A Rose For Emily And Tell Me Not To Kill Me Analysis

Life and Dying in “A Rose for Emily” and “Tell Them Not to Kill Me!” In life, dying is essential. Everyone will at some point in time, die. However, how a person lived their life could play a role in how they end up dying. Whether they die by natural causes, or they die as a form of punishment, everyone will eventually pass away. William Faulkner and Juan Rulfo both talk about their main characters lives and then their death in their short stories, “A Rose for Emily” and “Tell Them Not to Kill Me!” Through Faulkner and Rulfo’s use of literary devices, such as characterization, flashbacks, and foreshadowing readers are able to understand how the main characters life and death are both similar and how they are different. To begin with, Faulkner

Miss Emily begins moving on with her life, after her father dies. She even begins seeing a guy, which is strange for others to see because Miss Emily’s father never allowed that while he was alive. However, Miss Emily is afraid that this man might leave her, so she has to come up with a plan to keep him forever. Miss Emily says, “’I want arsenic.’ The druggist looked down at her. She looked back at him, erect, her face like a strained flag. ‘Why, of course,’ the druggist said. “If that’s what you want. But the law requires you to tell what you are going to use it for.” Miss Emily just stared at him, her head titled back in order to look him eye for eye, until he looked away and went and got the arsenic and wrapped it up. The Negro delivery boy brought her the package; the druggist didn’t come back. When she opened the package at her home there was written on the box, under the skull and bones; ‘For Rats’” (Faulkner 33-34). This quote foreshadows a lot of things. It is interesting because Miss Emily never gave the druggist a real reason for why she needed it. Readers can infer with how long it took for her to respond, that the arsenic is more than likely not for rats. Readers can also infer that she might use the arsenic to poison the man that she is seeing so that he will never leave him. Faulkner provides readers with another

Both of the stories use characterization, flashbacks, and foreshadowing as a way to describe the main characters lives and the events leading up to their deaths. Both of the main characters lived their lives differently. Miss Emily lived her life isolated from the rest of society. Juvencio, on the other hand, committed a crime and then spent the rest of his life running from the terrible thing he did. While they lived their lives differently, both of them died in the end. Both of them died because of events that happened in their life. Miss Emily died because she was attached to one of the few men that loved her, and she could not live her life without him, so she ended up dying. Juvencio died because of a crime that he committed earlier in his life. Both of these characters had similarities and differences throughout their lives and these similarities and differences are shown through the use of literary