Culture and Identity in “a Rose for Emily” Essay - 747 Words

Critic James H. Picker once wrote, â€Å"To classify, to regard fiction as an object can be taken apart and then put back together, is only one way to approach and participate in the work of literature; but it is not the only way. Once students grasp this truth, literature becomes dynamic, alive and ‘available†. In the short story, â€Å"A Rose for Emily†, writer William Faulkner uses plot, character and setting to demonstrate Emily’s refusal to transition into the â€Å"New South†. â€Å"A Rose for Emily†, takes place in southern United States and starts off when she dies in the early 20th century and goes back to her life in the late 19th century leading the reader to her demise. Emily Grierson comes from a traditional southern aristocratic family. Her†¦show more content†¦Though in modern times, people are legally obligated to pay taxes, Emily keeps her aristocratic values and believes she is above the law. According to her father, â€Å"None of the young men were quite good enough for Miss Emily†. Her father drove away all of Emily’s suitors throughout his life. After her father’s death, Emily meets Homer Barron, a day laborer from the north, after and with hopes of potentially marrying him. The townspeople viewed Emily’s courtship with Homer as part of her downfall into insanity calling her, â€Å"Poor Emily†, viewing Homer as beneath her. Faulkner writing, Of course a Grierson would not think seriously of a Northerner, a day laborer. Emily’s father would have also disapproved of Homer because he was a workingman and a Northerner and did not come from wealth. Homer was in town to pave the sidewalks and did not think seriously of his courtship with Emily. Homer, â€Å"†¦himself had remarked - he liked men, and it was known that he drank with the younger men in the Elks Club – that he was not a marrying man’ Once it becomes apparent that Homer is not the marrying type and that he represents everything that she is against, Emily murders him with rat poison. It is revealed that Emily kept Homer’s corpse in her bed throughout the rest of her life, when he is found in the bed by the townspeople after she dies. Homer represented the more modern and industrialized South to come and Emily murdering himShow MoreRelatedThe Crisis Of Identity By William Faulkner1575 Words   |  7 PagesThe Crisis of Identity Arguably one of the greatest writers of the twentieth century, William Faulkner was plagued with a crisis of identity from a young age. 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