A Rose Amongst Thorns: Faulkner's "A Rose for Emily" and Southern Reconstruction
Student 1234
Dr. Bill Ketchersid
Civil War
3 December 2013
A Rose Amongst Thorns: Faulkner 's "A Rose for Emily" and Southern Reconstruction Reconstruction after the Civil War lasted from 1865-1877. The Era of Reconstruction was a time of conflict for the Southern United States.1 Abraham Lincoln actually started making plans for reconstruction as early as December of 1863.2 On December 18, 1865, Congress formally abolished slavery. When Andrew Johnson became President after Lincoln was assassinated, he had his own plans for Reconstruction. He wanted the Confederate states to swear fealty to the United States and abolition before they would be readmitted.3 This made the Confederates rather upset. Many of the Southerners were very bitter about how the war ended and were hostile towards any Northerners that came to the South, especially those who were coming to "better" it:
While the Southern men made their way across desolation to homes of want and to problems for which no man could see the solution, educationrs of the North, gatherd in the annual meeting of the National Teachers ' Association, heard President S.S. Greene declare that 'the old salve states are to be new missionary ground ' where 'we can not only teach the Negroes but can emancipate the 'poor whites ' whom ignorance has so long kept in bondage. '4
As time moved on, there was a little less conflict between the people, but then there was a struggle between generations and those who were accepting the "New" South 's way of life versus the "Old." William Faulkner captures these tensions beautifully in his short story, "A Rose for Emily." "A Rose for Emily" is the story of a woman who lives in a very small town in the South during the Reconstruction period. The story opens with her death. Immediately, the reader is given a picture of what Southern gentility looks like, because the people going to her funeral feel some kind of an obligation to be there, simply to support her in
Dr. Bill Ketchersid
Civil War
3 December 2013
A Rose Amongst Thorns: Faulkner 's "A Rose for Emily" and Southern Reconstruction Reconstruction after the Civil War lasted from 1865-1877. The Era of Reconstruction was a time of conflict for the Southern United States.1 Abraham Lincoln actually started making plans for reconstruction as early as December of 1863.2 On December 18, 1865, Congress formally abolished slavery. When Andrew Johnson became President after Lincoln was assassinated, he had his own plans for Reconstruction. He wanted the Confederate states to swear fealty to the United States and abolition before they would be readmitted.3 This made the Confederates rather upset. Many of the Southerners were very bitter about how the war ended and were hostile towards any Northerners that came to the South, especially those who were coming to "better" it:
While the Southern men made their way across desolation to homes of want and to problems for which no man could see the solution, educationrs of the North, gatherd in the annual meeting of the National Teachers ' Association, heard President S.S. Greene declare that 'the old salve states are to be new missionary ground ' where 'we can not only teach the Negroes but can emancipate the 'poor whites ' whom ignorance has so long kept in bondage. '4
As time moved on, there was a little less conflict between the people, but then there was a struggle between generations and those who were accepting the "New" South 's way of life versus the "Old." William Faulkner captures these tensions beautifully in his short story, "A Rose for Emily." "A Rose for Emily" is the story of a woman who lives in a very small town in the South during the Reconstruction period. The story opens with her death. Immediately, the reader is given a picture of what Southern gentility looks like, because the people going to her funeral feel some kind of an obligation to be there, simply to support her in
Bibliography: African American Odyssey, "Reconstruction and It 's Aftermath." Accessed December 3, 2013. http://memory.loc.gov/ammem/aaohtml/exhibit/aopart5.html. Aiken, Charles S. "Faulkner 's Toknapatawpha County: Geographical Fact into Fiction." Geographical Review. no. 1 (1977): 1-21. Didgital history, "America 's Reconstruction: People and Politics After the Civil War." Accessed December 3, 2013. http://www.digitalhistory.uh.edu/exhibits/reconstruction/section4/section4_intro.html. Faulkner, William. "A Rose for Emily." 1930. http://xroads.virginia.edu/~drbr/wf_rose.html (accessed December 3, 2013). Foner, Eric. "Violence and Everyday Life." Reconstruction: America 's Unfinished Revolution 1863-1877. New York: Harper & Row, 1988. Foner, Eric. "The Making of Radical Reconstruction," .Reconstruction: America 's Unfinished Revolution 1863-1877. New York: Harper , 1988. Franklin, John Hope. Reconstruction: After the Civil War. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1961. Henry, Robert Selph. "Memories and Hope" The Story of Reconstruction. Gloucester: Peter Smith, 1938. Henry, Robert Selph. "Contrasts and Contradictions" The Story of Reconstruction. Gloucester: Peter Smith, 1938. Howard University, "Reconstruction." Accessed December 3, 2013. http://www.howard.edu/library/reference/guides/reconstructionera/default.htm. Howe, Irving. "The Southern Myth and William Faulkner."American Quarterly. no. 4 (1951): 357-362. Nebeker, Helen E. . "Emil 'ys Rose of Love: Thematic Implications of Point of View in Faulkner 's "A Rose for Emily"." The Bulletin of Rocky Mountain Modern Language Association. no. 1 (1970): 3-13. Perry, Menakhem. "Literary Dynamics: how the Order of a Text Creates Its Meanings [With an Analysis of Faulkner 's "A Rose for Emily"]." Poetics Today. no. 1 (1979): 311-361. Reed, Richard. "The Role of Chronology in Faulkner 's Toknapatawpha Fiction." The Southern Literary Journal. no. 1 (1974): 24-48. Sandeen, Ernest. "William Faulkner: His Legend and His Fable." The Review of Politics. no. 1 (1956): 47-68.