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.
Category Archives: Week 2
A Rose for Emily
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.
Discussion “A Story of a Hour” and “A Jury of her Peers”
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.
Tableau
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.”
Sibilant
Sibilant – having, containing, or producing the sound of or a sound resembling that of the s or the sh in sash.
http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/sibilant
Located on the fifth page of “A Rose for Emily” 2nd paragraph; third line. It was used as an adjective in the sentence describing what Emily’s aunts were doing during the funeral.
With the crayon face of her father musing profoundly above the bier and the ladies sibilant and macabre.
I took sibilant to perhaps have meant in mourning. The word sibilant in actuality means to speak in hushed voices. I could then go on to imagine that they may have been gossiping in hushed voices during the wake.
