Comparing William Faulkner's Short Stories, A Rose for Emily and Dry September
Three key elements link William Faulkner's two short stories "A Rose for Emily" and "Dry September": sex, death, and women (King 203). Staging his two stories against a backdrop of stereotypical characters and a southern code of honor, Faulkner deliberately withholds important details, fragments chronological times, and fuses the past with the present to imply the character's act and motivation.
The characters in Faulkner's southern society are drawn from three social levels: the aristocrats, the townspeople, and the Negroes (Volpe 15). In "A Rose for Emily," Faulkner describes Miss Emily Grierson in flowing, descriptive sentences. Once a "slender figure in white," the last descendent of a formerly affluent aristocratic family matures into a "small, fat woman in black, with a thin gold chain descending to her waist and vanishing into her belt, leaning on an ebony cane with a tarnished gold head" (Faulkner, Literature 25-27). Despite her diminished financial status, Miss Emily exhibits her aristocratic demeanor by carrying her head high "as if she demanded more than ever the recognition of her dignity as the last Grierson" (28). In an equally descriptive manner, Faulkner paints a written portrait of Miss Minnie Cooper in "Dry September." He portrays her as a spinster "of comfortable people - not the best in Jefferson, but good enough people" and "still on the slender side of ordinary looking, with a bright faintly haggard manner and dress (Faulkner, Reader 520). Cleanth Brooks sheds considerable insight on Faulkner's view of women. He notes that Faulkner's women are "the source and sustainer of virtue and also a prime source of evil. She can be ...
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Works Cited
Brooks, Cleanth. "William Faulkner: Visions of Good and Evil." Faulkner, New Perspectives. Ed. Richard H. Brodhead. Englewood Cliffs, New Jersey : Prentice-Hall, 1983.
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Faulkner, William. "Dry September." The Faulkner Reader. New York; Random House, 1954.
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---. Selected Letters of William Faulkner. Ed. Joseph Blotner. New York: Random House, 1977.
Kazin, Alfred. Bright Book of Life. Boston: Little Brown Company, 1973.
King, Richard H. Modern Critical Views. New York: Chelsea House, 1986.
Reed, Joseph. Modern Critical Views. New York: Chelsea House, 1986.
Volpe, Edmond. A Reader's Guide to William Faulkner. New York: Octagon, 1974.
Jefferson, Thomas. "The Declaration of Independence." The McGraw-Hill Reader: Issues Across the Disciplines. 8th edition, Ed. Gilbert H. Muller. New York: McGraw Hill, 2003. 305-308.
Faulkner, William. “A Rose for Emily.” Literature: An Introduction to Fiction, Poetry, Drama, and Writing. Ed. X. J. Kennedy and Dana Gioia. 12th ed. New York: Pearson, 2013. 549-51. Print.
The “A Rose for Emily”. Literature: Prentice Hall Pocket Reader. Third Edition. Upper Saddle River, NJ: Pearson, 2005. 1-9.
Reliability is a major contribution for an adequate source. As research was being conducted on how John Locke influenced the declaration of independence, two crucial well informed sources were found. “The Political Philosophy of John Locke, and Its Influence on the Founding Fathers and the Political Documents They Created", published by Chuck Braman, contained various information on documentations rewritten from Locke’s perspective. However, it only summarized central arguments presented in “A letter concerning toleration” followed by the arguments presented in the “ Two Treatise on civil government”.
Friedenwald, Herbert. The Declaration of Independence: An Interpretation and an Analysis. New York: Da Capo Press, 1974.
Faulkner, William. “A Rose For Emily.” An Introduction to Fiction. 10th ed. Eds: X.J. Kennedy and Dana Gioia. New Yorkk: Pearson Longman, 2007. 29-34.
Rakove, Jack N. The Annotated U.S. Constitution and Declaration of Independence. Cambridge: Belknap Press of Harvard UP, 2009.
A popular contemporary graffiti artist, Banksy, creates intriguing and intricate designs for public display on regular and everyday streets. His rising popularity serves as a catalyst for the renowned importance of the attainability of visual literacy. Visual literacy is the ability to understand and interpret the message of a visual image or object, and having this skill is becoming increasingly important in todays culture. According to Zemliansky, the first crucial step towards developing visual literacy is to treat visual messages as text and arguments. Although the message of most visual images are ambiguous, it is still logical to surmise that different ideas can stem from one image because of our varying perception due to varying experiences,
Faulkner, William. "A Rose for Emily." The Norton Anthology of Short Fiction. Shorter 5th ed. Ed. R.V.Cassill. New York: W.W. Norton & Comp., 1995.
This method of displaying visual culture is accessible and can be displayed to a large variety of viewers…... Barnard (2001, p1-2) describes visual culture in a strong sense and “refers to the values and the identities”, this suggests that… Within visual culture this obtains qualities that are personal and unique to its viewer? In comparison it is a weak sense “the visual side”, includes a variety of both 2 and 3 dimensional work… This highlights the importance of visual culture within social lives and relationships? Within art and design….
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.
Visual literacy is the ability to find meaning in image. Often we walk by many advertisements and pictures and take them for granted. Now a day’s information is given more in both words and images and it is essential that students develop the skills so they have an understanding of what the images are portraying. Visual literacy is very important because you can help kids or adults better clarify images or media that they might come across. For example, when a baby is born and while growing up, the child has to learn and recognize qualities or features to help them understand objects.
Visual culture “involves the things that we see, the mental model we all have of how to see and the things we can do as a result.” (Mirzoeff, How to See the World Pg.10). Visual culture doesn’t just involve what we see, it also involves how we interpret what we’re seeing. We interpret what we’re seeing based on our previous knowledge and previous experiences.
Visual literacy can be defined as a way of using sight to evaluate, apply or create. Education, art history, art criticism, philosophy, graphic designers and more use the term “Visual Literacy” to mean different things. The term is widely contested throughout the art world. Wikipedia defines it as “The ability to interpret negotiate, and make meaning, from information presented in the form of an image (Visual Literacy, 2011).” There are many definitions used to define the term and all are lacking, it’s like trying to put ten pounds into a two pound sack. No one definition will suffice to encompass the whole scope of what visual literacy means.