Category Archives: Classwork

Homework, Week 2

Analysis of Power “A Rose For Emily”

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In order to write an analysis on power one must first know the definition. Power is the right to control the lives of people and objects. We know by the narration of “A Rose for Emily” that the Grierson last name had control in the town of Jefferson. She was able to get away with not paying taxes. According to Emily she didn’t owe any taxes. The tax collectors were swiftly escorted out by Tobe her servant, which proves she’s used to getting her way. Another example of Emily’s power was from the rotten smell coming from her home. The Mayor was hesitant to approach Emily with any concerns so instead he took it upon himself and had her yard disenfected with lemons.

The people of Jefferson feared Emily for some reason unfortunately we dont get any facts or inside Emily’s mind. Her life affected theirs. She isolated herself from society people were assuming she was going to kill herself. When Homer Barron came into town Emily resurfaced, that had the town on edge. Some ladies went to the church to inform the congregation that unwed Emily was hanging around with a man, becoming a bad example to the young people. She enjoyed Homer’s company, she did so much she never let him leave continuing her power and control in the story. Homer was powerless he was just enjoying his time with a women and his life was taken away because Emily didnt allow him to leave.

We know Emily poisoned Homer because of her outside affairs, she went to the doctor and asked for arsenic and Homer was never seen again. Well that was until Emily died. When news went around that Emily passed people were once again curious. Some went to her home to pay their respects and look around the home that no one has seen for decades. They entered Emily’s bedroom a corpse was found and beside the corpse was a pillow with a head imprint and a gray strand of hair. Emily was sleeping with a dead man’s body.

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Week 2

A Rose for Emily

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The best representation of who has power in the story is in section 4. In this section the story is told in the point of view of the people that live in the town and the person who has all the power is Emily because the towns people saw Emily with Homer Barron and when they found out they were not marrying they forced the Baptist minister to go interview Emily.

“Then some of the ladies began to say that it was a disgrace to the town and a bad example to the young people. The men did not want to interfere, but at last the ladies forced the Baptist minister–Miss Emily’s people were Episcopal– to call upon her. He would never divulge what happened during that interview, but he refused to go back again. The next Sunday they again drove about the streets, and the following day the minister’s wife wrote to Miss Emily’s relations in Alabama.”

This shows that Emily holds the power because the town people sent a Baptist minister to her in effort to call her out, but since Emily was Episcopal (meaning that Emily has relation to a church that is control of a Bishop) the Baptist could not do anything to her. Another part that shows the towns people have no power is when after they failed with the Baptist, the Baptist’s wife had to write the Emily’s relatives who lived in Alabama to go over to Emily.

Through out the entire section 4 it talks about Emily and her relationship with Homer Barron and gives hints on how Emily has the power in the relationship between them. the first hint is when the towns people assume that they were getting married, but Homer said that they were not getting married. It was shown later that even though Homer did not want to get married, Emily had a different mindset on that and was preparing for the wedding by buying a ring and suit for Homer.

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Discussion, Week 2

A Rose for Emily

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A Rose for Emily by William Faulkner tells the story of Miss Emily, before and after her death. At first I was confused how the story was being told because 1) I was reading in a noisy environment and 2) It sounded to me that they were going straight into her past life without a clear transition. But that’s just me. Anyways, this story is divided into 5 sections in which the first takes place in Miss Emily’s funeral. I liked the imagery of the house because it makes us feel as  readers, like we’re in there. Moving on forward, Miss Emily was known as the person who never went outside. She was pretty much a hermit. The reason being is that her father died and she probably doesn’t have anything to look up to anymore thus making her lock herself at home. However, Miss Emily didn’t want to accept that and went on with life with the thought of her father still being alive. Although she knew he was dead, she didn’t want to accept it which makes us think that she is “coo-coo” . This idea foreshadows later on because it was said that she suffered from an illness. Further in the story, she meets the soon to be popular, Homer Barron in which is the start of some form of love. However, she is later seen buying arsenic. Now this part showed some interest to me because it had a mystery feel to it. “Why is she buying poison?” ” What is she thinking?” “Who or what is she planning to use it on?” And the big question, “Is she going to kill herself?” Eventually, Homer and Miss Emily go off without word and it was assumed that they got hitched. Skipping the aging section of Miss Emily, after her death, Homer was found decayed on the bed of Miss Emily’s home with a lock of her gray hair thus ending the story.

To me, the story was pretty interesting. It kept me thinking even with background noise. As I mentioned earlier, questions came up especially during the poison purchase. “Why is she buying poison?” ” What is she thinking?” “Who or what is she planning to use it on?” I think now my questions have been answered and I think that she used the poison to kill Homer Barron. I can relate this story to “A Jury of Her Peers” by Susan Glaspell because the outcomes of each story were very similar or assumingly very similar (If she really did kill Homer). One thing I forgot to mention was that Homer brought nothing but trouble to Miss Emily because he was a reason why people looked down on her. So like “Jury of Her Peers”, the Homer/Emily relationship wasn’t too healthy leading to one spouse killing another.

 

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Week 2

A Rose for Emily

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A rose for Emily is a story about a woman with a mental illness. She obviously had trouble coping with reality, and couldn’t come to terms with the issues she was presented with. The story gives us a few examples of this.

When she was presented with her tax notices, and even called upon by the sheriff’s office, she paid no heed. Even when they came to her house and explained how there was no reason for her not to pay taxes, her reality held strong and what she believed in was simply the truth. When her father passed she refused to accept it, saying he was still alive. Only after three days  did she finally  give in and allow for his burial.

Then Homer Barron came along. She finally had someone in her life again, and now her father wouldn’t be diving him away as he had done to suitors in the past. She probably saw this as her last chance not to be alone, and must have been heartbroken when she found out he was “not a marrying man”. But, she would not accept it. She took matters into her own hands and ensured that her reality prevailed.

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Glossary, Uncategorized, Week 2

Bier

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Bier   noun

  1. a table or platform on which a coffin or dead body is placed at a funeral

A Rose for Emily, Part 5 Paragraph 2

 

“they held the funeral on the second day, with the town coming to look at Miss Emily beneath a mass of bought flowers, with the crayon face of her father musing profoundly above the bier and the ladies sibilant and macabre; and the very old men…”

Reading the story, I figured the word bier meant mantle,  this certainly paints a different picture.

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Glossary, Week 2

Virulent

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Virulent

“A Rose for Emily” by William Faulkner

page 5 of 7, line 37

to speak in a strong manner; to be harsh

http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/virulent

as if that quality of her father which had thwarted her woman’s life so many times had been too virulent (harsh) and too furious to die

Example

The child’s father spoke in a virulent manner to prevent the child from misbehaving.

 

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Week 2

A Response to David Streitfeld’s blog

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In response to Streitfild’s blog, I must say that I completely agree with his actions and statements. In the story A Rose for Emily we see a woman by the name of Emily Grierson that was raised by her father’s views and teachings which she harshly displayed with great pride in her later years. Even though these lessons caused dramatic set backs in her love life, she refused to change. The story took place in the late 1800’s; a time when freedom was not widely known by the African ethnicity. This now brings up a controversial topic that is still troblesome until this day. The word nigger and it’s use in this text. The word nigger today is deeply frowned upon by countless people in many ways and for diverse reasons. In David Streitfeld’s blog he discussed the use of the word rigger in replacement for the word nigger. Rigger is used to define a person or a company that is highly experienced with lifting or arranging large or very heavy objects. The use of this word makes sense because it basically describes the job description, for the most part, of the African ethnicity of that time in history. The reason it can not be used is simply because it banishes the history of the word all together. This now brings up some interesting thoughts; how do we shield future generations from the use of such a word or should they be shielded at all. Looking at society today we can clearly see how this word is rooted deeply in the entertainment world of music, movies and games to the education of students learning about American History. The thought of shielding this word resembles someone running away from their shadow; you simply can not get away. In my view, changing the word nigger in this text may only create questions and curiousity about the word which defeats the purpose of the intial change. In today’s society the only thing more affective than changing the word nigger to rigger is purely, maturity. This may be more easily said than done, especially towards a younger generation of readers. This is where the maturity of our society, as a whole, has to play it’s roll. This is done by setting an example for future generations which includes unity and understanding for one another that is not only spoken but practiced world wide by each individual.

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Homework, Week 2

A Rose for Emily

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I found both stories, “A Rose for Emily” and “A Jury of Her Peers” to have more similarities than differences. Both the mood and time period seem to be about the same. Both narrators seem to be somewhat sympathetic to the women and their plights. They paint Emily and Mrs. wright to be delicate, and fragile round characters that suffer despite the crime they have committed.  As a reader I couldn’t help but feel sad for both women. Mrs. Wright’s crime  seems somewhat more predictable in her actions after suffering years of abuse from her husband. Emily, on the other hand, seems to have suffered from insanity which my evoked sympathy while reading the story, as mental illness is a disease. Her crime was suspected towards the end of the story, but still shocking to see the climax and the falling action. Both settings seem similar. Mrs. Wright’s abuse was acknowledged and overlooked, as was more the case then than it would be today. Homer Barton’s treatment of his workers, and his disrespectful and derogatory use of the n word, was commonly used to refer to African Americans in that time period which is now far and beyond socially acceptable in today’s society.

The one difference that I did think about was the different outcomes that both these women had, though both killed the men that they once loved. For Emily; her ending was final and filled with sadness. She died having never truly lived, or receiving the love that she wanted so badly from Homer.

Mrs. Wright, on the other hand, may have had a different ending. If the sheriff and young Henderson could not find substantial motive and proof, it is quite possible that she may go free, and go on to live the life that she couldn’t while married to an abusive husband. She may yet find love, peace, and redemption.

As far as the power dynamics in the story. It comes across that the men in Emily’s life seem to hold power over her. Her life’s happiness and her choices have revolved around both her father and Homer Barron.

“None of the young men were quite good enough for Miss Emily and such”.

She waited to get married, and was her father’s companion. Perhaps, he meant for her not to get married and leave his side. Why had she not protested when she had more suitors? Homer was her last attempt to have the life in which her father had interfered. When it was apparent that he would not marry her, she took power back, one can say. She poisoned him, and held him captive in her house, and  held his body there. She held him to her in the way that her father had held her to him. Maybe that one act was the one thing that she had taken control of, horrendous and crazy as it was, she grabbed power and control in whatever way she thought how.

When she purchased that arsenic, she showed her resolve and fierceness, she didn’t get nervous or cower before that pharmacist.

“Miss Emily just stared at him, her head tilted back in order to look him eye for eye, until he looked away and went ingot the arsenic and wrapped it up”.

In that moment she got what she wanted and went on to do what she had decided. That is having power.

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Discussion, Week 2

Discussion “A Story of a Hour” and “A Jury of her Peers”

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The two stories  many similarites and differences. Similarites are main characters are women. Women that live in the shadows of their husbands and are liberated by their deaths. Differences are one husband died in an accident the other died at the hands of his wife. We read each story from two point of views and get invloved in the chararcters lives differently.

in “A Jury of her Peers” we know Mrs. Wright from Mrs. Hale and Mrs. Peters. No one really knew Mrs. Wright’s current life just what she once was and where she is at the moment. From Mrs. Hale’s knowledge of Mrs. Wright we know she was a vibrant young women who was polite and cared how she looked. From Mrs. Peter’s knowledge Mrs.Wright is in a cold jail cell only asking for her apron, as if its a secruity blanket. We don’t get any facts just what others recall regarding Mrs. Wrights life. It would’ve been nice to get inside her head to know what happened and why. We only know he’s gone.

In “A Story of a Hour” we personally get to know Louise. We were inside her mind, we felt her emotions and saw what she saw. We as the readers felt distraught with her regarding her husbands death, the we were happy with the world outside her window and her current freedom. She was ready to go outside and breathe the fresh air until her husband opened the door and she died. The story says she died of joy, but we know the facts and she died because her hunsband didn’t.

Both stories “A Jury of her Peers” and “A Story of a Hour” are set inside the homes of the wives. Mrs Wright’s life just by the visual of her home was disorganized and in an eerie part of town. Unlike Mrs. Wright’s house Louise’s house was full of life and possibility. I symathize with both ladies. Mrs.Wright probably had a difficult life from being with someone who no one cared for, she made sure she would be free. Louise was free by a tragic accident yet she saw potential in her new life long years became a life full of joy she was free of having the same everyday life, she died in order to contunue to live free.

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Glossary, Week 2

Tableau

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Tableau – a view or sight that looks like a picture

Found in “A Rose For Emily” 2nd section.
“That was when people had begun to feel really sorry for her. People in our town, remembering how old lady Wyatt, her great-aunt, had gone completely crazy at last, believed that the Griersons held themselves a little too high for what they really were. None of the young men were quite good enough for Miss Emily and such. We had long thought of them as a tableau, Miss Emily a slender figure in white in the background, her father a spraddled silhouette in the foreground, his back to her and clutching a horsewhip, the two of them framed by the back-flung front door. So when she got to be thirty and was still single, we were not pleased exactly, but vindicated; even with insanity in the family she wouldn’t have turned down all of her chances if they had really materialized.”

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