A Rose For Emily By William Golding

While one of the most traditional interpretations of “A Rose for Emily” is the variety of meanings for the “rose” presented in the title and how the “rose” fits in with the story. Laura Getty states in her article many varied perspectives that many could ponder when identifying what the “rose” stands for. She states many possible theories that depict what the “rose” means, including theories of other writers that help support her own theory and also that adds another way that most might not consider at first. Most of the interpretations of the rose are all focused on the “internal elements” (Getty 231) rather than the actual rose itself. Getty theorizes about certain characters, buildings, anything that symbolizes a rose in the story as

Littered throughout the story is evidence that the murder took place. When Emily takes up with Homer Barron, a man whom the narrator makes clear was not the marrying kind; rumors start to fly about the two at a time when it was not considered proper for a man and woman to live together. The town, her relatives, and the Baptist minister disapproved of the relationship, and Emily was in danger of loosing Homer. A year after the relationship begins, and the pressures to either marry

The summer after her father died, the town hired contractors to pave the sidewalks. The foreman, Homer Barron, and Miss. Emily became quite fond of one another. On Sunday afternoons they could bee seen driving in his buggy together. Soon the people began to whisper about Emily and Homer. Emily held her head high; she would not be seen as anything other than respectful. The town's people believed that Miss. Emily should have kinfolk come to stay with her for a while.

Symbolism in literature is using an object to portray a different, deeper meaning in a story. Symbols represent ideas or qualities that the author has maneuvered into his or her story that has meaning. There can be multiple symbols in a story or just one. It is up to the reader to interpret the meaning of the symbols and their significance to the story. While reading a story, symbols may not become clear until the very end, once the climax is over, and the falling action is covered. In William Faulkner’s, “A Rose for Emily,” there are multiple examples of symbolism that occur throughout the story.

Days before the arrival of Homer Barron, Miss. Emily went to get arsenic which is rat poison and when the druggist asked her what the rat poison is for she did not answer him and just looked at him. By doing so Miss. Emily was able to get the rat poison without an explanation. The whole town started to think that the rat poison was to put an end to her own life. Now Miss. Emily is patiently awaiting the arrival of her “lover” Homer Barron. Homer makes his way to her back door and she welcomes him inside.

It is noted in the passage that “Homer himself had remarked--he liked men, and it was known that he drank with the younger men in the Elks' Club--that he was not a marrying man” (4). First her father runs away men, then when a man finally comes around he is homosexual. One day Miss Emily goes to the druggist and says “I want arsenic” (3). It is after seeing this that the people in town started to think she was going to commit suicide (4). Homer barron leaves and returns after Miss Emily’s two cousins leave. The people in the town never see him again and they say “the one we believed would marry her … had deserted her. The body of Homer Barron was found on the bed with a piece of Miss Emily’s gray hair next to the body.

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.

In “A Rose for Emily”, William Faulkner uses symbolism, imagery, simile and tone. Faulkner uses these elements to lead his characters to an epiphany of letting go of out-dated traditions and customs. The resistance to change and loneliness are prominent themes within “A Rose for Emily”. Faulkner uses “A Rose for Emily” to caution his readers that things are not always what they appear to be.

Then she met Homer Barron the man many people were hoping she would marry but were doubtful because he was a playboy. Miss Emily was seen buying clothing for him but no one was aware that that clothing was for his future funeral. She started going crazy and the townspeople weren’t happy nor worried about her they just pitied her. She bought arsenic for rats signifying that Homer was the said “rat.” Miss Emily lost not only her self awareness but completely lost her respect for herself and anyone trying to get close to her.

Her father's strict hand in stifling her natural instincts leads to a dangerous form of complacency for Emily later in life. There stands an image of the narrator's, of "Miss Emily a slender figure in white in the background...her father...in the foreground, his back to her and clutching a horsewhip, the two of them framed by the backflung front door" (278), which conjures up a perverse metaphorical portrait of the two. The father with so much power over the life of his daughter, tends only to his own selfish motivations by chasing away any hope Emily might have at happiness. The two of them, father and daughter, trapped in the frame of that house that would lead to the ultimate downfall of the Grierson name. Two years after the death of her father, the committee had paid Emily a visit regarding her taxes. A few months after that visit the town noticed that Homer Barron had disappeared.

“When Miss Emily Grierson died, our whole town went to her funeral- (Faulkner,1)”, this is the opening sentence to Faulkner’s short story. Immediately the reader is left wondering who is Miss Emily and how did she die. As the story begins to unravel, more suspense is built. The first major instance is after Emily’s father dies. She claims he is not dead

The main symbolism running throughout A Rose for Emily by William Faulkner, is the theme of how important it is to let go of the past. Miss Emily clings to the past and does not want to be independent. The Old South is becoming the new South and she cannot move forward. The residents of the South did not all give in to change just because they lost the Civil War. In A Rose for Emily time marches on leaving Miss Emily behind as she stubbornly refuses to progress into a new era. In the story, symbolism is used to give more details than the author actually gives to the reader. Symbolism helps to indicate how Emily was once innocent but later changes, how her hair, house, and lifestyle, helped to show her resistance to change. The story is not

Examining the narrator’s manipulations of the timeline may indicate a motive or motives that, when taken into consideration with the directions in which the narrative steers reader attention when horror results from the text’s final image. Nebecker rightly questions earlier interpretations of the narrator as singular and male, suggesting a more plausible first-person collective and multi-generational narrator. Furthermore, narrator’s strategy for presenting Miss Emily Grierson’s story when Homer Barron mysteriously disappears and his remains are found after Emily dies years later on a bed which Emily appears to have slept in as well in upstairs room of Emily’s house, Nebeker concludes that “by abetting if not aiding these acts, the narrative “we,” representative of the Old South, triumphs over the later “they,” representative of the New South.”

”Oh okay,said Homer”.After the weird and awkward moment,Miss Emily and Homer went their own ways.At the night time that day,Miss Emily went for a walk down her street,and again bumped into Homer, “

Since Homer admitted his relation to men, the women of the town have sprung in curiosity for Emily’s reaction. The town has begun to say once more, “ Poor Emily”; although, the children say: “Miss Emily was an alien.” This bizarre issue was difficult to process, and some believed the theory the children spoke about repeatedly. Most of the town paid no mind to the children’s thoughts; therefore, they carried on gossiping. Emily slowly vanished once more; consequently, Homer disappeared, not giving her a reason to make an appearance. In consternation, the people attentively engaged themselves in the children’s stories, even though they sounded obscure to the human mind.