SSRJ
# 1: Faulkner
·
This piece was suspenseful; in the first
read Miss Emily was a typical old lady but in rereading her mysterious ways was
creepy. The plot was just good, it was typical as far as order of plot parts
but each part had its own significance and made the climax/conclusion pull me
in. The only comparison I have to this story is the old lady from these
apartments when I was young, around 9 to 10. She was very mysterious and we all
thought she was an alien but she was just an old lady, living alone, never
talking to us but would stare at us out of her upstairs window all day.
·
In “A Rose for Emily” the author,
Faulkner, uses point of view, through the narrator, to make it more difficult
to choose whether or not you like or dislike Emily. The point of view seems to
be from the townsfolk. However, when the “ladies around town” seem to always
pity Emily by saying “Poor Emily” it gives a feeling of gossip. This makes the
reader think the townsfolk, or just this particular group of ladies, are
jealous, envious, or just plain haters. Emily is still a crazy old lady,
however the “hating” from the narrative point of view, you want to take Miss
Emily’s side and deny all the people’s outrageous rumors. This made me support
Emily and want her not to be a murdering psycho lady but just a regular crazy
old lady. So when she dies , I hope the secret room has something to push
towards her sanity or support a logical reason for insanity. Instead, there is a
dead husband and evidence she laid next to him. She is crazy! This use of point
of view took me for a ride in this story.
·
The only comment I have is that this
story was nice, I do not read a lot, especially in different fields of
literature. However, this short story was very good at showing that even a
boring setting can provide a good story to amuse my very short attention span.
I feel you on the gossip part, it seemed like it was a small town where people talk about each other a lot and since Emily seemed to be a weirdo, she made it easy for the townspeople to talk about her.
ReplyDeleteGooey, I completely agree! Faulkner held my attention in this story, all I could think is this lady is crazy! And in my mind thinking what is that funky smell coming from her house, the story was like a car accident, I just couldn't look away.
ReplyDeleteShe is crazy, I can't disagree with that. The thing is though, the story actually tells us why she is crazy. She might have been born a bit weird but if her dad didn't keep her all to himself, if he didn't "scare" away all her suitors, I feel that she would have turned out ok, maybe a bit odd but nevertheless normal. The fact that her father didn't let her get married at the "appropriate age" for that time, only amplified her need for love and affection. She wanted someone to love her and be with her. When she realized that Homer(she must have been pretty smart to figure out that he didn't really love her which shows that she was just emotionally challenged), the second person that she became attached to. When she realized that he was going to leave her, that pushed her over the edge and she couldn't bare to have to go through another loss like that. So she did the only thing she knew would make him stay with her forever. I think as crazy as she was, if her father would have allowed her to get married she would have lived a normal life. This story only proves what effect one persons selfish choices can have on another person, referring to her father and then later to Emily killing Homer.
ReplyDeleteI did think this story was pretty interesting. But I just don’t get it, why Miss Emily keeps the dead body that is scary and did she kill herself at the end or she just died of sickness, lol?
ReplyDeleteI agree. The gossip does make the reader lean to Miss Emily’s side. I believe Faulkner does this on purpose in an attempt to set the reader up for the big twist. She is a crazy old lady and there is no denying that, but was she really a monster or a product of her environment. Also, I find it very interesting that she just up and poisons Homer without any real serious wrong doing.
ReplyDeleteI agree that this short story was not boring. i do not read a lot neither, but this story attracted my attention with all the details. and this is quite my type of reading; it has to do with all the mysteries and killings. quite awesome.
ReplyDeleteYes i agree with you. I realy hate reading and if I have to read it has to be really good or else I have to read it a million times because I get side tracked so many times. This story however, I only had to read twice.
ReplyDeleteI think its cool how you pointed out that the story had left a real impression in the end. Although as you mentioned that the story has "boring setting", It still had a driving force for the reader to read on and discover what was upstairs or find out who Emily really was.
ReplyDelete