Many people hate to let things go. People find security and comfort in their possessions and the company they keep. If all this is ripped away from a person, it can have a very negative effect on that person?s life. In Faulkner?s short story, ?A Rose for Emily,? everything that a person knows is gradually taken away from her gradually Miss Emily, the main character in this short story, is an example of a time that once was. ?Miss Emily had been a tradition, a duty, and a care; a sort of hereditary obligation upon the town?(362).
Not only is her appearance a symbol of the past but the place that she called home is also very old fashioned. ?Miss Emily?s house was left, lifting its stubborn and coquettish decay above the cotton wagons and the gasoline bumps-an eyesore among eyesores?(362).
Miss Emily stays the same while ?the next generation, with its more prominent ideas?(362) are becoming more visible and established. Miss Emily not only has a hard time of letting material things go, but she also has a tough time of letting the people in her life leave her. Miss Emily loves her father very much, but his death devastates her. It also brings her down to earth. ?Being left alone, and a pauper, she had become humanized?(364).
The death of her father also throws her into a horrible case of denial. ?She told them [ the ladies ] that her father was not dead?(364).
She told everyone this for three days, and ? just as the [ the people ] were about to resort to law and force, she broke down and they buried her father quickly?(364).
The Essay on Roles In Society Emily Son People
Society has placed great emphasize on the roles that people are supposed to play. The standards in which we evaluate people have changed greatly over time. Yet, history shows us that the way a person physically looks or the occupation that they hold determined how society viewed them. An example of this is how African Americans were viewed as unequal during slavery. In the stories, "A Rose for ...
This is one case of a important person leaving Miss Emily?s life. Another character that plays a main part in Emily?s life is a man named Homer Barron. Barron is ?a big, dark, ready man, with a big voice and eyes lighter than his face?(365).
Emily madly in love with this man, eventually to the point where she mentions marriage to Homer. When this is said to Homer it is said that ?he was not a marrying man?(366).
Once again Emily is destroyed, so destroyed that she takes drastic measures. She resorts to poisoning Homer, this causes his death. Emily then places Homer in her bed and proceeds to sleep with him. A severe case of desperation. Not everyone has this big of a problem of hanging on to things. Most people can pick up and move on. In Faulkner?s short story ?A Rose for Emily? everything that a person knows is gradually taken away from her gradually leading to her madness. Faulkner, William. ?A Rose for Emily? An Introduction to Literature. Ed. Joseph Terry. Thesis Statement: In Faulkner?s short story ?A Rose for Emily? everything that a person knows is gradually taken away from her gradually leading to her madness. a. loss and reaction of people
Bibliography:
Works Cited Faulkner, William. ?A Rose for Emily? An Introduction to Literature. Ed. Joseph Terry. NewYork: Longman, 2001, 362-368.
