A Rose for Emily

"A Rose For Emily"

By: William Faulkner (238)

While reading "A Rose for Emily" I was having trouble connecting with the story I was peculiar. I usually try to connect with one of the character or the themes of the story but just could not connect to Emily or her father. The theme that I picked up on was the power of death. Emily was very reluctant to death. She tries to exert power over death by denying the fact of death itself. We first see her problem when her father dies; unable to admit that he was dead she clings to the controlling figure. She also kills her husband in doing so she was able to keep him closer but hus lifelines made him distant. Death ultimately triumphed over Emily. Understand that this was one of the themes and how the characters are it seems really hard to actually connect with any of them.

I enjoyed William Faulkner writing style because of the way he makes you see whats going on in your head. You can feel the vines tangling, the magnolias blooming, all of the plants growing larger around her house, to help hide her from the outside. The tangling and blooming of the plants is in fancy words and complicated sentences.

Why did Emily kill Homer Barron, and should she have? Emily was single and her father had driven all of the eligible bachelors away. Homer would never marry her so she bought the wedding gear and killed Homer so he could never leave her. I don't think it was necessary to kill Homer but it is hard to understand a character like Emily. What is the mood of the story? How is Emily's southern upbringing important? Emily is has a conflict with the whole southern outlook on life she lives in isolation. She will never be married because her father wont allow it and by the time he dies she is not a young women anymore. The community tries to visit but she doesn't want visitors.

"Alive, Miss Emily had been a tradition, a duty, and a care; a sort of hereditary obligation upon the town." Emily is the last representative of a once great Jefferson family, and the townspeople feel they have inherited Emily the daughter of wealth and prestige. The order of the quotation is significant. Emily's legacy has devolved making her more of a duty than an obligation. Emily can no longer meet the tax obligations with the town. She becomes a financial burden to the town and also a outrage because she does not care about the community's strict social codes. "Then we noticed that in the second pillow was the indentation of a head. One of us lifted something from it, and leaning forward, that faint and invisible dust dry and acrid in the nostrils, we saw a long strand of iron-gray hair. " The towns people curiosity got to them as the broke in the house to see what is going on. They thought that they were being respectful by waiting until