Rose For Emily
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Making Connections “A Rose for Emily”
Question 1
It appears our narrator is one of the towns women, maybe even one of Emilys former painting students. We see in the last Chapter line one, “The Negro met the first ladies at the front door and let them in, with their hushed, sibilant voices and quick, curious glances, and then he disappeared.” The scene jumps to “Then we noticed that in the second pillow was an indentation of a head”. This would imply to me that the narrator was one of the women that entered into the house after Emilys funeral. I cant be sure of this, but it would explain a great deal of the flash backs that occur in the story. We can see how the narrators attitude is one of compassion which would lead me to believe that she had some personal contact other than just the watching that is talked about throughout the story. It is clear the flash back method of writing is necessary to make clear why certain things were said and done by the women at the end of the story, almost as if to justify that last event of breaking down the parlor/bedroom door. It is as if the narrator feeling sorry is justified in the same method.
Question 2
I feel that Emily Grierson was a woman that did drastic things to survive. The loss of her father it appears is the event that started it all. Shortly afterwards the loss of her groom to be made her a complete basket case. I really felt sorry for her as a character and see that the repercussions of the Civil War went far into society, not just the superficial issues we have all been made aware in the rendition of history from the era. Emilys conflict varies throughout the story, but the most significant is the absence of a viable income after the departure of the girls that had once learned the art of china painting and supporting the living expenses of this woman, never to return and her lifeline taken with them. Emilys demeanor also incites sympathy,”” She was sick for a long time. When we saw her again, her hair was cut short, making her look like a girl, with a vague resemblance to those angels in colored church windows- sort of tragic and serene.” I have trouble feeling anything but sorry for this woman that would be of such slight build, but so overweight that she would appear obese.
Question 3
Homer Barron was a foreman for the sidewalk team. They would take a mule and tear up sections of sidewalk to be replaced. Homer was,”a Yankee-a big, dark, ready man, with a big voice and eyes lighter than his face.” Shortly after Emilys father died he became a “near husband” of hers. He courted her for quite some time after church in the buggy from the stables .In the last of the story we can see that she had bought rat poison for a reason other than rats. The weird part of this story and there are a lot of parts I dont fully understand, is that she appeared to be in love with Homer by the way she kept his dead body to sleep with all those years, but in the
Stauffer 2
same respect, she killed the guy with that same poison we hear about earlier in the story. What gives? It seems so hard to fathom that Emily would take to a common day worker and a Yankee on top of it all. Emily herself being a southerner and apparently refined for a lady of color.. It must have been her fathers death that created a sense of urgency that led her to such a wild decision. It seems that the unbelievable choice she made might have been undone with the poison we discussed earlier. She seemed so proper and he was entertaining the boys with his cussing.” The little boys would follow in groups to hear him cuss the niggers..”
Question 4
At the end of the story we see the grey hair on the pillow and all sorts of horrible thoughts run through our reader heads. The bag of rat poison now becomes more sinister than the lighthearted insinuations