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After having analyzed the story “A Rose for Emily” in the class, everybody has some ideas on the text and about the author. However, there is some background information that should be taken into consideration while evaluating this literary piece. The story takes place in south part of the United States of America, approximately in the early 1930s when the society was seriously affected by the Great Depression. Moreover, there was a war between the north and the south. Parallel to that, the story reflects the conflicts and the conditions of those times. To exemplify, the servant is declared as a slave in the middle of the 3rd page by saying, “nigger of hers”. The reader realizes the effect of the Great Depression to this text. As being understood from the title, the name of the main character is Emily Grierson, the protagonist and a member of an aristocratic family. The story begins with the funeral of Emily. It is from the 3rd person’s point of view, taking place in a conservative and small environment. Accordingly all suburban know each other and each others’ stories.
The author preferred a third person point of view to narrate the story because, in my opinion, he wants to create a sense of curiosity in reader’s mind. And he succeeds in his aim by making the reader wonders the truth about Emily and her life. The story is generally told through the gossips that the narrator heard. Therefore what is told about Emily and her family may not be totally true. This unclear information awakens the readers while they seal through the pages. Additionally, the literary piece has dialogs in it not to disrupt the reader’s attention by just telling it straight. In other words, the conversations, between the protagonist and the other characters just like in both the second and third pages, capture the reader’s attention. I want to enlighten a point that the author does not want the reader to solve the mystery before approaching through the end, so that only a few speeches of the main character are given and besides that the narrator was chosen as a person who does not know the mystery inside the Grierson’s house. Another perspective to look from is that in the story there are conflicts which are the bizarre personality of Emily and the strange events in her life. These problems resolve at the very end by breaking down the locked door in Grierson’s place, after the funeral. Furthermore, the incidents develop really usual and calm, no clues are given until the last moment, as a result of it, the tension rises through the end. Therefore, it can be said that the climax and the resolution, are in the end.
The language, that the author used, is not formal. To exemplify my state, “he who fathered the edict that no Negro woman should appear on the streets without an apron (at the beginning of the second page)”, the “Negro” word has an unpleasant meaning and it was used to describe a black individual. Additionally, “Negro” is an informal word to use in a formal text, moreover this word shows the bias of the author against the black community. I want to restate my point that it is obviously seen the effects of the Great Depression through the short story. Another point to show is that the description technique was used widely along the story plot such as the funeral of Emily, and the resolution part. It is used for making easy to imagine the atmosphere for the reader, and this helps him to join the story. Furthermore, the reader is thinking that Emily’s lover left her and therefore she began not going out of the house. However, the truth is that Emily killed her lover, because he was gay. This unpredictable ending augments the quality of the literary piece and surprises the reader very much. As a matter of fact, the ending leaves the reader thinking on the story. Every poet, artist or author create something because they want to say something to the community, they want to give a message to them. Similarly to what I have mentioned, the theme is deductive in “A Rose for Emily”. The central message of the author is that the parents may damage their children’s psychology while trying to keep them away from the dangers. Emily’s father was scared that men would hurt and leave his daughter; therefore he did not let her to go out with boys. As a result of this, Emily began thinking in the same way that her father did. Therefore, she murdered Homer Barron,her lover, not to lose him as her father had taught to her.
The story is preferred telling into five sections. By the help of these sections, the author is able to go back in to the past and he uses the flashbacks. The flow of the story is neither clear nor obvious. It starts from the end then turns back to the beginning and slowly approaches to the end again. Foreshadowing is another literary device that William Faulkner uses. Through the middle of the story, the narrator gives a clue by saying “Up to the day of her death at seventy four it was still that vigorous iron gray, like the hair of an active man (6th page)”. Then when we take a look at the last sentence, “we saw a long strand of iron gray hair(8th page)”, we realize that the author has foreshadowed a murder of a man.
To sum up, “A Rose for Emily” is a well-known short story which is written by William Faulkner. He is an American author lived in the early 20th century and therefore he had influenced by the events that he had witnessed such as the dispute between the north and the south, and The Great Depression. Hence, this literary piece should be evaluated by taking social life into consideration. The author doesn’t give any major clues in order to increase the tension in the story. In short, William Faulkner had achieved a great job by the help of dialog and flashback techniques.
1 response so far ↓
1
jo
// Oct 21, 2008 at 3:07 am
I hope you will always write a lot. I enjoyed reading your evaluation. Just two points though. One is about the word ‘negro’ in the text and the other is about Homer and his ‘gayness’. As you yourself have pointed out the story was written in 1930 and one has to keep this is mind when reading and evaluating the text. The word negro in the thirties did not have negative connotations like it does today, maybe the word ‘nigger’ did not as well- political correctness is a modern invention. But even if the word was a negative word back then and it was used in the story (or nigger) that doesn’t have to show us anything about the author, although it may show us something about the narrator. As you know the narrator is a creation of the writer and so is all s/he says. So therefore what the narrator says can not and should not be taken as being what the writer believes or would say. Of course sometimes it may reflect the writer’s ideology but that is a different subject! The other thing is about homer being gay. What support do you have for this assertion, apart from the narrator having told us? How reliable is or can s/he be?
In you blog entries you don’t have to set it out with an introduction and conclusion. It could be a stream of consciousness if that is how you want to write!
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