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11/18 questions on short story 4, "A Rose for Emily"
November 18, 2021 at 1:35 pm #75755

Prof. Masiello
Participant

Questions for discussion: reading 4 theme: Men and Women

Press Ctrl + click or cut and paste into your browser to open any hyperlinks for the stories.

4) A short story by William Faulkner called “A Rose for Emily”:

http://xroads.virginia.edu/~drbr/wf_rose.html

a) Notice the descriptions of Emily at the beginning, when she is elderly.
Can you find a metaphor or a simile there? (You need to know the difference between those two
“figures of speech” meant to be taken figuratively, not literally.) When you say someone
is a pig, you do not mean it literally. The same is when you say to someone you eat like a
bird. It is not meant literally.

The description of her hair color is literal, real, and it
also becomes a significant detail at the very end.

b) Think of metaphors and similes you use in your own conversation. List a few.
It is a good thing for writers to use metaphors and similes!

c) Who is narrating this story (that is not the same as saying who wrote it)?

d) Notice that the narrator says in the first sentence, “When Miss Emily Grierson died, our
whole town went to her funeral: the men through a sort of respectful affection for a fallen
monument, the women mostly out of curiosity to see the inside of her house […].

Is this a criticism of women’s values or priorities? Is the portrayal of Emily a criticism?

e) When she bought arsenic, what did the townspeople think?

f) Homer was the one man that Emily seemed to care about.

Why did people think poorly
of him? (It may have to do with geography…)

g) At the end, what do people find in the locked room? What exactly happened?

h) Did you notice the line: “When she had first begun to be seen with Homer Barron, we
had said, ‘She will marry him.’ Then we said, “She will persuade him yet,’ because
Homer himself had remarked–he liked men, and it was known that he drank with the
younger men in the Elks’ Club–that he was not a marrying man”?

Did it mean anything to you at first?

Does it mean anything in retrospect?

i) Considering all that the author writes about Emily, do you think he, William Faulkner, is
showing bias against women?
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November 23, 2021 at 8:00 pm #75825
Jaheim Wilson
Participant
1) A metaphor I notice is how the men compare Emily to a “Fallen Monument” or when they called her a tradition, a duty, and a care.

Let’s see if any classmates find the unattractive descriptions of her appearance, as well.

2) Some common similes and metaphors I hear in conversation are: “Busy as a bee”, “As strong as an ox”, “These pants fit like a glove”, “Love is a battlefield”, “Your the light of my life”, etc.

3) I believe a townsperson is narrating the story.

It seems to be a plural, perhaps several townspeople together, almost like the chorus in a Greek tragedy.

4) I believe this statement is criticizing women as being nosy. And Emily is a portrayal of a person who is stuck in the past and is unable to move to the future. Her ideologies and actions show this. This is why men view her as a monument or relic.

5) They believed she was going to commit suicide.

6) People thought of him badly because he was a homosexual and mainly because he was from the north.

Yes, the main criticism was he was a Northerner. As for his being gay, it wasn’t mentioned except as a throwaway line. It took me many readings before I thought about homosexuality. I just thought it was like a guy playing cards with other guys in an era when men and women were more separated in their interests. I also wonder if I had not brought the class’s attention to the line if anyone would have made that connection.

7) They end up finding Homer’s dead body. It was presumed he was murdered by Emily using the arsenic she bought earlier in the story. And based on the grey hairs on the pillow and the body’s position, it turns out Emily has been sleeping with his corpse for all those years until she died.

Yes.

8) It tells me that he is a homosexual. And that he has no romantic interest for Emily.

It seems no one can say “No” to Miss Emily.

9) Well knowing what happens at the end of the story, Emily’s “persuasion” becomes a lot more ominous and dark.

10) I believe the author is trying to say to not let past values cling to you when moving towards a brighter future. Emily acted this way in the story because of her father imposing values on her. For example, Emily wasn’t able to find a lover because her father believed no man was good enough for her. And Emily never paid taxes because her father made the mayor make up a fake story to make them exempt from taxes. Emily cannot move on from her past. It’s like she’s trapped in her own little bubble.

Nice work, Jaheim!
- This reply was modified 2 years, 4 months ago by Prof. Masiello.
December 5, 2021 at 8:06 pm #75953

Osman Hassan
Participant

a)Simile: “She looked bloated, like a body long submerged in motionless water, and of that pallid hue” (Faulkner).
Metaphor: “… a thin gold chain descending to her waist and vanishing into her belt” (Faulkner).

b)Simile: “Sly as a fox”
Metaphor: “Time is money”

c) It seems like the town as a collective is narrating the story

d)
This sounds like criticism for women, saying that they are nosy perhaps. This does not seem like criticism for Emily since nothing negative can be said about Emily from this quote other than she keeps to herself.

e) When she bought arsenic, what did the townspeople think?
They thought she was going to kill herself.

f) Homer was the one man that Emily seemed to care about.
Why did people think poorly of him?
‘”Of course a Grierson would not think seriously of a Northerner, a day laborer”’ (Faulkner). It seems as though being a Northerner or a day laborer are both looked down upon. This is most likely because they are seen as lower class.

g) At the end, what do people find in the locked room? What exactly happened?
They find the remains of Homer. It can be inferred that Emily was sleeping with Homer and poisoned him. Also, the fact that the pillow, which Emily presumably was using, had an indent means that Emily was most likely sleeping with the body regularly and even a little before she died.

h) Did you notice the line: “When she had first begun to be seen with Homer Barron, we
had said, ‘She will marry him.’ Then we said, “She will persuade him yet,’ because
Homer himself had remarked–he liked men, and it was known that he drank with the
younger men in the Elks’ Club–that he was not a marrying man”?

Did it mean anything to you at first?
Homer is gay.

Does it mean anything in retrospect?
Perhaps Emily poisoned him due to the fact that he did not want to be with her, so in spite, she in a way forced him to sleep with her until the day she died.

i) Considering all that the author writes about Emily, do you think he, William Faulkner, is
showing bias against women?
Emily is a foul character, and along with the comment implying that women are nosy (when the men could’ve been equally nosy), I believe he is biased against women in general.

December 7, 2021 at 3:14 pm #75981

matthewf
Participant

a) The metaphor is when they mentioned “Alive, Miss Emily had been a tradition, a duty, and a care;”.
b) Metaphor: The classroom was a zoo. Simile: You’re brave as a lion.
c) A person in the town is probably narrating the story.
d) I believe is a criticism of women when they’re curious about some things. I don’t think it was a criticism to Emily because she took things more seriously and was not as nosy compare to others and that’s why many people respect her.
e) They thought she was going to commit suicide.
f) I guess the reason why they hated him is that he was from the northerner.
g) In the locked room the people found Homer’s dead body. Seems like Emily was with Homer’s dead body all along since she did mention poisoning someone.
h) It shows that he likes men of his own kind and has no interest in Emily at all. Well since Emily has murdered Homer it is more like is really dark knowing that all these years she has been hiding something from others.
i) Well Emily in the story is basically where she can’t do much since she didn’t get what she wanted like love and then show where she ends up killing someone to actually stay with them is something that I think the author is showing bias against women.

December 11, 2021 at 9:24 am #76041

Tatiana
Participant

Similes “she looked bloated, like a body submerged in motionless water” also “the fatty ridges of her face looked like two small pieces of coal pressed into a lump of dough”

Flat as a pancake
Fishing for compliments

I think the people in the town are narrating it feels like you’re reading gossip from a bunch of people. Especially since the perspective keeps changing.

I think this is most definitely a criticism of women’s values because throughout the story the women were just being shady towards Emily.

The townspeople thought she was finally going to kill herself.

They thought so badly of him because he was a northerner.

They found out Emily killed Homer to sleep with his body. She even made a special room for the corpse that looked like a bridal room. Also feel she killed him because he was gay.

I did notice the line and it was odd that they thought she could persuade him not to be gay.

It shows how desperate she is like he doesn’t even like women. Not only that but she felt comfortable laying with a corpse that’s who she showed affection towards.

I think it has more to do with moving on because it seems Emily’s life went downhill. She didn’t know how to move from her father’s death. But also allowed him to take control of her life. If she had just done her own thing, to begin with. She wouldn’t have had to force a man to cuddle with her.

December 17, 2021 at 9:35 pm #76131

Dmitry Terentyev
Participant

(a) Simile that I found in Emily’s description is while describing her eyes, “Her eyes, lost in the fatty ridges of her face, looked like two small pieces of coal pressed into a lump of dough”.
(b) Metaphors: 1- you are my sunshine. 2- Apple of my eye.
Simile: Silent as the grave.
(c) Narrator of the story has not been identified by the writer. However, the constant use of “we” while narrating the story, it can be deduced that the narrator is someone who is residing in the town and observing everything keenly.
(d) Men considering her a “fallen monument” and women’s curiosity to see the inside of the house which was not being taken care of by Emily suggest that writer intends criticism towards women who do not spend all of their time in keeping everything organized in their house.
(e) They thought Emily will commit suicide and it will be the best decision for everyone.
(f) Homer was a Northerner and people thought poorly of Northerners and called them day laborers.
(g) It seems like people found they dead body of Homer on the bed who was presumably murdered by Emily using the arsenic. The “indentation of a head” and “a long strand of iron-gray hair” suggest that Emily had been lying alongside Homer’s dead body.
(h) It is clear on first read that Homer is homosexual and upon thinking about these lines in retrospect, I believe he is not ready for any serious commitments.
(i) Faulkner’s bias against women can be well observed in his writing. For example, when explaining that Colonel Sartoris invented a truth about Emily’s taxes, Faulkner writes that only a woman could have believed a lie like that, implying that women lack intelligence. Furthermore, the ladies suggesting that the reason of smell is that Emily has left all the work on a man, who can never keep a kitchen properly also points to Faulkner’s bias by suggesting that kitchen is only a woman’s responsibility.