A Rose For Emily - In Memory Of Emily Grierson

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In the short story ¡§A Rose for Emily,¡¨ (1930) William Faulkner presents Miss Emily¡¦s instable state of mind through a missed sequence of events. Faulkner arranges the story in fractured time and then introduces characters who contribute to the development of Miss Emily¡¦s personality. The theme of isolation is also presented by Faulkner¡¦s descriptive words and symbolic images.

	Faulkner uses anachronism to illustrate Miss Emily¡¦s confused mind. The story is split into five sections. The first section begins with Miss Emily¡¦s funeral and moves on to her past. Faulkner first recaptures the dispensation of Miss Emily¡¦s taxes in 1894, he continues by illustrating Miss Emily¡¦s nature no to accepts new concepts. When the ¡§next generation, with its more modern ideas¡¨ comes along, Miss Emily refuses to accept them (1009). Miss Emily¡¦s mixed feeling about the past is reflected in the structure of the story. Unlike most stories, the narrator does not continue the plot with the next chronological event rather presents one that happened two years earlier. This switch once again mirrors Miss Emily¡¦s unclear state of mind. The story¡¦s disjointed time frame not only reflects a puzzled memory but it also suggests Miss Emily¡¦s unwillingness to move along with time. While the reader reads through time and expects the story to be in sequence, Faulkner deliberately switches the time back and forth to emphasize Miss Emily¡¦s desire to stay in past.

	After the author introduces the character of Miss Emily, he goes back even further into the past to explain why Miss Emily possesses her unique personality. He also contributes to the development of Miss Emily¡¦s personality through the introduction of her father, Homer Barron, and Miss Emily¡¦s great aunt who all influence her maturity and experience of life. The primary figure in Miss Emily¡¦s life is her father. Faulkner uses this relationship to reveal Miss Emily¡¦s reserved nature. Because her father is an upper class figure, some of his ways of thinking has ¡§thwarted [Miss Emily¡¦s] life¡¨ (1013). Miss Emily has always been kept in confined environments that only her father knows what she will do. The event of her father¡¦s death is a shock to Miss Emily because the guidance of her father is gone. This explains Miss Emily¡¦s behavior after her father¡¦s death as well as her reaction to another ...

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...ulkner¡¦s short story ¡§A Rose for Emily¡¨ uses many literary devices such as plot to emphasize the theme of mixed memory. While most stores are written in chronological order, this story is broken up into characters to build up Miss Emily¡¦s personality both externally and internally. While Faulkner uses Miss Emily¡¦s father and homer Barron to affect miss Emily in her environment, Faulkner also old lady Wyatt to suggest the possible inheritance of this unexplainable behavior from her family. Descriptive words are another big part of the story since Faulkner uses them to describe the themes of old age and isolation. While ¡§coquettish decay¡¨ and ¡§tarnished gold head¡¨ is used to compare old to new, ¡§noblesse oblique¡¨ is used to reflect Miss Emily¡¦s past. Not only does Faulkner use descriptive words to describe Miss Emily, but he also uses symbolism. Throughout the story, Faulkner uses the description of Miss Emily¡¦s house to refer to Miss Emily herself. Miss Emily¡¦s once normal behavior and deterioration is captured in the house¡¦s old-fashioned look and the decayed look. Faulkner uses all these literary devices to present the themes of mixed memory, old age and isolation.

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