, an old hero and friend, Langston Hughes invited Ellison, to be his guest at a Broadway theater. The play, “Jack Kirkland’s dramatization of Erskine Caldwell’s famous novel Tobacco Road†left a great impression on him. The comedy and the “extravagance of laughter†told Ellison many things about himself. “I couldn’t have put it into words at the time, but by forcing me to see the comedy in Jeeter Lester’s Condition and allowing me to react to it in an interracial situation without the threat of physical violence, Caldwell told me something important about who I was†(Ellison 171). As we can see, the author was in a “safe house†and he mentioned how the play made him a better person, and how he became a more tolerant American. The play helped him to deal with the horrible experiences that he encountered in the south. In the south, there were no contests because the white man always won; where as in the north, survival of the fittest was the issue. It gave him a chance to redeem his self-dignity. The moment of laughter was the point when a change occurred in Ellison’s life. He produced a new drama in the theater when he started laughing. Once his laughing got going, it was a germ that affected many people. This play allowed Ellison to understand his role in the American society. By doing so, it helped him to remember the important part, which is not to think about racism, but to think about race in conjunction to the south, and New York. Ellison’s experience in learning to be a New Yorker was something he never forgets. He states, “Madam, all you had to do was risk the slight possibility that I just might be a gentleman. Because if you had, I would have been compelled to step aside†(Ellison 144). From this quote, we can all see the meaning into the author’s words. In the south, it would be required for a black person to get up and offer their seat to a white one. Nevertheless, They were in New York, and Laws did not recommend such thing. The lady got herself into a shuffle with him and fortunately he won. It’s that aggressiveness that caused Ellison to retaliate and not offer her the seat. For Ellison, The notion of “imagined communities†(Benedict Anderson) as Pratt says came about his experiences. This illustrated the inner self-esteem that he had to reach within himself to bring out to society. He gathered up all his experiences from the south and those he acquired from New York to stand up for himself and not to let society destroy it. One way to connect Pratt’s observation about the “contact zone†and “safe houses†with Ellison’s feeling that he was on a journey without a map is to connect both authors’ points of view, and how they tried to persuade their readers. Ellison States, “This made for a constant struggle over the nature of reality, in which each group probed and sparred as they tried to determined the other’s true motives and opinions†(Ellison 160). This quote indicates that people should drop their mask and try to put their differences aside to connect with one another. We must retrieve our logical inspiration, and break the barriers of stupidity. In her essay, “Arts of the Contact Zone,†Pratt observed how society must get rid of racism, and destroys the shadow of ignorance. She states, “meanwhile, our job in the American course remains to figure out how to make that crossroad the best site for learning that it can be†(Pratt 541). She demonstrated many ways to develop social and intellectual differences. She stressed the importance of what we came to call “safe house,†which are places that groups can constitute as communities. Pratt stated the way to comprehend communication and behavior is through common rules that must be shared. She mentioned how different personalities interpret a common rule. In her essay, Guaman Poma’s unread masterpiece and Benedict Anderson’s theory of “imagine communities†demonstrated her argument. These examples are part of what someone should strongly focus on to understand their cultures as well as others. As both authors Stated, Our position in relation to the issue of “contact,†“safety,†“mapping†and “community is very important. First, Ellison mentioned, “And just as Henry James felt it prudent to warn Americans against a “superstitious elevation of Europe,†Negro folklore with its arrays of survival strategies warned me against an overvaluation of white pretensions. And despite their dominance and low opinion of Negro intelligence, white suspected the presence of profound reservations even when Negroes were far less assertive than they are today†(Ellison 160). Throughout this essay, It’s clear that racism played a big part throughout society. The above statement mentioned how whites were looking down at Negroes. Even with their greatest efforts, Negroes were still underestimated.
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