Comparison of Women's Struggles in Use by Alice Walker and A Rose for Emily” by William Faulkner

One thing to notice in A Rose for Emily is the sort of underlying sense that Emily may have a mental illness. She has rather disturbed and crazy behaviors that leave the town wondering about what she was up to. One example of Emily showing her mental ill behaviors is when she refused to acknowledge her father’s death. She kept him in the house for 3 days, refusing to admit that he was dead. “…Miss Emily met them at the door, dressed as usual and with no trace of grief on her face. She told them that her father was not dead. She did that for three days, with the minister calling on her and the doctors, trying to persuade her to let them dispose of the body.” (Faulkner). She had lived with her deceased father in her house without a bother; she even resisted the people that were trying to help her. It seems as this may be her first sign of mental illness, and foreshadowing for the way she reacts to problems in the future.

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.

Being a member of an antebellum southern aristocracy meant that she was in a family that was defined as a “planter” also known as a person owning property and twenty or more slaves. After the Civil War, the family went through another hardship. The woman and her father kept on living their lives as if they were still in the past. Her father refused to let her get married. When the woman was thirty years old, her father died. This took her by surprise. After her dad passed, the woman refused to give up his body. The town thought it was just part of her grieving process. After she finally accepted her dad’s death, she grew closer to Mr. Homer. This took the town by surprise. Homer explained to Emily that he wasn’t the marrying type. She did not like hearing those words. Emily went to town and bought arsenic from a drug dealer. Because of this, the towns people were certain she was trying to kill herself. Emily’s distant cousins came to visit because the priest’s wife had called them. Homer left for a couple of days, but then came back after the cousins had left. Emily wouldn’t talk to any of the towns people. They wouldn’t confront her given her reputation. They wanted to ask her about the awful smell that had been coming from her house and to talk to her about her taxes. At first, they said her taxes were over looked in debt to her father, but then they changed their minds and sent her notices. The woman refused to pay them! Years later Emily had

Her relationship with her father is a total mystery, however it’s well implied that their relationship was more than the typical normal father and daughter relationship. For this reason the community wasn’t at all shocked that Emily was single and turning thirty. In denial about her father’s death, she refused to le the townspeople remove the body for three days. Once she met Homer Barron, Emily begins an undesirable affair. Many of the town people were happy she was with someone. Though it is soon found that Homer played for the other team, Emily goes to the pharmacist for poison, it is then that the townspeople think that she will kill herself. After buying the arsenic, the next time they see her it’s stated, “she had grown fat and her hair was turning gray” (Faulkner 521). This perhaps the result of Homer Barron’s murder and the loss of her dad. At seventy four years old, Emily died in her home “She died in one of the downstairs rooms, in a heavy walnut bed with a curtain, her gray head propped on a pillow yellow and moldy with age and lack of sunlight” (Faulkner 521). The major plot twist is that the townspeople find Homer Barron in a bedroom upstairs, lying in a lover’s embrace, with the indentation of a head upon the pillow next to him and one “long strand of iron gray hair” (Faulkner 522). Ms. Emily is “jilted” by the death of her father and Homer Barron leaving her. Since her father isolated her so well

“A Rose for Emily” shows the struggle of Emily Grierson and her inability to accept the changing times due to a father who controlled her into only knowing and understanding his ideal of a southern woman. Emily is representative of old southern values and though the townspeople had begun to evolve with the changing times, Emily refused to conform. The role Emily held in society was both a blessing and a curse for her. Out of respect for whom she was and what she represented, she was

In “A Rose for Emily” Emily had already had a tough life, with her father dying, causing her to be very emotional. When She found a man, she latched on, and never let him go. She killed him so he could be with her forever. “The view of Emily as a monument would have been destroyed. Emily might have become the object of continued gossip.”

The story a “Rose For Emily” has many different themes. But with no doubt, the one theme that stood out the most to me is “Isolation”. The story seems to display this sort of emptiness for Miss Emily. She was a lonely person, yet it was her own doing. Only a person that is completely broken and insane do what she did to her beloved. Perhaps the reason for this theme is the death of her father.

When describing the relationship between Emily and her father, he portrays her as “a slender figure in the white background,” inferior to her father who is “a spraddled silhouette in the foreground, [with] his back [always] to her, and clutching a horsewhip” (Faulkner 77). Faulkner’s depiction of Emily’s father proposes the idea that he is a powerful figure who always speaks for Emily, not allowing her to have a say in anything. As a result, the town then thinks that Emily is just like her father, when in reality, she is just a misunderstood individual in the community. Faulkner sees that Emily is not accepted or understood in the town, so he names the story “A Rose for Emily,” as a tribute to her for enduring the harsh gossip of the community for so many years. Through the title, Faulkner provides Emily with a voice that is necessary to show that she should be treated as a lady with dignity and respect, despite everything she has done. He demonstrates his pity for her by portraying Emily as a tragedy, who can not do anything about all the hardships she is faced with. Much unlike the views of the town, Faulkner regards Emily as a lady who is tragic, but nonetheless deserves to be regarded with respect and

Faulkner uses symbolism to compare Emily and her home to the Old South and their resistance to social change. “A Rose For Emily” belongs to the genre of Southern Gothic literature. Encyclopedia Britannica defines Southern Gothic as “a

“A Rose for Emily” characterizes examples of gothic elements like an isolated setting and a dark villain which were hidden behind the closed doors of Miss Emily’s dark secret. We figure out that Miss Emily’s younger years was not like ever other young girls. Her father was very strict and did not let her date. “We remembered all the young men her father had driven away, and we knew that with nothing left, she would have to cling to that which had robbed her, as people will” (pg. 31). His isolation of Miss Emily was the reason

He also uses her new boyfriend Homer Barron as a tool to trick the reader that she had found someone to marry so the townspeople thought, the townspeople loved Homer but her dad forbid Emily from having a relationship with a black man but she could care less. Homer soon revealed he was into guys, coming back from out of town a week later they had separated and suddenly Miss Emily had vanished from the streets for months, while the townspeople stalked her they only saw that the deliver’s a market basket at her house then fleas without the front door being open. The townspeople talked and repeatedly said “Poor Emily after a year of hearing that Emily goes out to buy arsenic but would not tell the clerk why she wanted it or was going to do with it. The townspeople said “She will kill herself” (Faulkner pg. 148). Making the readers think she is going to commit suicide because she felt she had no one due to the relationships she didn’t have with her community By this time Homer was done with his work that was to be done at Miss Emily’s house normally he packed up and left that evening however he returned mysteriously, “A neighbor saw the negro man admit that he him at the kitchen door at dusk one evening and claimed that was the last time seeing

In William Faulkner’s “A Rose for Emily” everything becomes clear after Emily, a local woman in the town, died. William Faulkner knew conditions like Emily’s were real and he wanted to express those conditions in his story. Her life would have been much better if she had been raised differently. Emily grew up with the disadvantage of having a cruel, selfish father, only thinking about is own comfort, preventing her from living life like an ordinary girl. After her death the town finally went to her house to try and find answers. They remembered various situations from her life and how unfortunate and sad her life was. The short story jumps between flashbacks and the present. The reader

In “A Rose For Emily” the life of Emily Grierson is told from the collective view of the townsfolk of Jefferson. The story occurs out of order so it slowly reveals that she murdered a man sixty years ago. Despite the main female character being painted in such a bad light the sexism in the piece is both outright and subtle. Further inspection reveals a depiction of women as shallow, stupid, stubborn, and meddling. To begin with, the very first line demonstrates inherent sexism.

Emily lived a very lonely life filled with odd events. She faced criticism and judgment from her fellow town members for not fitting in and keeping to herself. As a result, Emily encountered quite a few internal struggles. “A Rose for Emily” has characteristics that relate to the day to day lives of every human.

A Rose for Emily” is a wonderful short story. This story was written in out of order for the purpose. This story was interesting to attract the reader’s attention. When you read this story you have to focus because if you are not you will miss something important parts of this story. This story about the father protecting his child for his entire life and her parent’s not allowed her to do anything because she was expected that she will always be the best. Her Father always thinks that no one was good enough for her daughter. When her father died Emily did not know how to survive and she doesn’t even know how to associate with others Because her Father is the only one person that she has. Then Emily got a mental breakdown because she can't