A Rose For Emily by William Faulkner

November 11, 2009 bethanyvball12

The story A Rose for Emily by William Faulkner is written in third person and I identified a few different themes.  The death of Emily demonstrates on how much the culture is shaped around identity and how generations leads to traditions but also change. The way the narrator portrays the story allows us to see how diverse the human environment can be by stepping out of our own personal comfort one and identities.  Emily Grierson  is a mysterious, peculiar woman who attacks the community with her death because it is their one chance to get to know who the Emily Grierson really is. The story in told in an unique way in which the reader gets an array of different point of views from the members of the town. Each point of view utilizes flashbacks or stories from different people and their impressions they had on Emily. The stories not only differ but don’t tend to follow any specific order or time sequence. This adds character and depth to the story by having the story a series of recollections and memories rather than a structured, predictable story line. As much curiosity there is surrounding Emily her house also attracts many questions from the town.  No one except for a servant, gardener, and cook had seen the inside of her house for the last 10 years. The house also attracts attention because it sticks out like a sore thumb on her street. It was described as an “eyesore of all eyesores”. The house gave off a depressing mood and also screamed death; similar to Emily’s appearance.  The last thing I really thought about while reading this story is how he story, A Rose For Emily, got its name. Although a rose is not mentioned in the story I had a few ideas how a rose could by symbolized in the story. Many times roses are sued at funerals to pay respect to the dead but to also disguise the smell of death. A rose also symbolizes love, something Ms. Emily desperately wanted but never got the chance to have. Looking at a deeper level a rose is a beautiful flower surrounded by sharp thorns. This could have symbolized her father protecting her from taxes, bad choices, and bad men. The thorns prevented the rose from ever being picked.

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