Biography 

• 1897-1962

• Along with Twain, O'Connor, Welty, etc considered one of our cherised Southern writers

• Most of his stories take place in the south, specifically Mississippi

• 1949 Nobel Winner

• Most known for the novels As I Lay Dying and Sound & The Fury

• Often uses stream of conciousncess ala other modernist writers like Virginia Woolf

• Very gothic and often detailed and cerebral (S&TF)   

Journal

• Although A Rose For Emily is narrated in the first person, the narrator is not "I" but "we." The narrator, thus, represents a communal rather than an individual point of view. How does the narrator, and the town, view Miss Emily? Find a passage that represents more than one view of her and explain their significance.   

About

• A Rose for Emily takes place in the south, in a city known as Jefferson. The story takes place during post-slavery, reconstruction, era.  

Summary

• The story starts off at Miss Emily’s funeral, where the men felt obligated to go and the women only went to see the inside of her house. Miss Emily was not well liked or known in her town before she died. She was described as a “hereditary obligation to the town.” 
• The town was becoming more modern; more Politian’s moved in, it was being revamped with garages, cotton gins, etc and becoming less like it used to be.

• Emily’s father was very controlling over her. He chased “all the young men away” and when he died she didn’t want to admit it to herself and denied it for four days. She also struggled with the decision to have the body removed from her home. After he died she really didn’t have anyone.

• As the town became more industrialized, a man named Homer Barron moved into the town as a day laborer. Homer was well liked by the people in town but he was a Yankee and not on the same social class as Emily. However, they seemed to like each other and would often be spotted around town together. This caused people in the town to gossip about them.

• Emily was known as the loner of the town. Over the decades of her life time, she steadily spends more and more time at her home and very rarely ever leaves her house.

• When she met Homer, she started to leave her house more and people started to suspect that they were going to get married. However, Homer clearly states that he isn’t “marriage material” and the narrator even hints that he might be homosexual.

• Emily goes to the store and tries to buy arsenic. The man behind the counter asks the standard question of why she’s buying it. She just gives him a look and he allows her to her buy it. Everyone in town believes she is going to kill herself with it and the narrator implies that most people in the town would be relieved if she did.

Questions?

• Consider point of view again: Why would Faulkner tell this story from a first person "we" source?
• How does this affect how you respond to Miss Emily?

• How about the narrator's knowledge?

• How objective is the narrator? Where does the narration change from objective to more subjective?

Analysis

• New generation refuses to be lenient towards her in regards to taxes, smells, etc 
• This kind of relates to the allegory of the cave by Plato. Everything around her is changing, and not the way she wants it too. She tries to control what is happening to her and the fear/other negative feelings she is having by doing the things she does throughout her life time. She isn’t strong enough to preserver through the fear to find or believe the truth and move on with her life and the rest of the world/reality. So she cocoons herself inside her home and doesn’t leave it, because that’s the way she wanted things and that’s the way she was used to it being. 

Characters

Emily

• Emily belongs to a wealthy, well known, and high-class family. *note*: mental illness runs in Emily’s family.

• Emily was described as being a “fallen monument”. She was referred to as this because people admired her because of her status; however, they also questioned her because of her erratic behavior. She was the "last of her kind," as generations shift ala A and P.

• When Emily was younger, she lived in one of the best houses “set on what had once been our most select street”. Over the decades the house was steadily decaying with the town, the way it used to be.

• Emily is very controlling. She was controlled by her father her whole life until his death. She tried to control him after his death by not coming to terms with his death for four days. She tried to control her home buy leaving it the way it was and not putting up the numbers on the side of her house when postal mail was developed, as well as the rest of the town. She also tried to control the situation of her taxes by making the decision not to pay them. Then she tries to control Homer by slipping him the “rat poison” and eventually killing him so he won’t reject her or leave her side.  

Symbolism

• Hair on pillow next to Homer's corpse showed Emily would lay next to his corpse. 
• Toby symbolizes Emily's reclusivness. He doesn't speak; he is only seen doing Emily's chores.
• A lot of color in the story. 

Theme

Gender

• Men attend funeral out of obligation, while the women attend out of curiosity and gossip

Point of View

• "We" narrates the story
• "We" represents the town's opinions as a whole
• Narrator gives story the feel of subjective gossip
• The narration gets younger as it goes on.  
• Town views Emily with suspicion, pity, and felt she was almost alien in nature 
• The town's feelings represent feelings toward the North. 

Irony

Ending

Adaptations

Wordle

Video

Bibliography

Previous Paper Topics

1. Another issue that has come up from time to time (A & P, A Rose For Emily, The Garden of Forking Paths, The Yellow Wallpaper) is how the credibility of the narrator (not to be confused with the author) affects close reading. Pick at least one of these stories, but perhaps more, and write about how narrator credibility is used to affect how point of view influences our close reading in the course so far. A side issue you might want to deal with is how narrator credibility influences how point of view affects how we close read for what an author is trying to convey in a story.
2. An issue we have seen come up again and again is the role of shifting generational values and how they affect the text. This can been seen, so far, in A Rose For Emily, A & P, and The Lottery. Pick at least one of these stories, but perhaps more, and write about how shifting generational values are used to affect one of the themes which we have covered in the course so far. 
3. An issue we have discussed is how misinterpretation of facts, or events, can lead to various choices being made (The Yellow Wallpaper, The Gospel According To Mark, A Rose For Emily, etc). Pick at least one of these stories, but perhaps more, and write about how misinterpretation is used to affect one of the themes which we have covered in the course so far. 
4. Point of view has been a major factor of discussion in a number of stories we have read (The Yellow Wallpaper, Garden of Forking Paths,The Ones Who Walk Away From Omelas, A Rose For Emily) so far this semester. Write a paper where you engage with how point of view influences our close reading in the course so far. How does who a writer decides the story's point of view will be from affect what "version" of the story you hear? A side issue you might want to deal with is how narrator credibility influences how point of view affects how we close read for what an author is trying to convey in a story. 
5. Something we have spent a fair amount of time in class discussing is what the role of ignorance is in the stories we have read so far. This could include The Yellow Wallpaper, The Parable of the Prodigal Son, and A Rose For Emily. How is ignorance portrayed, or perceived, in these, or other, stories? Write a paper where you engage with how the theme of ignorance influences our close reading in the course so far using at least one, if not more, of these stories. 
6. An issue we have seen a lot this semester is how "mob mentalities" play out in the various stories we have read. We have seen this inYoung Goodman Brown, The Ones Who Walk Away From Omelas, Harrison Bergeron, A Rose For Emily, and The Yellow Wallpaper. Write a paper where you engage with the symbolic nature of mob mentalities. What is the significance of mobs in the stories? What is being conveyed symbolically by them?
7. In some of the stories we have read this semester, women have ended up isolated and, often, mentally ill because of patriarchal influences on them. This has been especially apparent in A Rose For Emily and The Yellow Wallpaper. How are women isolated in these stories? Try and connect this to one of our themes from this semester so far. 
8. Point of view has been a major factor of discussion in a number of stories we have read (The Yellow Wallpaper,Garden of Forking Paths, The Ones Who Walk Away From Omelas, A Rose For Emily) so far this semester. Write a paper where you engage with how point of view influences our close reading in the course so far. How does whoa writer decides the story's point of view will be from affect what "version" of the story you hear? A side issue you might want to deal with is how narrator credibility influences how point of view affects how we close read for what an author is trying to convey in a story.  
9. Something we have spent a fair amount of time in class discussing is what the role of ignorance is in the stories we have read so far. This could include The Yellow Wallpaper, The Parable of the Prodigal Son, and A Rose For Emily. How is ignorance portrayed, or perceived, in these, or other, stories? Write a paper where you engage with how the theme of ignorance influences our close reading in the course so far using at least one, if not more, of these stories.  
10. An issue we have seen a lot this semester is how "mob mentalities" play out in the various stories we have read. We have seen this in Young Goodman Brown, The Ones Who Walk Away From Omelas, Harrison Bergeron, A Rose For Emily, and The Yellow Wallpaper. Write a paper where you engage with the symbolic nature of mob mentalities. What is the significance of mobs in the stories? What is being conveyed symbolically by them?