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First of all, there is the issue of Homer Barron's ancestry. He is a northerner, living in a Southern region that was still smarting from its loss in the Civil War. The Yankee also worked with and was obviously friendly with his crew of black laborers. He also stood to profit from construction in the south, another fact that would have caused great consternation among the townspeople. Homer Barron announced his decision to leave Yoknapatawpha County to return north. Miss Emily purchases arsenic, and due to gender expectations and her social standing, the townspeople can only assume that she plans to commit suicide. Later, as a foul stench emanates from her home, even the judge could not bring himself to tell a lady that her home "smells."
In addition, the townsfolk, especially the older ones, whispered about how Miss Emily was violating the principle of noblesse oblige. In exchange for the social prestige that the town had accorded her, the townspeople expected a certain amount of social responsibility from their Miss Emily.
This includes being aware of her class and social background. It certainly did not bode well for Miss Emily, and by extension the town, that Emily was cavorting with a Northerner who was also a day laborer. Miss Emily had committed a cardinal sin of taking up with a social inferior.
The townspeople's views and social mores therefore had a very strong influence on the life of Miss Emily. Social views regarding the proper role of women caused Miss Emily to chafe under the rule of a traditionalist father. The townspeople's disapproval of her affair with a northerner/day laborer further wrecked any chance she had at happiness. In the end, she could only live as a prisoner in her own home.
A Rose for Emily - Symbolism of Social Conflicts in the New South
shaped character Miss Emily "A Rose Emily." What forces work creates a character Miss Emily? Something made Emily character meet story. • Locate (2) scholarly resources include a minimum quotes (2) source. "A Rose for Emily:" A false, fragile, and wilting image of perfect southern womanhood William Faulkner's short story "A Rose for Emily" chronicles the life of an aristocratic southern woman who is unable to accept the realities of the changing
Rose for Emily Emily as a Symbol of the South in Faulkner's "A Rose for Emily" William Faulkner's "A Rose for Emily" is a complex short story that investigates the conflicted nature of the post-War South. Emily Grierson represents the Old World aristocracy, refined in its manners and in its dignity. She represents the glory of the South. And yet the South is fallen; defeated by the Union, it has lost is
Point-of-view is extremely important in any story, as who is telling the story can greatly affect what gets told. If Faulkner had chosen Emily or her servant as the narrator, the story would have been very different, and readers would have known what was going on in Emily's house much sooner, but since Faulkner chose a townsperson, the secrets of Emily's disturbed mind remained hidden until the final scene
Emily Dickinson and Ezra Pound Ezra Pound's poem "The River-Merchant's Wife: A Letter" is inspired by Chinese poetry, and dramatizes the situation of the Chinese wife of a traveling salesman. In its empathetic portrayal of the life of a woman, it resembles poems by Emily Dickinson -- but the difference is, of course, that Pound's form is fundamentally dramatic. Pound announces, in his title, the speaker of the poem. Dickinson's lyric
This is why Homer is killed: he has lied to Emily and to the townspeople, and his deceit is punishable by death (at least, so it seems to Emily -- if Blythe is correct in his analysis). This is why the tension that exists between Emily and the community comes to the forefront in the first place: "Every human lives in a social environment and is influenced by surrounding
Though my loneliness certainly isn't as extreme as Emily's, and I do not think I would want to sleep next to a corpse for years instead of finding people to interact with in the outside world, the sense of being cut off from those around you and kept in a separate bubble is something I can relate to. There are times when I have exactly this feeling as a