A Rose For Emily- Rhetorical Analysis. William Faulkner

In William Faulkner's short story entitled "A Rose For Emily", Emily Grierson kills her lover Homer Barron after being in love with him for about a year. She then sleeps next to the body in the upstairs bedroom of her home, loving it as if Homer were still alive. She then closes up the upstairs, never seeing the body again. There are three different motives that can be looked at as to why Emily killed Homer. She wanted to exercise power, she couldn't accept that Homer was a homosexual, and she didn't want another man to be taken away from her.

Faulkner states that Miss Emily would tell the other people that “her father was not dead. She did that for three days, with the ministers calling on her, and the doctors, trying to persuade her to let them dispose of the body. Just as they were about to resort to law and force, she broke down, and they buried her father quickly,'' (Faulkner 804). This part of the story foreshadows another incident where Emily again refuses to let go of the deceased. Instead of Emily not being able to let go of her father, this time she couldn't let go of her close friend, Homer. The hint of Emily not being able to let go of her father in the beginning serves as an indication for the reader that Miss Emily is very isolated and will do anything to prevent that. Emily’s suspicious actions causes the reader to anticipate certain happenings and wonder what will happen next.

In this short story by William Faulkner “A Rose for Emily”. Is set in Jefferson, Mississippi. Miss. Emily Grierson is the main character in this story. Emily was born to a proud, aristocratic family sometime during the civil war.

Emily kills Homer, a former close friend, because of her past and the values and teachings regarding love that have been instilled upon her by her father and society.

Emily was lonely, and she needed someone to love her and someone for her to love back. She wanted to have someone in her life, permanently, which brought her to killing Homer so that she will never lose

Not only because of his good look, but also because of his fun personality and good sense of humor. Despite his many admirers, he is more interesting in Emily and start building a relationship with her which will eventually make him regret the day he met her. Homer is an outgoing person, who brings joy and fun into Emily’s life. Moreover, even though Homer was a good looking man, he was seen as a poor man in the community, some people dislike him because he is a day laborer and the fact that he was going out with Emily would become a scandal because she was more seen as a respectable, higher social class woman.

He is a nomad that came to the town for work. Miss Emily fell in love with Homer, but her love is not returned. Faulkner notes that Homer likes to drink with younger men and very well could be inferring that he is gay Tradition in the south is to find a husband, get married, and have kids. Everyone in the town assumed they had gotten or were going to get married, but Homer was unattainable. He moves from town to town for work and that is how he makes a living. I think it was hard for Emily to grasp that idea and it creates tension between the two. There is evidence for his death being an act of passion, but could have also been caused when Emily realizes that this man is not going to marry her which is why she killed him with Arsenic. His death seems to be thought out and premeditated. She went to the pharmacist, bought arsenic, and when she got home and opened it the poison it said, “For rats”. The word rat can also be used to describe someone that is a scoundrel or shady, so she could be poisoning him because of something that he has done.

And of course, what she chooses to do is kill Homer. The townspeople already gossip when she goes to the druggist and she buys poison. In killing Homer, Emily can continue to be pitied instead of being humiliated because she cannot engage in healthy relationship. The townspeople turn a blind eye to the smell, which is referenced several times in Faulkner’s story. It is incomprehensible that no one acted sooner to reveal the gruesome secrets Miss Emily Grierson kept.

Faulkner lets the reader know that Emily is sad by the way he writes the character. She prefers to remain submerged in her own thoughts and actions. Faulkner first introduces sadness into this story when Emily’s father dies. She is overcome with grief and is not able to function or cope. After her father's death, Emily left the house very seldomly.

Miss Emily, the main character in his short story, is a representation of the Old South. She cannot change, nor can she move forward with new ideas. Faulkner knew women just like Emily and the story was a tribute to those women who hopelessly wanted to hold onto the old southern ways. More broadly, Emily is meant to represent people who did not accept the new South. Emily held onto the traditions of the south, denied the death of two important men in her life, and was honoured by the townsfolk of Jefferson as a monument. Additionally, her house can be thought to symbolize the dying ways of the Old South. Finally, she attempts a relationship with a man who is all wrong for her, because they embody two different souths: the old and the new. Emily is a symbol of the Old South, which is hopeless and flawed. Faulkner knew of the changes sweeping across the South, and he knew that the old southern traditions would die just as Emily

It is her constant found on a bad digit that gotta Emily into this seat. It is the coagulation in which she lixivium that has this stroke on her conception and sense. We eventually find out in the end that Emily kills Homer. She does this not do this out anger or hatred toward this man. It is the belief on her part, that a man has to play a significant role in her life that drives Emily to do this unbelievable act of violence. In her mind this was not a crazy thing to do. Her intention was to be able to hold on to the male figure that she needed in her life.

William Faulkner is one of the most famous American Prose writher. He came from a wealthy family. Faulkner grew up in Oxford, Mississippi. He temporarily worked for a book store in New York. He is famous for his novels set in the American South. He writes a lot of novels about reality and social issues that most American writers left in the dark. Faulkner has been awarded many Nobel Prizes, but in 1949 Faulkner was awarded a Nobel Prize in Literature. The committee consider him one of the most important writers of American letters (Bio.com). “A Rose for Emily” is one of him major works. The setting in “A Rose for Emily” has three main effects on the plot: traditions in the south, gothic aspects of death, and Emily’s refusal to adapt to change, leaving her an unsatisfied and lonely life.

Throughout the story, Faulkner used many different symbols to convey the theme. The three that stuck out the most where Emily, the dust, and Emily’s house. Emily was the most important symbol of the story because she was the leading cause of the theme. Miss. Emily could be described as “a small fat woman” that lived in a progressing town filled with people who saw her as a very cold and distant person that lived in the past. Emily didn’t really seem to fit in the structure of the town anymore. Emily was stuck in her old ways that her father had instilled in her from when he was still alive. Miss. Emily was the only person still with an African American working for her. Also, she felt as though she was higher than everyone else because that’s how it was back when her father was

The main character Emily Grierson is stuck living in the past within the isolated reality that she has both been forced into and that she herself has created. Everything in her life has changed. Her father is gone, the neighborhood is no longer a grand place, and taxmen are knocking on her door. "She would have to cling to that which had robbed her as people will." (Faulkner 821). Through the revelation of the

Death and transformation are the main theme in Faulkner’s short story, being a sign of the crumbling of the Old South after their military defeat by the North, as Emily’s suggested necrophilia echoes the desire to hang on to the past and its traditions. Through flashbacks and foreshadowing, Faulkner addresses the struggle of traditional versus progress in Jefferson, the south being a region bound by history and tradition, class and social influence. Emily represents to generations before and after her old South nobility. Even the town 's people are having a hard time letting go of old southern societal ideals. Their obsession with Emily and her family is a sign of society 's way of holding on to these old values. The narrator