Tag Archives: “A Rose for Emily”

Homework, Week 2

Power Dynamic with Life

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Choose (and include in your post) a passage or a few related passages that highlight some aspect of the power dynamics at play in the story. Who has power, who doesn’t, how do they interact, how to they negotiate their positions of powerfulness or lack of power?  Other factors to consider: how does narration style, point of view, setting, characterization or other elements of fiction play a role in the power dynamic you’re analyzing?  Much of what was raised in our online discussion touched on power, but in very different ways. If there is a different topic that you would like to address, either see how it intersects with this topic of power, or raise it in our discussion either on the site or in Wednesday’s class

The main character Emily has power, yet she can not help the things that happen in her life. This happens again and again in the story. In the beginning, Emily has the power to stop people from making her do something about her house smelling. This can be displayed with the Judge Stevens repeated failed to confront Emily about the house. Instead of talking to her like the neighbors suggested, he sent people to lime the house on her behalf. Later in the story, Emily has the power to refuse to pay tax (partly because of her father’s influence). She ‘vanquished them’ like she did for the smell.

Another example could be seen in this passage:

The druggist looked down at her. She looked back at him, erect, her face like a strained flag. “Why, of course,” the druggist said. “If that’s what you want. But the law requires you to tell what you are going to use it for.” Miss Emily just stared at him, her head tilted back in order to look him eye for eye, until he looked away and went and got the arsenic and wrapped it up. The Negro delivery boy brought her the package; the druggist didn’t come back. When she opened the package at home there was written on the box, under the skull and bones: “For rats.”

Even though the druggist knew for a fact nothing required something as strong as arsenic, Emily had the power to make the druggist give it to her anyways.

The only thing she was powerless for was when her father died, and her lover left her. In order to prevent this powerless feeling, she preserved Homer Barron’s love by keeping him by her side forever.

Even more so, people are always whispering about Emily, gossiping about Emily, and talking about Emily. The narration of the story focuses on Emily in a way that tells us that everyone in town also focuses on Emily. This gives the readers a feeling that she was a powerful person, and that she was important. The main power dynamic was between Emily and life.

Ultimately, this was an amazing read! Love the twist and the though provoking writing!

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Homework, Week 2

Analysis of Power in “A Rose for Emily”

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In “A Rose for Emily,” Miss Emily is shown to have more power than frailties. Miss Emily’s power is first seen with her not paying her taxes. During Colonel Sartoris lifetime, Miss Emily was “remitted” for her taxes (Page I, p.3). However, a decade had passed since the Colonel’s death and she still believed his made up story of her father “lending money to the town” (Page I, p.3). When tax notices were sent to her from a new generation of state officials, she refused to pay. The city authorities also came to her home to confront her for her unpaid taxes but she denied the charges and drove them out of her home by stating that “she had no taxes in Jefferson” (Page I, p.8). The taxes were meant for negro women that refused to wear an apron on the streets of Jefferson (Page I, p.3), however, in the time period this story was written, I do not believe Miss Emily could get away with not paying her taxes without getting arrested by the city officials. If Miss Emily was an African American in that period of racial divide and tension, she would be severally punished for not paying her taxes. However, Faulkner addressed Miss Emily as “Miss Emily,” he never called her a “negro or nigga” woman except for the black man that was her housekeeper/maid. So, a question still remains on whether Miss Emily was an African American? Because she got away with not paying taxes until the day she died.

Another way of seeing Miss Emily’s power is when her home started to reek of an unpleasant odor (Page II, p. 3-10). The smell was so bad that people in her town, including her eighty-year-old neighbor would complain to the town’s Judge (Page II, p.4). However, the state officials refused to confront Miss Emily openly, so, four unknown men living in the town secretly sprinkled lime in her cellar door and in all the outbuildings of her home to deodorize the smell (Page II, p.11).

Therefore, I am still unsure whether Miss Emily was an African American because the town did not treat her as an outcast of society (which African Americans were seen as in that time period) but of “a duty; a care, and a sort of hereditary obligation upon the town” (Page I, p.3). The town officials never threaten her with imprisonment, fines, or violations; they saw that they were coming on her territory and they were not allowed to cross. She was so impervious, that she even got away with murdering her unknown suitor (which I believe to be Homer Barron) with poison and keeping the dead corpse as her sense of disillusioned comfort. The only frailty that Miss Emily exhibits in the story was her father refusing her to have a mate. Her father would “drive every young man away from her,” (Page II, p.12) “causing her to still be single at age thirty” and all alone (Page II, p.12).

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Glossary, Week 2

Temerity

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Temerity, noun
1. excessive confidence or boldness; audacity.
2. rash or restless act

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

A Rose for EMily: Section II Paragraph 1, Page 2.
“After her father’s death she went out very little; after her sweetheart went away, people hardly saw her at all. A few of the ladies had the temerity to call, but were not received, and the only sign of life about the place was the Negro man, a young man then – going in and out with a market basket”

The sentence before says that she went out little and that no one saw her. Some ladies had the confidence to call her even though no one else dared to, just asking her servant for information.

 

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Glossary

macabre

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macabre (adj) – involving death or violence in a way that is strange, frightening, or unpleasant. (by Merriam Webster)

source: Merriam Webster. http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/macabre

Found in “A Rose for Emily” section 5, second paragraph, second sentence

Text: 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 –some in their brushed Confederate uniforms–on the porch and the lawn, talking of Miss Emily as if she had been a contemporary of theirs, believing that they had danced with her and courted her perhaps, confusing time with its mathematical progression, as the old do, to whom all the past is not a diminishing road but, instead, a huge meadow which no winter ever quite touches, divided from them now by the narrow bottle-neck of the most recent decade of years.

The town came to Miss Emily’s funeral. The old men were wearing Confederate uniforms and talking about Miss Emily as if they believe “they had danced with her and courted her.” And the ladies who came were talking in a hissing sound (sibilant) and in gruesome and terrifying way(macabre).

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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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Homework Instructions, Week 2

Blogging on “A Rose for Emily”

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After reading “A Rose for Emily” and others’ commentary on it on that New York Times blog, on Genius.com, and on our site, it’s time to write a focused blog post in which you analyze a passage or series of passages from the short story.

In particular, think about power in the story. Choose (and include in your post) a passage or a few related passages that highlight some aspect of the power dynamics at play in the story. Who has power, who doesn’t, how do they interact, how to they negotiate their positions of powerfulness or lack of power?

Other factors to consider: how does narration style, point of view, setting, characterization or other elements of fiction play a role in the power dynamic you’re analyzing?

Much of what was raised in our online discussion touched on power, but in very different ways. If there is a different topic that you would like to address, either see how it intersects with this topic of power, or raise it in our discussion either on the site or in Wednesday’s class

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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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Homework, Week 2

A Rose for Emily

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In section one, the narrator is at Emily Grieson’s funeral. He tells us the Grierson family’s presence and role in the town, saying that Emily’s father loaned money to the town and was exempted from paying taxes by Colonel Sartoris. After her fathers death, the town tried readmitting the tax on Emily, but Emily refused to pay, saying they should see Colonel Sartoris, not knowing he has died almost a decade ago. I started questioning Emily’s sanity at this point, solely because of the state of her home after her death, smelly and seemingly unkempt even though she had a helper,  and her not knowing the death of the man who allowed her family to go without paying taxes for so long for nearly ten years.

 

The narrator tells us how Emily never went outside of her home after the death of her father. The Grierson’s held themselves higher than everyone else and the town notice that, so when Emily lost her father, people thought Emily were finally at their “level”.

“Being left alone, and a pauper, she had become humanized”.

The women at the funeral noticed how smelly the house was but brushed it off, saying it was typical of a man to not know how to clean properly. The narrator recalled that members of the community went to Emily’s house after dark and sprayed lime juice in her cellar, because of the stench.  Even though she had a crazy aunt, the community didn’t call Emily crazy at the time.   Emily’s father was overbearing on her and never allowed her to interact with men.  Being Emily’s only interactions with a man, the town understood why she wasn’t acting ordinary.

Emily is seen buying poison for no specific reason. I assumed when the drug store assistant gives her the poison without any explanations, even though by law you need to say what you’ll be using it for, he might of thought she wanted to commit suicide and felt sorry for her, just like the majority of the community.

A reoccurring phrase that has been used ever since her father’s death is “Poor Emily”.  It was said in the beginning of section 4 when everyone thought Emily would end her own life, even though she was seen with Homer Barron. When word got around that she was buying certain items, such as a men’s suit and nightgown, they assumed Emily reconsidered and settled down with Homer. They didn’t see much of Emily or Homer afterwards, but no flags were risen because this was the first man besides her father Emily has ever been with to this degree and assumed they wanted to be left alone together.

Everyone discovers the dead body of Homer on Emily’s bed and a lock of Emily’s hair, implying that she has been sleeping with Homers body after he passed. I assume she killed him with the rat poison she purchased early in the story. The author kind of foreshadowed this by stating earlier  that Emily refused to accept the death of her father and had him in her house for three days before she was forced to bury him.

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Glossary

A Rose For Emily Homework

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Thwarted (verb)

(1) to oppose successfully; prevent from accomplishing a purpose.

(2) to frustrate or baffle (a plan, Purpose, etc.).

found in “A Rose for Emily” Part 4 paragraph 5

Then we knew that this was to be excepted too; as if that quality of her father which had thwarted her woman’s life so many times had been too virulent and too furious to die.

Emily’s father opposed all of the men in Emily’s life and she was never able to pursue a proper and healthy relationship and because of this it drove Emily to the point of insanity. Even once her father passed away she still was not able to pursue a proper relationship with Homer Barron and in the end went completely insane and killed him by giving him poison to drink.

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Glossary

Dispensation

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Dispensation (noun):

(1) a:  a general state or ordering of things; specifically:  a system of revealed commands and promises regulating human affairs

b:  a particular arrangement or provision especially of providence or nature

(2) a: an exemption from a law or from an impediment, vow, or oath

b : a formal authorization (Merriam-Webster)

Found on Page I, Paragraph 3 of “A Rose for Emily”–>“Alive, Miss Emily had been a tradition, a duty, and a care; a sort of hereditary obligation upon the town, dating from that day in 1894 when Colonel Sartoris, the mayor–he who fathered the edict that no Negro woman should appear on the streets without an apron-remitted her taxes, the dispensation dating from the death of her father on into perpetuity.”

I believe the word in this quote means that Colonel Sartorise exempted Miss Emily from paying taxes because her father was once seen as a person of prestige aristocratic upbringings.

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