"A Rose For Emily

I hope that you all have enjoyed your trip into Miss Emily Grierson's world. It's one of my favorite stories simply because of the shock and horror at the reality of the end of the story. After you get to the end, it's one of those stories that make you go back and reread portions because, what you believe to be true at the end, just can't be so. As Larry the Cable Guy would say, "Now, that just ain't right."

I am curious to read your reactions to the story and to discuss them in class on Wednesday. So here are the rules of the game:

1. Answer one of the following questions and in answering be sure to provide specific examples from the text.

2. Respond to someone else's post by providing more support for his or her answer or by giving the person you are responding to a new way of looking at the situation. Again, be sure to provide specific examples from the text.

Here are your questions:

1. What is meaningful in the final detail that the strand of hair on the second pillow is "iron-gray"?
2. Who is the unnamed narrator? For whom does he profess to speak?
3. Why does "A Rose for Emily" seem better told from the narrators point of view than from the point of view of the main character?
4. What foreshadowings of the discovery of the body of Homer Baron are we given earlier in the story? Did Faulkner's foreshadowing intensify your emotional reaction at the end of the story or diminish it? Why?
5. Share your experience reading "A Rose for Emily." What did you like about the story? What were you feelings as you read? At what point did you "get" what was happening at the Grierson Home?
6. What contrasts does the narrator draw between changing reality and Emily's refusal or inability to recognize change?
7. How do the character and background of Emily Grierson differ from those of Homer Barron? What general observations about the society that Faulkner depicts can be made from his portraits of these two characters and from his account of life in this one Mississippi town?
8. Does the story seem totally grim or do you find any humor in it? Why and where?
9. What do you infer to be the author's attitude toward Emily Grierson? Is she simply a murderous woman? Why do you suppose Faulkner calls his story "A Rose for Emily"?