User:MeganRMulholland/sandbox

"A Rose for Emily" by William Faulkner is about a women who hasn't adapted and changed to her town's new ideals and rules.

An explorable theme in this story could be about the use of imagery around dust and decay throughout the story, and heavily at the end of the story.

A Rose For Emily
This articles description of the characters seem almost repeated information from other parts of the articles section, like the re-telling of the plot.

The author explains Emily here:

Emily Grierson - The main character of the story. Emily's father kept her from seeing suitors and controlled her social life, essentially keeping her in isolation until his death, when she is 30 years old. Her struggle with loss and attachment is the impetus for the plot, driving her to kill Homer Barron, the man that is assumed to have married her. Because no man has ever been able to stay with her before, Emily poisons and kills Homer. She sees murder as the only way to keep Homer with her permanently, and she treats him as if he is her husband even after she has murdered him. This is shown by her keeping his clothes in the room, keeping his engraved wedding items on the dresser, and even sleeping with him, all acts that normal married couples do. Her act of murdering Homer also displays her obstinate nature. Emily deals in absolutes throughout the story. She refuses to pay her taxes because she didn't have to pay them when her father was alive. She has her servant Tobe follow the same patterns, such as his grocery errands. She kills Homer to ensure that he will never leave her. By the end of the story, Emily's story is seen as a tragedy rather than an atrocity because of what her character has gone through.

While their is nothing wrong with loading down details in each description, half of this paragraph is the outline of how she killed her husband. Explaining the character and roles is what is intended here, but all we get is plot that should have already been explained in the plot section.

Emily Grierson- She is main character, a women who grew up heavily shelter and controlled by her father, and continues to stay in that mindset even after he dies and gives her back control of her own life. She had a previous love interest that ran out when she was younger, then later on found her husband, Homer Barron after she was 30. She spent the remainder of her life with Barron, when he was alive and when not. She has a stubborn nature that doesn't waiver against anybody's demand for her to change herself, even the Mayor can't control her. She kept to herself for most of her life. Family from out state would trickle in sometimes, and she had once taught the young girls of Colonel Sartoris decedents about china painting for a few years, but her main company was her negro servant. She was also heavily pitied by the other townspeople throughout her life, especially after her father passed.

Their are many more changes like this that can be done. A lot of this article is repeated throughout. Also a lot of assumptions about the story are held here, like the assumption Emily killed her husband. It is a possibility, but even the townspeople share that as a rumor and concern for what she needs it for. He had a grin on his corpse, so maybe he died from another cause like great sex.

Point of View Analysis (6&7 Workshop)
Faulkner's use of narrative and structure in his paper brings up many questions that could bring "A Rose for Emily" more depth and understanding of Faulkner's main ideas. The story is told by an unknown person, who seemingly is apart of a small group of townspeople that know of Emily's entire life better than anyone else in the town. Many questions, like how does the narrator know of all these tiny details are raised, as the way the story is written the narrator is just another person who lives in town. The narrator uses different pronouns throughout the story to show their relationship of being in the town like we and they. If Faulkner is going to pose the narrator as someone in Emily’s town then the question of how they know these specific details go further past the gossip throughout the town. Scenes like Emily buying the poison would be very private, and by the fear we can the shop owner having of Emily when she comes in, who would he have told for the narrator to repeat the story verbatim? There is just the basic idea of the narrator being strictly like, watching everything in third person and referring the townspeople like he is one of them to get a sense that these unfolding's of Emily's life is personal for everyone in the town. If the narrator is apart of the town, then he is privy to very sensitive information, that most of everyone else is not apart of. The narrator is probably not alone, as he explains using “we”, raising the question of who these people are and how they know Emily so personally.

This article brings these questions to the table, and helps bring these to light, as she claims they have been never discussed and that has clouded many other's analysis of the short story. By thinking of her and what she is trying to get the audience to understand that this narrator is important to story as the rest of it, as this unknown character makes a reader think about his part of story is implying. If he is really apart of the town and is experiencing these in person then the entire idea of the setting can shift. Helen Nebeker gets into how these changes shift the setting of this small southern town and the cliques that have been formed interact as a whole and separately as all of the town is watching Emily's life behind gossip and rumors of watching eyes and quiet whispers. This entire town can be then broken down a little further, Nebeker explains, into those of the more older, classic southern ideas and way of living and those generations after them changing the societal ways and overall rule of life as they progress into different ideas of the town's future. The narrator would be apart of the older crowd, but most likely Emily's age as he freely talks about her suitors and previous love interest with the pronoun "we". This narrator being a character in the story then brings on the thought that he is apart of this small crowd, privy to Emily's life, knows more than the rest of town, to the point that he was not surprised to find Homer's decomposed body in her sealed of bridal suite, "'Already we knew that there was one room in that region above stairs which no one had seen in forty years, and which would have to be forced. They waited until Miss Emily was decently in the ground before they opened it.'"The narrator is explains the room as if he was in the known about Emily's dead lover. He is not shocked, instead he explains the room as if he hasn't seen it in 40 years and is reliving a previous memory of how it looked before Homer arrived. It gives the reader a sense that the narrator could be an actual character that experienced Emily's life very closely and had an idea of what was behind the door would be ruinous to Emily's life and the preservation of her classic southern lady image, and knowing that it was going to be something so ugly and staining on a person's life, no one bothered to see her literal skeletons till she couldn't feel ashamed or like she was being attacked by the townspeople, like what happened when they tried to tax her for the first time ever.

Scholarly Re-Write
In Helen Nebeker's article, "Thematic Implications of Point of View in Faulkner's A Rose for Emily", she uses the language that Faulkner used in this story to question the relationship that the narrator has with the story, and Emily herself. She analyzes Falkner's use of prounouns, including: those pronouns include "us, we, and them". By using these words, Nebeker points out that the narrator may be more than just a story teller, but even someone who is in the town that perosnally knows Emily better than most of the rest of the townspoeple. By looking at the story in this perspective, it brings in questions that can change the whole outlook on Emily and who she is. The narrator addresses themselves in with the rest of the towns people, but the part of them who were most likely raised in the same generation as Emily. She shows how the narrator could be closer to Emily than others, seeing even the smallest details first hand, like when she buys the rat poison. She also points out how calm the narrator is, even when talking about find Homer's body, making it seem like her generation has been privy to such information on Emily, but would rather protect her and her image as this true southern lady. Nebeker felt that this point of view can help redefine the relationship the townspeople have with Emily, and give the reader more ideas to think about when analyzing this piece from Faulkner.

Introduction:
“A Rose for Emily” by William Faulkner is a short story written in the 1930’s, which tells the tale of a woman named Emily who is living through a new generation’s society, but still stuck in her old fashion ways. Faulkner uses many different literary devices, such as theme, symbolism, and point of view to draw readers in to see just how different Ms. Emily is in her small southern town.

Historical Context:
This story was published in 1930 in an American magazine called The Forum. This story gives subtle tones to show that the story is set in nearly present times, set after the Civil War and reconstruction era.

Summary:
This short story is set in the fictional town of Yoknapatawpha, Missouri. It is about a woman named Emily Grierson who grew up under her father's watchful eye to become a classic southern lady. While she was set to marry young, she never married the unknown man and it is written off as a result of her father not wanting her to marry him. She grew up to be lonely, not having many people in her life except her father and the house servant to be her closest companions. This lasted until after her father's death, which she reacted poorly to, as she took many days to give up his body for the burial and never fully accepted his death. By her 30's she met Homer, who she was seen around town with, and eventually never seen again as a rumor went around he left through her back door and never seen again. She eventually closed her doors, not entertaining even the lady's of Colonel Satoris descendants with painting china. Throughout the story glimpses of her days are shown. She refuses to pay taxes, claiming that it was a deal made by a previous governorship, she buys arsenic without saying why she needs it, and she also goes through a point of time where her house stinks so awful a group of men go around and sprinkle lime around her home to get rid of this unknown smell. By the end of the story the gossip surrounding Ms. Emily and her odd ways are whispered throughout town, and the townspeople wait till she is properly buried to see what her house of mysteries hold. The end is gruesome, as the truth of Homer's whereabouts are revealed and it just so happens the only other resident of the house has disappeared- the servant.

Characters:
Emily Grierson- She is main character, a women who grew up heavily shelter and controlled by her father, and continues to stay in that mindset even after he dies and gives her back control of her own life. She had a previous love interest that ran out when she was younger, then later on found her husband, Homer Barron after she was 30. She spent the remainder of her life with Barron, when he was alive and when not. She has a stubborn nature that doesn't waiver against anybody's demand for her to change herself, even the Mayor can't control her. She kept to herself for most of her life. Family from out state would trickle in sometimes, and she had once taught the young girls of Colonel Sartoris decedents about china painting for a few years, but her main company was her negro servant. She was also heavily pitied by the other townspeople throughout her life, especially after her father passed.

Mr. Grierson- Emily's father who controlled her life even after death. He raised Emily her whole life, as no mother was ever mentioned. He was strict on Emily, even stopping her from marrying her fiance. After his death

Colonel Satoris- The man who ran the town when Emily was younger and mad a deal with Emily's family that exempted the Grierson's of taxes.

Homer Barron- A man from the north who came to work as a laborour for contractor. Soon became close to Emily and he was last seen leaving her house one night, but it is later found out her never left her house that night.

Tobe- Emily's servant. Also worked for Emily's father. Has just always been working for the Grierson family, getting groceries and other errands and task complete. Not seen again after fleeing the house when the townspoeple found Emily's lover.

Townspeople- The otehr people who live in this town. Most of the story is pieced together with their gossip about Emily and her family.

Narrator