HỒ NHƯ THUỶ
AV06
AMERICAN LITERATURE
Topic: Symbolism in the short story “A Rose for Emily”
William Faulkner’s “A Rose for Emily” is a wonderful short story that begins with the funeral of the main character, Miss Emily Grierson. Miss Emily Grierson is a desperately lonely woman. Miss Emily finds herself completely isolated from other people her entire life, yet somehow she manages to continue on with her head holds high. In “A Rose for Emily” by William Faulkner is remarkable tale of Miss Emily Grierson, whose funeral drew the attention of the entire population of Jefferson a small Southern town. In “A Rose for Emily” by William Faulkner, symbolism used very frequently through out the story. There are several different symbolic subject in this story such as Emily’s house, the rose…
The first, Miss Emily’s house is an important in this story. For most of the story, we, like the townspeople, only see Miss Emily’s house from the outside looking in.
The fact that the house was built in the 1870s tells us that Miss Emily's father must have been doing pretty well for himself after the Civil War. The narrator's description of it as an "eyesore among eyesores" is a double or even triple judgment. The narrator doesn't seem to approve of the urban sprawl. We also speculate that the house is an emblem of money probably earned in large part through the labors of slaves, or emancipated slaves. The final part of this judgment has to do with the fact that the house was allowed to decay and disintegrate.
For an idea of the kind of house Miss Emily lived in, take a look at artist Theora Hamblett's house in Mississippi, built, like Emily's, in the 1870. Now picture the lawn overgrown, maybe a broken window or two, the paint worn and chipping and you have a the creepy house that Emily lived in, and which the children of the "newer generation" probably ran past in a fright.
The house, as is often the case in scary stories, is also a symbol of the opposite of what...