Ms. Emily and Mama
From the two short stories “A Rose for Emily” by William Faulkner and “Everyday Use” by Alice Walker, comes along two characters that are somewhat relatable in a sense that they can be perceived as one but two individuals. Ms. Emily Grierson from “A Rose for Emily and Mama from "Everyday Use" can be seen as people who don't want to change to society's will and be within the 'crowd', just like how everybody else they already know has changed. These two characters portray how we can be perceived that it’s not likely easy to go back to a time when it was right for them but also a time that was only right for them as opposed to the rest that surrounded them, which for Emily and Mama don’t apply. The characters can be seen as people who are stuck in the past and either can’t get out of their own timeline or not taking a chance to change, regardless of the circumstances that come towards them.
From the view of Ms. Emily, she is a wonderful person whose ideas that might not apprehend a sane person. She can’t understand how everyone went with the flow and changed how they lived and instead Emily stayed behind, just as she argued with city officials on taxes in Jefferson:
‘I have no taxes in Jefferson’ […] ‘But we have. We are the city authorities, Miss Emily. Didn’t you get a notice from the sheriff…?’ […] ‘I received the paper, yes… Perhaps he considers himself the sheriff… I have no taxes in Jefferson.’ […] ‘But there is nothing on the books to show that, you see. We must go by the-‘ ‘See Colonel Sartoris. I have no taxes in Jefferson.’ ‘But, Miss Emily-‘ ‘See Colonel Sartoris.’ (Colonel Sartoris had been dead almost ten years.) ‘I have no taxes in Jefferson, Tobe!’ (Faulkner 205)
Emily is a self-contained person who only can think of the people who were in the past and couldn’t let it go as was with that augment. As opposed to Emily’s misfortune she continued to be someone she isn’t likely due to the fact that she couldn’t handle the pressure of...