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"?
30 comments:
#2. I believe that the unnamed narrator is one of Emily's nosey neighbors who seems to speak for the entire town. For example, the narrator always uses "we" rather than "I". "WE did not say she was crazy then."
"Then we noticed that in the second pillow was the indention of a head. One of us lifted something from it, and leaning forward, that faint and invisible dust dry and acrid in the nostrils, we saw a long strand of iron-gray hair."
The iron gray strand of hair located on the sencond pillow belongs to Emily. It portrays that Emily slept beside the dead corpse for many years, even in her elderly age. In my opinion, she murdered Homer because she felt he was one of her only human companions. Since he was going to leave her, I believe she poisened him to have him until she died.
4. "So she vanquished them, horse and foot, just as she had vanquished their fathers thiry years before about the smell."
This is definately forshadowing the death of Homer Baron. It did intensify my interest a little bit because I figured... there aren't many things that can smell from such a distance for other people to smell it outside of the house, or for so long.
This story honestly creeped me out a little. It was definitly different than most stories that I have read in the past but i really enjoyed the mystery that it invloved. The whole story i felt bad for Miss Emily and how her lifestyle was.I got the impression that she was depressed and thats why she wanted to take arsenic. Which i would be depressed if my boyfriend likes men too. I first realized all about Emilys problems after her death when the people in the town invaded her home. When i found out about her killing Homer and keeping his body in a room and continuing to sleep with him i was disgusted but it really put turing and suprising end to the story.
#5. I injoyed reading a "Rose for Emily" simply because it kept my attention through the entire story. I also couldn't believe the shocking ending. I think i first knew what was going on was when she bought the poision and when the towns people stated that "Homer himself had remarked-he liked men and it ws known that he drank with th younger men in the Elks' club-that he was not a marrying man". I think Emily didn't want to be alone(seeing how her father had died). She knew the Homer would never marry her and i guess she thought that that was the only way she would get him to stay.
I agree with kim. I think the narrator is one of the neighbors or maybe even all the towns people talking. The story seems to take place in a very small town. Coming form a small town i know this very well. Everyone is nosey. As it say in the story "we saw her hair was short" rather than "I saw her hair was short".
Ken Hertzler - # 4
Upon reviewing the story several times, it becomes clearer and clearer how frequent the foreshadowing details appear. Emily's reluctance to part with her father's corpse is an early hint and the narrator's line, "We did not say she was crazy then," does well to foreshadow her insanity later. The scene of Emily purchasing arsenic is another large clue, as she refuses to specify what it is she plans to kill with such a strong poison, sealed in a box marked with skull and cross bones. Quickly thereafter the narrator regards there being little ruckus over Homer Barron going away and finally the line, "And that was the last we saw of Homer Barron," further hints that Barron is dead.
Rather than spoil the ending, however, these hints only caught my attention and enticed me to read further. The story had me expecting something surprising, though I anticipated nothing like the shocking end that Faulkner depicts.
I feel that the story was kind of grim. I mean she planned ahead to kill him. She bought the rat killing poision. But in a way the story is also kind of funny, because she may have been a women but she was not going to be hurt again she took a astand for herself, if she could not have him no one could.
Ken Hertzler
I agree with Abby's opinion behind Emily's motives. Emily's absence of reality compelled her to try and preserve what little connection she had to happiness or a sane life. Take into consideration the very title of the story: A Rose For Emily. The rose is so symbolic of life and death in Faulkner's tale. And Emily was so desperate to preserve everything in her life - her old ways, her nobility and pride, and even her father and boyfriend. Much as one would dry out a rose, in hopes of preserving it to last longer, Emily kept and preserved the corpse of Homer and insisted on losing herself to her fantasy - her rose.
I support Kim's comment about the the townspeople. I believe that the narrator was speaking for the small community rather than just his or herself.
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?
Faulkner foreshadows the finding of the body of Homer Barron when he tells that the last time he was seen was going into Emily's house at dusk one night. Also, the narrator said that that was the lsat night that any one saw him and Emily. I think that the foreshadowing intensifyed the emotion in the end of the story because I was wanting to know what happened to Homer and it made since that it was still in the house and when they found her hair next to him it showed that she never wanted him to leave her; which is sweet and creepy at the same time.
#3. I think the story was much better told from the narrators point of view because you get the affect from an outside view of how creepy Emily was. When she bought the poison the towns people thought and acted much like any one of us would have in that situation. If a main character was telling the story it would be a sad, and almost a tragic story about Emily and her love for Homer and the need for a companion.
I agree with Abby about why Emily killed Homer. I think she loved him so much and she didn't want him to leave her so she poisened him so they could be together until she died.
1. The strand of hair on the second pillow is very significant. Because there is an indent in the pillow and the hair that is found is iron gray, it proves that Emily had slept next to the dead body of Homer for years. The reader knows that the hair is Emily's because the author earlier quoted, "During the next few years it grew grayer grayer until it attained an even pepper and salt iron gray, when it ceased turning."
I really enjoyed reading "A Rose for Emily." It was a little creepy but i also found it a little funny. The narrator made all these assumptions about what Emily was doing and that Homer had left her, when really he didnt. Its so funny because people do stuff like that all the time. They just assume crazy things when really most of what they say are not true at all. I also think that the end was just a little creepy.
"A Rose for Emily" was a very interesting story. I liked it in a way but in a way i didnt. I liked the way the story was told in an old timey mannor and the way the town was trying to be all involved in the life of emily. There was always gossip about what people believed happened. But the story did creep me out. I mean why would you sleep continusly by a dead body? It was definately not normal at all. It made me feel as though miss Emily had depression or was tired of what everyone else thought of her.
responding to brittney... I agree with you completely. I think another foreshadowing to Homer's death is the fact that he just disappeared one day. The author wrote, "A neighbor saw the Negro man admit him at the kitchen door at dusk one evening. And that was the last we saw of Homer Barron."
I would say that the story was not totaly grim. The narrator talked in way that kept the story pleasent, and did not make Emily out to be completly insane. The story was not meant to be scary. It was kind of a history narration.
Overall it was an interesting story to read.
4. Forshadowing of the death of Homer Barron was used throughout the story. In the story it said that the "man admit him at the kitchen door as dusk one evening".
"And that was the last we saw of Homer Barron". At this point i figured she probably had killed him and then when it got to the point in the story where the neighbors started to complain about the smell it reassured my thoughts.So the ending really wasnt that surprising to me.
Question number 5: I really did enjoy reading the story. Not often do I read something and have a itch to keep reading till I am done. But with "A Rose for Emily" I did. I just laughed when she went and asked for arsenic. I mean who goes to the store and asks someone for that. I just enjoy the unordinary.
#7 The story does not seem totally grim throughout. I found humor in the way the city kept sending her tax notices in the mail and she would just send them back. It seemed to me that they were kind of scared of Emily, because they could have taken more action to get her taxes, but she kept shutting them down. It is funny to think that a little old lady could say no to paying taxes and the city would be scared to make her pay them.
I agree with kim also. I think it was also one of the "nosey" neighbors. The town was so small they didnt have anything else to do but be nosey and think that they have to be in other peoples buisness
I agree with Kelly the story did creep me out! It was a little creepy for her to keep the body in her room! Another thing was her going to get the aresnic to obviously kill Homer.
In resonse to kelly:
I understand what you mean by being creeped out, but that is why I liked reading it. It is the wierd things that keep me interested a story I think.
I agree with what Kelly said in that I enjoyed the mystery of what will happen next. I never saw her murdering of Homer as a part of the story, but it makes since now that he was going to leave her and the only way to keep him around was to murder him. I'm not saying it was right of her to murder him though.
#8 i think that the story has both qualities of grim and humor. i think that it was humorious how she would never pay her taxes in jefferson. she kinda reminds me of the elderly person next door who likes to scare little children. but most of all the story is kinda creepy. i had to reread the story twice before i put the pieces together. i think that she poisioned homer barron with the arsenic she had purchased. the story said that homer barron was not the marring type and that she like men,"Homer 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". i think that homer barron was probably emily's first love and if she couldn't have him, no one could.and the fact that at the end of the story an iron-grey hair was found beside homer barron's rotten corspe is just plane physco!
i agree with brittany. i think that emily didn't want to be alone like her father was. of course it didn't help matters much that emily's father pushed all her little boy friends away. "we remembered all the young men her father had driven away, and we knew that with nothing left, she would have to cling to that which had robbed her, as people will."
#7)I feel the story is very grim. Throughout Miss Emily's life she has had no real joy. Everytime she would meet a man, her father would chase them off, also it seems from the text here "The town views the father and daughter as a “tableau,” in which a sitting Mr. Grierson grasps a horsewhip and affects an oblivious attitude toward his daughter, who, dressed completely in white, stands behind him." seems mainly with the horsewhip i am talking bout suggest bridled violence. Also since her father chased every man away there was no other person in her life to cling to other then her father. So when her father dies being how he is the only one she actually clinged to, it was hard for her to actually believe he was dead. i found no humor in this story only sorrow.
Response to question #2:
The story takes place in an old southern town where everybody knows each other. The narrator seems to represent the collective gossip of a small town. The townspeople seem to be united in their opinion of Emily, so the narrator is pretty liberal with the use of "we" when telling the story.
The hair not only establishes the fact that she has been sleeping or doing whatever with Homer for many years, but also that she is without a doubt crazy. I feel William Faulkner gave just enough information through out the story that when we finally read the last line we are not quit as shoked as we may have wanted to believe. The story was great in that it kept you wanting to read more. I love how it made me try to fit everything together like puzzle. Very interesting.
I don't feel as if the story is totally grim. I feel that the part where the men from the town sneek into her yard and snoop around trying to figure out where the awful smell is coming from is pretty humorous. The reason I think this is because no one was brave enough to tell her to her face so they try to sneek around and do it without her finding out. But when she almost catches them in the act,it makes it even more humorous.
I agree with Thomas. I believe the part about the taxes was humorous also. I thought what made it even more humorous was the fact that she thought she was talking to Colonel Sartoris instead of the tax collectors.
Post a Comment