The Unforgetable A Rose for Emily

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The Unforgetable A Rose for Emily

In "A Rose for Emily" by William Faulkner, we see how past events

effect the main character Miss Emily, especially her mental state. She

seems to live in a sort of fantasy world where death has no real meaning.

Miss Emily refuses to accept or even recognize, the death of her father or

that of Colonel Satoris. She does not want to acknowledge the fact that

the world around her was changing therefore Miss Emily surrounds herself

with death. What Faulkner tries to state in this story is that you should

not let death overpower your life. A person should try and let go of their

beloved ones after they have passed away. He also tries to state is to

always expect the unexpected, like when Miss Emily killed Homer.

Faulkner chooses to use third person narration in this particular

story for a couple of reasons. He tries to show Emily's world to us as

seen through the eyes of a respectable resident, so we can understand the

town life as if we lived there. This way we were able to understand how

the people of Jefferson thought of her. If the story would have been told

in first person we would not have been able to relate to Miss Emily. The

reason for that would be, if she would have been the narrator we would have

understood the story in a hole different manner. Faulkner used third person

narration and from that we were able to find out many things about Miss

Emily's past. For instance the death of her father, the love she had for

Homer, and how she felt the need for affection. Those ideas she would have

kept to herself, if she were to have told the story.

The language and dialogue that Faulkner provides Miss Emily with

enables the readers to understand how she feels about the town. She is not

very pleased with the changes that have occurred therefore she lets

everyone that she comes in contact with know how she views those specific

changes. For example when the new Mayor tells her that she owes taxes in

Jefferson, she just keeps on insisting that she does not owe any money.

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