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Themes and Symbolism within A Rose For Emily
Themes and Symbolism within A Rose For Emily
Ernest Hemingway, “Hills like White Elephants” analysis
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“Everybody is different. Everybody has different styles. Just do it the best way you know how”(Vince Carter). People have their own unique styles ,whether it's the music they listen to, the clothes they wear, or just any of the choices people make on their own. Authors also have their own ways of writing a story or book in their own way. In the short stories, “Hills like White Elephants” by Ernest Hemingway and “A Rose for Emily” by William Faulkner, they manipulate the elements of style to develope the meaning of their work. The elements they use are Syntax and Diction, Dialogue, and Symbolism.
In a well-written short story, different literary elements and terms are incorporated into the story by the author. Ernest Hemingway frequently uses various literary elements in his writing to entice the reader and enhance each piece that he writes. In Hills Like White Elephants, Hemingway uses symbols to teach the reader certain things that one may encounter during daily life. Symbolism may be defined as relating to, using, or proceeding by means of symbols (Princeton). The use of symbols in Hills Like White Elephants is utterly important to the plot line and to the fundamental meaning of the story. Through this use of symbolism, the reader can begin to reveal the hidden themes in this short story.
The most insane people are the ones who were kept sane the longest. In the stories “ A Rose for Emily” by William Faulkner and “ Lamb to the Slaughter” by Roald Dahl the women are both completely insane. They both kill the ones they love because they don’t want them to leave. Although Mary and Emily both have different stragities of killing them. They are both very sneaky about hiding it up and how they get away with it.
A rose for Emily and Lamb to The Slaughter are both books about two females getting rejected to the men they love, and the way they get revenge was by killing them. Emily was a shy type of person but she came from a family that are known to be crazy and do crazy things. She fell in love with Mr. Grierson she met when he was doing construction work next to her house. Eventually she married him but not knowing that he is more attracted to men and for that reason she killed him. Mary was in a situation where her husband Patrick did love her but he decided he wanted to leave her for another woman when Mary was pregnant with his baby. This leading up to her killing over the anger she had towards him. The purpose of this is because both females have had the feeling of rejection, and revenge. Emily’s husband was attracted to other men which made her feel rejected because she knew she wasn’t going to be love by Mr. Grierson as much since he doesn’t find her attractive. For Mary, her husband Patrick did love but he wanted to leave her for another woman because he didn’t love her anymore.
In “The Tell-Tale Heart” by Edgar Allan Poe and “A Rose for Emily” by William Faulkner both main characters are portrayed as irrational and are isolated from reality. The narrator in “The Tell-Tale Heart” murders an elderly man, as he is fearful of the man’s eye. Emily Grierson in “A Rose for Emily” lives secluded from society, until she marries a man, Homer. She ultimately kills Homer in his bed and leaves his body to decompose for many years. Both the narrator in Edgar Allan Poe’s “The Tell-Tale Heart” and Emily Grierson in William Faulkner’s “A Rose for Emily” deny reality so vehemently that they isolate themselves from reality. Their isolation and denial of reality cause both to commit murder.
Luck and love have always been two very important and contradicting themes in many stories. Children and adults would go above and beyond to receive their parent’s affection and approval even to the point of death and isolation. At times this creates a dysfunctional aspect in the family’s lives. “A Rose for Emily” and “The Rocking Horse Winner” have very similar symbol meanings and themes explaining the dysfunctional family, love and luck.
Gale. Weeks, Lewis E., Jr. "Hemingway Hills: Symbolism in 'Hills like White'" Elephants. Studies in Short Fiction. 17.1 (Winter 1980): 75-77.
Authors of short stories use elements of style to make their stories interesting. There are many elements of style used by authors. Irony and theme are often used in short stories. This is clearly shown in O. Henry’s short stories such as“The Gift of the Magi,” “The Lickpenny Lover,” and “Ships.” The short stories of O. Henry use the element of theme to bring about ironic endings.
Ernest Hemingway is an incredible writer, known for what he leaves out of stories not for what he tells. His main emphasis in Hills Like White Elephants seems to be symbolism. Symbolism is the art or practice of using symbols, especially by investing things with a symbolic meaning or by expressing the invisible or intangible by means of visible or sensuous representations (merriam-webster.com). He uses this technique to emphasize the importance of ideas, once again suggesting that he leaves out the important details of the story by symbolizing their meaning.
In "A Rose for Emily" and "Barn Burning," William Faulkner creates two characters worthy of comparison. Emily Grierson, a recluse from Jefferson, Mississippi, is an important figure in the town, despite spending most of her life in seclusion. On the contrary, Abner Snopes is a loud, fiery-tempered man that most people tend to avoid. If these characters are judged by reputation and outward appearance only, the conclusion would be that Emily Grierson and Abner Snopes are complete opposites. However, despite the external differences, these two characters have surprisingly similar personalities.
William Faulkner has written some of the most unique novels and short stories of any author, and, to this day, his stories continue to be enjoyed by many. Both “Barn Burning” and “A Rose for Emily” tell about the life of southern people and their struggles with society, but Faulkner used the dramatic settings of these two stories to create a mood unlike any other and make the audience feel like they too were a part of these southern towns. These two stories have many similarities in there setting, but they also have many differences to that make them unique and interesting.
The poem, “Commitments” by Essex Hemphill addresses the family relations of a gay son and his relatives. Hemphill exposes his urgent need for recognition and support from his loving family. He expresses how a secret that the family does not want to tell isolates him. Hemphill takes a stance that shows he is lonely, bitter, and deprived of his proper place in the family. He not only reveals his innermost feelings but also portrays the image of lies and insincerity which surround him in the family.
Link, Alex. "Staking Everything On It: A Stylistic Analysis Of Linguistic Patterns In "Hills Like White Elephants.." Hemingway Review 23.2 (2004): 66-74. Academic Search Premier. Web. 14 Apr. 2014.
Burroway, Janet. Writing Fiction: A Guide to Narrative Craft. 6th ed. New York: Longman, 2003. As Rpt. in Rankin, Paul "Hemingway's `Hills Like White Elephants'." Explicator, 63 (4) (Summer 2005): 234-37.
The art, literature, and poetry of the early 20th century called for a disruption of social values. Modernism became the vague term to describe the shift. The characteristics of the term Modernism, all seek to free the restricted human spirit. It had no trust in the moral conventions and codes of the past. One of the examples of modernism, that breaks the conventions and traditions of literature prior to Modernism, is Ernest Hemingway’s short story “Hills Like White Elephants”. The short story uses plot, symbolism, setting, dialogue, and a new style of writing to allow human spirit to experiment with meaning and interpretation.
In "A Rose for Emily," William Faulkner's use of setting and characterization foreshadows and builds up to the climax of the story. His use of metaphors prepares the reader for the bittersweet ending. A theme of respectability and the loss of, is threaded throughout the story. Appropriately, the story begins with death, flashes back to the past and hints towards the demise of a woman and the traditions of the past she personifies. Faulkner has carefully crafted a multi-layered masterpiece, and he uses setting, characterization, and theme to move it along.