Dear Fellow American Literature Devotees:
Thank you for your insights and willingness to engage in a text like "A Rose for Emily." Thank you for participating in the discussion today. And thank you for appreciating Faulkner's craft as a writer rather than giving up and saying "it's too hard."
While many would stop with our new found appreciation for Faulkner as a writer and his craft in the short story "A Rose for Emily, our fun with Miss Emily and Faulkner is only beginning. I propose that to truly understand the literature of a period, you have to understand the period of the literature. Faulkner, himself, is not that far removed from the "The War of Northern Agression," as many well-bred southerns would call it, or the Civil War as it is commonly known--he was born, as you will discover shortly--a scant 30 years after it ended. What does that tell you about the clash of the "old guard" and "new regime" that is clearly evident in "A Rose for Emily"? To which group do you think Faulkner himself subscribed? How are his philosophies evident in the text? How much of "A Rose for Emily" is social commentary concerning his own society? These questions and many more are answered--or will be--as you read and digest the information in the following links. After the links, is your actual assignment which will demonstrate that you've read the material.
http://www.digitalhistory.uh.edu/reconstruction/index.html
http://www.historicaltextarchive.com/sections.php?op=viewarticle&artid=587
http://mshistory.k12.ms.us/features/feature74/Reconstruction.htm
http://www.olemiss.edu/mwp/dir/faulkner_william/
So now that you've read both "A Rose for Emily" and this historical information, what do you think "the point" of "A Rose for Emily" is? What "evidence" from the historical information and the story itself lead you to this conclusion?
As always, happy reading and writing.
With love,
Mrs. M
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
19 comments:
I think the point of "A Rose for Emily" is to symbloize the emotions of southerners after the civil war and reconstruction era. After the war, plantation owners were upset at the changes taking place. They lost money, land and workers. Miss Emily at one time had it all too. After her father's death however, she lost a lot of things. Miss Emily lost her connection to society, her talents and eventually her sanity. The author of the story clearly immitates the feelings of the southern plantation owners after they lost so many things during the reconstruction era.
I think the point of "A Rose for Emily" is to show the hardship for the south, after the civil war. Not just the reconsrucion of the south, but also racial issues. As the people explain in "A Rose for Emily" they were not pleased with Tobe coming in and out of Miss Emily house. It also shows Emily lose everything, after she lost her father. This could symbloize the south losing everything after the war.
In "A Rose for Emily", William Faulkner clearly is telling the story of Emily, but at the same time he is portraying post civil war in the south. The people of the south losing hope, as did Emily. The racial disputes in the town, just like all towns in the south(post civil war). The story shows how people of the south didn't accept change, and even though it was going to be hard to cope with, no one really wanted to. Emily did the same after losing everything in her life, she could have delt with the change, but she chose to end her life instead. I think that portrayed the emotional feelings of the south post civil war.
I think Emily symbolizes the south itself. After the war, the south had lost just about everything. Even worse for them was there entire way of life fell off the wall and shattered. Now the south has to put it back together again. When Emily lost her father, she lost everything that was holding her world together. The south was able to rebuild itself and get on after the war, but unlike the south, Emily just got worse.
In my perspective, I feel that Miss Emily repsresents the south before the Civil War and during the Reconstruction period. She grew up very wealthy and her name held a high status in her town. After her father's passing, she lost not only her father, who was one of her only human companions, her fincial assets, but her psychological stability as well.
The South before the beginning of the war, had a large economy of agriculture, using mainly slave labor to work the land. After the war, the southeners lost everything, including their way of life.
"A Rose For Emily" was definatly a story that showed the way of life in the South and how it was after the Civil War. Faulkner grew up in the South from a family that was not wealthy and he never even graduated High School. In the story Emily did not seem to do alot with her life. It also stated that Faulkner was a at one time a postmaster, but the townspeople got angry with him because they were not recieving teir mail. In the story the towns people did not care for Emily, they respected her but thought that she was weird. After the war the people including the Faulkner family lost everything, then in the story after Emilys fathers death, she bagna losing everything. To me "A Rose for Emily" relates alot to Faulkners life.
I think that Faulkner put alot of what was happening in the south during the time he grew up, in the story "A Rose for Emily." After the civil war, so much was lost and a lot of racial issues arised. There were many people that tried so hard to rebuild their lives and bussiness' after the civil war. During the story Miss Emily's life fell apart with the loss of her father and the financial responsibilities he held and she was left with not very much at all in life. How the towns people viewed Tobe would also represent how in the South during Faulkners time, the people viewed slavery and racism. Faulkner cleary based much of his life, experiences, and struggle to rebuild their lives in "A Rose for Emily."
I think that the point of the story may have been to illustrate the disconnect between the "old guard" and the new reconstruction-era society in the South. Emily keeps instructing the city officials to talk to Sartoris about her tax issues. There is also some racial tension that is illustrated in this story. When a society is forced to change in that way, you are either on the side of change or the side of tradition.
May Dowdall
I would venture to assume that the point of view of "A Rose for Emily," is critical and dramatic. After all here you have this thirty year old black woman that Faulkner portrays as this crazy lady who killed her father and then her boyfriend. To me, this story portrays the life of this lonley person who basicly loses everything. Furthermore,i get the impression that for the most part she is disliked by the majority of the towns people. "A Rose for Emily" clearly symbolizes much loss as did so many others during this time.
In my opinion the story "A Rose for Emily" illustrates the South before and after the war. It seemed as if Faulkner actually was trying to get people to look at Miss Emily as being the people of the South. Miss Emily, before the death of her father, had everything that she could ever ask for as did the people of the south before the war. Then it seemed as if he symbolized the death of her father as the war because after the death of her father there were a lot of changes that took place such as becoming distant from society and pretty much losing everything that she had. This seemed to be what happened to the people of the south as well. They no longer could have the slaves to do the work for them which lead them to not making as much profit and losing a lot of the things that they had before the war. Not only did he symbolize the south after the war but there seemed to briefly touch on the south before the war. One of the big things that sticks out in my mind is the fact that she still had her servant Tobe. So not only did he symbolize the south after the war but also he also touched a little on the south before the war.
I think that “A Rose for Emily” was written mainly to portray the characteristics of the south at that time. Miss Emily was at one time seen as a “southern belle.” She represented the south, because they were stubborn and thought themselves to be pretty high scale. She was taken care of all her life by her father, and she expected to get everything her way until her father died. That represented the reconstruction period, where times became harder for everyone… especially those in the agricultural businesses such as cotton and farming.
I have to agree with jjames and abby, I think Miss Emily represents the South. Emily lost everything she knew as did the South. And both had to change their ways and adjust. When Emily held onto Homer (literally), it was like the South trying to hold onto the last bit of tradition they had. When the towns people were pushing Miss Emily to bury her father, it was like the North pushing their ways onto the South.
I feel that William Faulkner is trying to show through the story what happened during the rebuilding after the civil war. The south was very aganist northerns coming to the south, and also very racist to black people. During that time people lost a lot their money everything, and faulkner is trying to show that through "A Rose for Emily".
I think the point of "A Rose for Emily" is to symbolize a part of the war. The story seems to move toward the way the war went throughout the north and the south. As soon as Miss Emilys father died everything begun to fall down hill for not only Miss Emily, but for the entire town. The war also started out good and then went down hill from there. Things just got worse, such as the fight against racism, and the fight to keep money and economics going. The story has a lot in common with the way that the great depression that follows the wars. Things get worse and worse until finally they may get better. But in Miss Emilys case I think she just lost it and could not make her situation better. I think that the only significant difference is that the U.S. survived and Miss Emily did not.
I think that Faulkner wrote "A Rose for Emily" to show the feelings and lives of the people living in the south after the civil war and through the reconstruction time. Like Miss Emily, the south had been a stable place before the civil war. After the war many of the people in the south were left with nothing just like Emily was after her father's death. Therefore, Faulkner expresses the events and emotions in the story by relating them to things in Emily's life.
In my opinion, William Faulkner's "A Rose For Emily" portrays the hardships and adjustments of Southerns before and after the Reconstruction Era. Emily represents the people of the South. Like many Southerns, she had wealth, fame, and nobility. After the Civil War, she like many others faced financial and social ruins. Emily did not adjust well with the changing times. I think that Faulkner uses people to symbolize certain events in his short stories. I believe that Tobe represents slavery. Even though he was a "Freedman" he was not really free. Like most Southerns after the Civil War, they tried to hold on to their slaves by making ”Black Codes”, which basically legalized slavery. Tobe was a free man but he still worked as if he wasn't for Miss Emily. That is until her death. I also believe that Homer represented the old way of Southern life. I think that Emily tried to hold on to Homer like he tried to hold on to her Southern Traditions. But as you can see that obviously did not happen. Change was occurring, which brings me to my next point. I think that the town’s people of Jefferson, Mississippi represent the Union. During the Reconstruction Era, the Union tried to conform the South. They tried abolish Slavery with the Proclamation of Emancipation and also tried to get the southern states to join the Union. Although the story did not clearly state the towns people physically forcing Miss Emily to join the Union, it is the little changes that have the biggest impact. For instance, Miss Emily did not think that she had to pay her taxes. She also did not want a mailbox or metal numbers hammered to her door. Eventually, the South conformed and a new nation was born. Good thing too. I would hate to think of what might have happened if all the people of the South were just like Miss Emily.
I think that the point of "A Rose for Emily" is that whites were still not willing to give up their former lifestyle of power and dominion after the war. Miss Emily still considered herself to be "nobility" so to speak as evidenced in her attitude at the drugstore where she refused to give her reason for buying the poison. Also, the way she treated Tobe, who is almost always referred to as "the Negro," is an example of her stubornness in not changing.
To me the point of " A Rose for Emily" is telling what happen to the south after the civil war. Faulkner represnets Emily as the slaves in the south and the town's people as the whites. The south had a hard time after the civil war with slaver being the main thing, and in the story all the towns people disliked emily just as whites disliked slaves. Faulkner relates real life southerns to the story of " A Rose for Emily".
I believe that "A Rose for Emily" was wrote to symbolize the south because the South lost almost everything after the war and Emily lost almost everything after her dad died. Homer represented the carpetbaggers that came down to the south after the war. Also, the new mayors represent the reconstrution of the south. Emily did not want to change, like the south, to ajust to the new laws of the new mayors, the north.
Post a Comment