Antebellum South

In her mind she is wanting to find someone who she could spend the rest of her life with but Homer is just wanting a fling and not a commitment. This is something that the citizens of Jefferson will worry about, as they feel that they must look after Emily since her father passing. The townspeople are like her parents and feel like it is in their best interest to look after her. This could make the reader show sympathy for Emily, rather than disliking her.

7) What is the significance of Miss Emily’s actions after the death of her father?

In “A Rose for Emily”, Charles Faulkner used a series of flashbacks and foreshadowing to tell Miss Emily’s story. Miss Emily is an interesting character, to say the least. In such a short story of her life, as told from the prospective of a townsperson, who had been nearly eighty as Miss Emily had been, in order to tell the story from their own perspective. Faulkner set up the story in Mississippi, in a world he knew of in his own lifetime. Inspired by a southern outlook that had been touched by the Civil War memory, the touch of what we would now look at as racism, gives the southern aroma of the period. It sets up Miss Emily’s southern belle status and social standing she had been born into, loner or not.

A Rose for Emily by William Faulkner is a short story that describes the tradition and how it implements people through the idea of death. The protagonist Emily gave into the concept of death the minute her father passed away. Death prevented Emily from pursuing the greater things in life. On the long run, she died of a broken heart because of her father's death and regret. Faulkner presents an argument based of feminism and the nature of broken women. This short story covers the significance of the pursuing of happiness. Emily Garrison struggles to maintain her tradition and the rich status of her family in her small community. However, time change and Emily become a disgrace to her community when she was not married about the age of thirty.

William Faulkner wrote, "A Rose for Emily." In the gothic, short story he contrasted the lives of the people of a small Southern town during the late 1800's, and he compared their ability and inability to change with the time. The old or "Antebellum South" was represented by the characters Miss Emily, Colonel Sartoris, the Board of Aldermen, and the Negro servant. The new or "Modern South" was expressed through the words of the unnamed narrator, the new Board of Aldermen, Homer Barron, and the townspeople. In the shocking story, "A Rose for Emily," Faulkner used symbolism and a unique narrative perspective to describe Miss Emily's inner struggles to accept time and change

1. Arrange these events in the sequence in which they ACTUALLY occur chronologically (real time):

Post Civil war era Mississippi, a racially divided confederate state. The south is known for hospitality, and that special charm. Yet in “A Rose for Emily” the townspeople tend to gossip about Emily and are very nosey. The author of the short story created an environment in where the values of the town contrast the typical stereotypes of a southern state. William Faulkner's, “A Rose for Emily” exposes the hypocrisy of the Post Civil War south.

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.

There are many instances where Emily resists change, unable to let go of the Southern, antebellum lifestyle she grew up with. This creates a contrast between Emily and the rest of the town, which is progressing and modernizing as time goes by. Emily’s traditional nature puts an emphasis on her representation of the past. She actively resists modernization, choosing to reply to the mayor’s offer to call with a letter “on paper of an archaic shape, [written with] thin, flowing calligraphy in faded ink” (Faulkner 1). Emily’s actions represent the past and an inability to let go of it. She is stuck in the past, unwilling to accept the change that the future brings. Emily and her house are the last glimpses of the past in her town; as the town progresses, her house stood unmoving, “lifting its stubborn and coquettish decay above the cotton wagons” (Faulkner 1). The house continues to display the style of the past, despite the decay and progression of style. Emily and her house represent the past, when her house was new and in style. Emily’s resistance to change and longing for the past is appropriate, considering her age and upbringing. She is an older woman, who grew up during the Civil War era in the South. The reason the South fought in the Civil War was to protect their lifestyle at all costs. The South was unwilling to change, stubbornly clinging to the antebellum way of life. This philosophy shaped the

"A Rose for Emily” written by William Faulkner is a short story that gives most people quite a shock when it comes to the ending. The story tells about how Miss Emily Grierson changes after her father dies. Miss Emily lives in a beautiful home with an African American servant named, Tobe. After Miss Emily’s father passed away she would never leave the house. Miss Emily was in denial about her father's death. For three days Emily would tell the townspeople that her father was not dead. The townspeople began to think Miss Emily was crazy because of her behavior, “Emily’s subsequent behavior clearly shows that the death of her father was a piece of reality disavowed by her ego” (Scherting). Including, Miss Emily wouldn't pay her taxes, the eerie smell around her house and the fact she killed her lover. Emily’s life, like her decaying house, starts to suffer from attention. What else could go wrong?

What makes someone to live an isolated and antisocial lifestyle? What are the causes? What are the reasons that people are in the edge of madness when a great life with many opportunities are in front of them?

When Miss Emily finds somebody, though, it quickly pushes her to desperation. Her relationship with Homer Barron is a result of the life and death of her father. Ironically, he is a northern, roughneck Yankee, the exact opposite of any connection a Grierson would consider. Unsuspectingly, Emily is attracted to him, which is an oddity itself considering her lack of personality and his obvious charisma, for “whenever you [hear] a lot of laughing...Homer Barron [will] be in the center of the group” (560). He is also the first man to show an interest in her without her father alive to scare him off. The town is doubtful that the pair will remain together, but Emily's attachments are extreme, as seen when she would not surrender her father's body. The circumstance exhibits how her feelings are greatly intensified towards Homer. However, he is “not a marrying man” (561). When it appears as though he will leave her, she kills him with poison. While seemingly the opposite effect of love, killing Homer is quite in line with her obsession. If he is dead and she keeps Homer all to herself, Emily will never lose him; he can never leave her. Other such details that express her extreme attachments appear as she buys him clothes and toiletries before they are even considered married. There is also the revelation at the end of the story that she has been keeping his body for over thirty years and sleeping with it, clearly demonstrating her overt desperation

Fay Weldon’s “IND AFF” and William Faulkner’s “A Rose for Emily” deliver similar writing styles to their readers. While there are similarities with the plot and main characters, the setting and point of view of the stories vary.

"A Rose for Emily" is a wonderful short story written by William Faulkner. It begins with at the end of Miss Emily’s life and told from an unknown person who most probably would be the voice of the town. Emily Grierson is a protagonist in this story and the life of her used as an allegory about the changes of a South town in Jefferson after the civil war, early 1900's. Beginning from the title, William Faulkner uses symbolism such as house, Miss Emily as a “monument “, her hair, Homer Barron, and even Emily’s “rose” to expresses the passing of time and the changes. The central theme of the story is decay in the town, the house, and in Miss Emily herself. It shows the way in which we all grow old and decay and there is nothing permanent

When everyone had though Miss Emily had found love, he disappears. She seemed to be very happy with him. They would ride around town in a Buggy. His name was Homer Barron. In the story it doesn’t imply that they were an actual couple. As we discussed in class Homer might even have been homosexual. If this or anything else was the cases were Homer couldn’t be with Miss Emily her desperation for that companion made her do an outrageous passionate act. She murders him to keep him with her forever. I think she thinks she has finally found someone she doesn’t want to let go. She feels like she needs this and doesn’t realize that it is out of this world. She doesn’t recognize that she has lost her mind. By not only living but sleeping with a dead corpse.