Jackie Lenhart
English 114
“A Rose for Emily” Reading Response
In the event of Emily Grierson’s death, much talk arises from the towns people. William Faulkner uses flashbacks between the past and present to paint the story of Emily’s life. At first glance she was portrayed as a very secretive, stubborn woman. This made it very easy for her to become the talk of the town. Her father was a stickler, never letting her to experience life, he wanted to keep her cooped up. His intentions were to keep her all to himself so he wouldn’t be alone. Once he passed, she had no one but her servant until a northerner Homer Barron came to town. She fell in love with him, and there was talk of them getting married, however, he disappeared from the picture. By the end of the story Faulkner reveals that Emily had murdered Homer and kept his decayed body locked away in her upstairs room.
My initial response left me in shock. I thought I had everything all figured out until the end. Faulkner totally threw in a kicker, that is for sure. This story left me with many mixed emotions. For instance, in one aspect I can see how her father would lead her to feel torn between his decree and learning to fall in love. In my opinion she was scared and when she met the love of her life she did what she was taught, get rid of him. Sure it was very extreme, but I feel that she dealt with her sin the only way she knew how, hold it in. Yet, I could see how maybe she was flat out crazy. Either way, there was something not right going on in that mind of hers. I also found it interesting how many antagonistic characters there could be. It could be the townspeople, Emily herself, her father, Homer Barron, or even the element of time/ inability to comprehend change, the choice is up to how the reader interprets it I suppose.
For my article I chose “Faulkner’s A ROSE FOR EMILY” by Laura Getty. This article was a debate of what the “rose”, in the title, actually stood for. She starts out by saying...