As a kid I’m sure you can remember your parents telling you that you can’t always have what you want. This was a hard concept to grasp as a child, because for many of us we were the center of attention most of the time and weren’t used to hearing the word “no.” When a kid doesn’t get what they want it often leads to a hissy fit, but when adults become angered about not having their way one may observe much more extreme actions. In the short stories “A Rose for Emily” by William Faulkner and “A Good Man is Hard to Find” by Flannery O’Connor one may notice that the protagonists in both stories have trouble dealing with not getting their way. Emily Grierson in “A Rose for Emily,” and the Grandmother in “A Good Man is Hard to Find”, can be seen Both characters hate not having their way. In “A Rose for Emily,” Emily Grierson is alone when her father dies, so when she finally finds someone she loves, she becomes attached to him. Homer Baron is in charge of a construction company that is redoing the sidewalks in Emily’s town. Emily meets Homer and she soon becomes strongly attached to him. The town’s people instantly began to notice this, “Presently we began to see him and Miss Emily on Sunday afternoons driving in the yellow-wheeled buggy and the matched team of bays from the livery stable” (Faulkner 301). As the town’s people began to see them together, they all start to wonder if they would get married. Soon they realized that Homer was not interested in marriage and that he is interested in men. Emily is obviously very distraught by this and eventually leads hers to commits acts reflecting her character as someone with very little morals. The story comes to a wicked end and we discover that due to the fact that Emily can’t have what she wants, Homer Baron, she kills him. Comparably, In “A Good Man is Hard to Find” the Grandmother also always likes to have her way. In the story the family is planning a trip to Florida. The grandmother does not want to go to Florida but rather Tennessee. She tells her son Bailey that a Misfit has been seen on the way to Florida and tries to guilt him In “A Rose for Emily” Emily Grierson becomes furious when she discovers that Homer will not marry her. Instead of going about this like a normal sane person, she takes extreme actions and goes to the store and buys arsenic, “rat poison.” We can assume as we read that she is going to use this poison to kill Homer, but the reader doesn’t know for sure until the last line. When some town folks enter her home after his death they go into a room that nobody has opened for forty years and, “Then we noticed that in the second pillow was the indentation of a head. One of us lifted something from it, and leaning forward, that faint and invisible dust dry and acrid in the nostrils, we saw a long strand of iron-gray hair” (Faulkner 306). Here we can see that she did actually kill him and that is how she reacted to not getting her way. Unlike Emily, the Grandmother in “A Good Man is Hard to Find” does not take as extreme measures to have her way. The entire time the Grandmother wants her family to go to Tennessee rather then Florida. She uses manipulation to try and persuade her family to take the trip to Tennessee. In the first paragraph she tries to convince her son it is a bad idea to travel to Florida by telling him, “Here this fellow that calls himself The Misfit is loose from the
Both of the short stories are told from a 3rd person perspective—an outsider or townsperson looking into the lives of the protagonists. Rather than allowing the reader to experience the character’s thoughts and feelings, the authors let the stories unfold solely based on their plot development. This allows the reader to be a “fly on the wall,” and join the community in their gossip. Despite what an outsider may see externally, often times if one looks more closely, they will discover the truth. In A Rose for Emily, the townspeople thought that Miss Emily was hiding from society, but after looking more closely, they discover she was hiding the secret death of
I feel that the Grandmother in the story 'A Good Man is Hard to Find' suffers from psychological conditions. She does not care at all about anyone but herself. I feel that she may even be narcissistic. It is ironic because she would be expected to look out for her family. The Cambridge Dictionary defines narcissism as 'too much interest in and admiration for your own physical appearance and/or your own abilities' It is ironic because she would be expected to look out for her family, however in reality she only really looks out for herself. She shows how self centered she really is many times throughout the story. She displays a complete lack of regard for what anyone else wants to do. All she cares about at first is what ...
In Flannery O’Conner’s, “A Good Man is Hard to Find” the story begins with the family going on a road trip to Florida. The Grandmother who is very critical, selfish, judgmental, forgetful, and dishonest and almost enjoys manipulating others to get her way. The Grandmother holds herself in very high regard and
Grandmothers are known to be loving, sweet and caring old women, not this grandma. In “A Good Man Is Hard to Find” the grandmother is a very manipulative old woman. Her cynical ways of manipulation caused her family to go through a lot of torture within only a few hours. Throughout the story she manipulates her own son, Bailey, her grandchildren, John Wesley and June Star, and even a criminal who escaped from the penitentiary. Not all old women are nice; it just so happens that this one was cynical.
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.
When Homer Baron, a construction worker, comes into Emily's life he sheds hope into her life. He offers Emily a chance to feel love and to receive the affection she has previously only dreamed of. Together they take Sunday carriage rides, and for awhile, the town's people seem to think that Emily will finally wed. It appears to them that Emily has finally found her rose.
One of the seductive factors of William Faulkner’s society in “A Rose for Emily” is the traditional and adamant mental attitude of the main character in the novel. Miss Emily Grierson was stern in her ways and refused to accept change. She was known to be a hereditary obligation to the town. When the next generation and modern ideas came into progress she creates dissatisfaction by not paying her taxes. For many years and through the time of her death she would receive a tax notice every December and it would be returned by the post office a week later unclaimed. When the town got free postal delivery, Miss Emily was opposed to the new idea. She herself did not allow them to fasten the metal numbers above her door and attach a mail box to it. She has no tolerance when it comes to modern ideas. Depression and anguish increased within her causing major conflicts after her father’s death. Being left alone and without any close family to seek support from, she dwelled in disbelief. As custom from the town all the ladies prepared to call at the house and offer condolence and aid, but Miss Emily met them at the door with no trace of grief on her face. She told them that her father was not dead. For three days she was inclined to disbelieve and what had happened while minister and doctors tried to persuade her to let them dispose of the body.
Both ¡§A Rose for Emily¡¨ and ¡§Barn Burning¡¨ address the influence of a father, and the protagonists of both stories make their own decisions. Miss Emily lives with her father who prevents her from dating with any young man until she is thirty. Her father¡¦s deed enhances her thirst for love and security. After her father died, she finally has the freedom of love. When she meets Homer Barron and thinks that she has found her true love. But opposite of what she wants, Homer is a homosexual: ¡§¡Khe liked men, and it was known that he drank with the younger men in the Elks¡¦ Club --- that he was not a marrying man¡¨ (¡§A Rose for Emily¡¨, 126). To keep him with her forever, Miss Emily chooses to murder Homer. ¡§Then we noticed that in the second pillow was the indentation of a head. One of us lifted something from it, and learning forward, we saw a long strand of iron-gray hair¡¨ (¡§A Rose for Emily¡¨, 130), Faulkner implies that Miss Emily actually sleeps with the corpse. She must love Homer deeply, to endure the rotten smell and appearance of the dead body. She even enjoys being with it. ¡§The body had apparently once lain in the attitude of an embrace¡¨ (¡§A Rose for Emily¡¨, 130). Although she picks the most ridiculous way to express love, her courage to choose her own way of life compels admiration.
The grandmother's character in "A Good Man is Hard to Find" is also very selfish in her motivations. She felt she had to lie to her son, daughter-in-law and her grandchildren in order for her to be able to see that nice house again. "'There was a secret panel in this house' she said craftily, not telling the truth but wishing that she were, 'and the story went that all the family sil...
Flannery O’Connor’s “A Good Man is Hard to Find” discusses the definition of goodness within a few complicated characters. However, morality and human compassion seem to have very little to do with the definition of “good,” according to the key characters in the short story, least of all the grandmother. At first, the grandmother seems to be a caring and concerned mother and grandmother, begging her son to travel in the opposite direction from where a murderer has been rumored to be traveling. It becomes apparent later in the story that she is mostly concerned for herself and cares very little for the well being of anyone else. Her actions and beliefs call into question the meaning of decency and goodness. In “A Good Man is Hard to Find,”
Emily Grierson, referred to as Miss Emily throughout the story, is the main character of 'A Rose for Emily,' written by William Faulkner. Emily is born to a proud, aristocratic family sometime during the Civil War; Miss Emily used to live with her father and servants, in a big decorated house. The Grierson Family considers themselves superior than other people of the town. According to Miss Emily's father none of the young boys were suitable for Miss Emily. Due to this attitude of Miss Emily's father, Miss Emily was not able to develop any real relationship with anyone else, but it was like her world revolved around her father.
The grandmother is the central character in the story "A good man is hard to find," by Flannery O'Connor. The grandmother is a manipulative, deceitful, and self-serving woman who lives in the past. She doesn't value her life as it is, but glorifies what it was like long ago when she saw life through rose-colored glasses. She is pre-scented by O'Connor as being a prim and proper lady dressed in a suit, hat, and white cotton gloves. This woman will do whatever it takes to get what she wants and she doesn't let anyone else's feelings stand in her way. She tries to justify her demands by convincing herself and her family that her way is not only the best way, but the only way. The grandmother is determined to change her family's vacation destination as she tries to manipulate her son into going to Tennessee instead of Florida. The grandmother says that "she couldn't answer to her conscience if she took the children in a direction where there was a convict on the loose." The children, they tell her "stay at home if you don't want to go." The grandmother then decides that she will have to go along after all, but she is already working on her own agenda. The grandmother is very deceitful, and she manages to sneak the cat in the car with her. She decides that she would like to visit an old plantation and begins her pursuit of convincing Bailey to agree to it. She describes the old house for the children adding mysterious details to pique their curiosity. "There was a secret panel in this house," she states cunningly knowing it is a lie. The grandmother always stretches the truth as much as possible. She not only lies to her family, but to herself as well. The grandmother doesn't live in the present, but in the past. She dresses in a suit to go on vacation. She states, "in case of an accident, anyone seeing her dead on the highway would know at once that she was a lady." She constantly tries to tell everyone what they should or should not do. She informs the children that they do not have good manners and that "children were more respectful of their native states and their parents and everything else." when she was a child.
Lessons are learned through mistakes and experiences, but to completely understand the lesson, a person must be smart enough to profit from their errors and be strong enough to correct them. However, this was not the case for the main character in the short story; A Good Man is Hard to Find written by Flannery O’Connor. In this tale of manipulation and deception, O’Connor depicts the main character, the grandmother, as a shrewd self-centered woman, who considers herself morally superior than the other individuals. Throughout the entire story, she is seen using her manipulative tactics on everyone, which brought her to a sinister ending. O’Connor expertly portrayed the grandmother as a character that did not correct her negative characteristics throughout the story. To prove this statement, the use of time will be applied to help focus on the main idea of the grandmother not changing her deleterious ways throughout this story.
In “A Rose for Emily”, by William Faulkner, Emily Geierson is a woman that faces many difficulties throughout her lifetime. Emily Geierson was once a cheerful and bright lady who turned mysterious and dark through a serious of tragic events. The lost of the two men, whom she loved, left Emily devastated and in denial. Faulkner used these difficulties to define Emily’s fascinating character that is revealed throughout the short story. William Faulkner uses characterization in “A Rose for Emily”, to illustrate Miss Emily as a stubborn, overly attached, and introverted woman.
Through the use of setting, characterization and theme Faulkner was able to create quite a mysterious and memorable story. "A Rose for Emily" is more than just a story though; her death represents the passing of a more genteel way of life. That is much more saddening than the unforgettable scene of Homer's decaying body. The loss of respect and politeness is has a much greater impact on society than a construction worker who by trade is always trying to change things. Generation after generation Miss Emily happily escaped modernism by locking herself in her house the past.