Blog #2

A Rose for Emily by William Faulkner


A Rose for Emily is a rather disturbing story about a women who seriously could not handle being rejected. Witnessing desperation at it's finest, the towns folk narrate this story in first person plural. This choice of narration often leads events in the short story to be scattered and gives the story a more gossipy tone. Reading the story is almost like listening to rumors fly rather than reading an actual account. The perspective of the story seems to switch from town folk to town folk, giving bits and pieces from each person perspective and experience with Miss Emily. From what is gathered in the story, readers are brought to believe that Emily killed Homer Barron, but there are multiple conclusions as to why she might have done this. The first possible theory is that Emily killed Homer because she found out that he homosexual, and she killed him because she could not handle the rejection. A second theory is that Emily killed homer because she was from a high class society family and Homer was a construction man, therefore it may have been humiliating for her to be rejected by a man of lower society. Readers also come to the conclusion that Emily struggles to let things go, which may be the reason behind her keeping the body around for all these years. Now, since Homer is dead, she can hold on to him and he can never leave her. "The body had apparently once lain in the attitude of an embrace, but now the long sleep that outlast love, that conquers even the grimace of love, had cuckolded him"(Faulkner, 289). This quote reveals the long stretch of time that the body has been laying there, expressing how Emily wanted the body there and found comfort in the body being there.