Symbols In A Rose For Emily
In "A Rose for Emily", William Faulkner tells the story of a lonely lady who is stuck in her own timeframe. She has a controlling father who dies, and after, she never finds a way to lead her own life. The people of the town feel sorry for her lost and her miserable life. She soon begins dating a young bachelor by the name of Homer Barron, whom is part of the construction company paving sidewalks on her street. Emily and Homer begin taking buggy rides together, which is a sign of them getting emotionally closed. Things change quickly and Miss Emily is seen less with Homer, and she is witnessed purchasing arsenic from the local drug store. Eventually no more is seen of Homer, and Miss Emily dies at age seventy-four. After Miss Emily
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When he dies, she does not know what to do and she keeps his body for a short time, the world around her is maturing, but she is not. Faulkner uses a very particular symbol of this in one of his opening paragraphs. "A small fat women in black, with a thin gold chain descending to her waist and vanishing into her belt" (629). Time is not in eye sight for her. Time has "vanished into her belt", where she cannot see it. Miss Emily is lost and she only knows one way to act like. Later on she meets Homer Barron. He is a bachelor of some sorts, and he is a simple construction worker. When Falkner writes that [Homer] “himself had remarked-he liked men” (632) he is suggesting that he is everything that she should not be doing. Homer is just using her to cover his prohibited sexual desire. As the story progresses, Homer starts spending less and less time with Miss Emily, and they break up. Miss Emily wants nothing more than to marry Homer; she even goes and buys a wedding outfit for him. However, he is not of the marrying type and has no intentions on marrying her. The only way she can keep Homer is by killing him, and so she does. The author describes the outcome of her actions when he writes: "Then we noticed that in the second pillow was the indentation of a head. [And on it lay a] long strand of iron-gray hair" (634). She lay next to Homer's dead body until she could no longer do so. Faulkner wants the reader to understand that she poisons him, because for her, this is how she stops
When he dies, she does not know what to do and she keeps his body for a short time, the world around her is maturing, but she is not. Faulkner uses a very particular symbol of this in one of his opening paragraphs. "A small fat women in black, with a thin gold chain descending to her waist and vanishing into her belt" (629). Time is not in eye sight for her. Time has "vanished into her belt", where she cannot see it. Miss Emily is lost and she only knows one way to act like. Later on she meets Homer Barron. He is a bachelor of some sorts, and he is a simple construction worker. When Falkner writes that [Homer] “himself had remarked-he liked men” (632) he is suggesting that he is everything that she should not be doing. Homer is just using her to cover his prohibited sexual desire. As the story progresses, Homer starts spending less and less time with Miss Emily, and they break up. Miss Emily wants nothing more than to marry Homer; she even goes and buys a wedding outfit for him. However, he is not of the marrying type and has no intentions on marrying her. The only way she can keep Homer is by killing him, and so she does. The author describes the outcome of her actions when he writes: "Then we noticed that in the second pillow was the indentation of a head. [And on it lay a] long strand of iron-gray hair" (634). She lay next to Homer's dead body until she could no longer do so. Faulkner wants the reader to understand that she poisons him, because for her, this is how she stops