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Period 02

Lauren Talavera

Lotte Tepait

Skylar Sathiyaseelan

By: William Faulkner

By: William Faulkner

The short story circulates around an unknown narrator explaining Miss Emily Grierson, an aristocratic and refined woman well admired by her community, has passed away. They see and regard her as "a tradition, a duty" — or "a fallen monument.” Nasty rumors circulate around Miss Emily as she begins to isolate herself. Opposite of what the townspeople had thought of her, we realize eventually that Miss Emily is a woman who not only poisons and kills her lover, Homer Barron, but she keeps his rotting corpse in her bedroom and sleeps next to it for many years. She even managed to keep the corpse of her own father for a few days before giving him up for his funeral. It’s as if the entire time she spent in solitude, her mentality wears down. And only after her death does the community find out her morbid behavior.

• Born on September 25, 1897 in Oxford, Mississippi.
• He joined the Canadian and British Air Force
• Studied at the University of Mississippi
• Worked for a New Orleans newspaper and NY bookstore
• Worked on his novels and short stories on an Oxford farm
• Much of the drama showcased in Faulkner’s works is based on actual dramatic historical events from the past century.
• Most of his stories are set in the imaginary Yoknapatawpha County ㅡ based off of Lafayette County in northern Mississippi.
• Faulkner was actually unknown until he won the 1949 Nobel Peace Prize in Literature.
• Other works include: Soldiers’ Pay, The Fable, The Reivers, As I Lay Dying, Light in August, and Absalom, Absalom!

HISTORICAL / CULTURAL CONTEXT

• Faulkner lived in the US south and was affected by the effects of post-civil war.
• He felt influenced by the time and wanted to reflect the pride, the force to change, and the loss of established social differences in southern North America.
• Many slaves and slaveowners after the war didn’t know what to do with themselves.
• The white minority couldn’t accept a biracial society based on equality of opportunity.
• In 1890 the ruling elite adopted a constitution that both institutionalized a system of racial segregation and established an economic order that kept the black population in a position of dependency.

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LITERARY MOVEMENT

• A Rose for Emily considered an important American southern gothic Short Story
• Southern Gothic Fiction is writing on the subject of social issues and culture of the American South mostly after the Civil war
• A Rose for Emily was written during the time of Modernism.

MODERNISM (1910 to 1965)

• Modernism is typically defined and marked by a loss of a sense of tradition as it morphs.
• In literature, there’s usually a pronounced increasing dominance of technology or innovation/progress and having the old generation yield to the concept.
• Reflects off a sense of a cultural crisis, both exciting and thrilling, but… it’s worrisome to a new vista of human possibilities.
• Notable works: P. Picasso and G. Orwell (1984 and Animal Farm)

(Les Demoiselles d’Avignon, 1907)

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TEXT TO TEXT

• The Great Gatsby by F. S. Fitzgerald

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There’s a thematic concept of fools doing everything they can for “love.” Both Gatsby and Miss Emily, in a way, acted through unorthodox, nontraditional, methods to attain a physical sense of love — for a sense of security. Gatsby threw lavish parties in a fruitless attempt to coax Daisy Buchanan over while Emily Grierson murdering Homer Barron to be with him “for better, for worse, for richer, for poorer, in sickness and in health, until death do us part.”

TEXT TO SOCIETY/WORLD

• Miss Emily was the embodiment of the old generation and slavery.
• Homer Barron represents the confrontation of the new generation and abolition.

WHERE IS THE ROSE?

• “When the Negro opened the blinds of one window, they could see that the leather was cracked; and when they sat down, a faint dust rose sluggishly about their thighs, pinning with slow motes in the single sun-ray.”
• “They rose when she entered--a small, fat woman in black, with a thin gold chain descending to her waist and vanishing into her belt, leaning on an ebony cane with a tarnished gold head.”
• “…upon the valance curtains of faded rose color, upon the rose-shaded lights, upon the dressing table.”

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FAULKNER QUOTES

• “...the meaning was, here was a woman who had had a tragedy, an irrevocable tragedy and nothing could be done about it, and I pitied her and this was a salute…to a woman you would hand a rose.”

A ROSE SYMBOLIZES

• Red roses are the traditional symbol for love and romance, and a time-honored way to say "I love you." The red rose has long symbolized beauty and perfection. A bouquet of red roses is the perfect way to express your deep feelings for someone special.
• White roses represent innocence and purity and are traditionally associated with marriages and new beginnings. The white rose is also a symbol of honor and reverence, and white rose arrangements are often used as an expression of remembrance.

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THEMES

• One should not judge others because of their own perception of them, since it might be different from reality
• Power-Over-Death- Emily tries to prove death to be irrelevant by denying it. Example, hiding Homer’s body, and denying her Father’s Death

MOTIFS

• Watching
• Often found throughout this story is that Miss Emily’s neighbors and the other townspeople are watching over her and the different mysterious things that she does. Though, no one actually knows the real Emily and only through the outside presence they decide to pity her.
• Dust-
• Miss Emily’s home is filled with dust and it was stated by those tax collectors that her house smelled like dust and disuse. It was like she wasn’t caring too much towards the house, as if she wants to leave everything untouched to keep the past memories.
• Decay
• Her house, once a symbol of the elite, begins to heavily decay as neither Miss Emily or Tobe care for it. Decay also happens within Miss Emily both physically and mentally.

SYMBOLISM

• Miss Emily’s House
• Miss Emily’s house can represent something staying neutral where everything else was changing. Where her house is old aristocrat style while all of the other homes are turning modern.

TELEPHONE GAME RULEs

• You MAY NOT repeat the quote to the person on your left.
• You MAY NOT ask the person on your right to repeat the quote.

How close were you able to replicate:

• “For what it’s worth, it’s never too late or, in my case, too early to be whoever you want to be. There is no time limit, stop whenever you want. You can change or stay the same, there are no rules to this thing. We can make the best or worst of it.” - F. S. Fitzgerald.

EMILY GRIERSON

• a female that starts out as a hopeful young lady and evolves into a mysterious and secretive old woman.

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TOBE

• Emily’s African-american servant that connected her to the outside world.

HOMER BARRON

• foreman from the north who later grows an interest in Miss Emily. The narrator hints he’s either homosexual or an eternal bachelor.

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MR. GRIERSON

• Emily’s overprotective father who seemed to chase away all potential suitors; status is deceased.

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1. cuckolded - verb.

(of a man) make (another man) a cuckold by having a sexual relationship with his wife.

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“The body had apparently once lain in the attitude of an embrace, but now the long sleep that outlasts love, that conquers even the grimace of love, had cuckolded him. “

2. temerity - adjective.

the quality of being confident and unafraid of danger and punishment

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“A few of the ladies had the temerity to call, but were not received, and the only sign of life about the place was the Negro man — a young man then — going in and out with a market basket.“

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3. pallid - adjective.

pale (face) usually because of poor health

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“She looked bloated, like a body long submerged in motionless water, and that of pallid hue.”

4. cabal - noun.

a secret group of people

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“By that time it was a cabal, and we were all Miss Emily’s allies to help circumvent the cousins.”

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5. sibilant - adjective.

sounded with a hissing effect

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“The negro met the first of the ladies at the front door and let them in, with their hushed, sibilant voices and their quick curious glances, and then he disappeared.”

6. virulent - adjective.

extremely dangerous or deadly; harsh or strong; full of anger

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“Then we knew that this was to be expected too; as if that quality of her father which had thwarted her woman’s life so many times he had been too virulent and too furious to die.

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7. noblesse oblige-

a French phrase meaning concept that nobility extends beyond mere entitlements and requires the person with such status to fulfil social responsibilities, particularly in leadership roles.

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“But there were still others, older people, who said that even grief could not cause a real lady to forget noblesse oblige- without calling it noblesse oblige.”

8. jalousies - noun.

a blind or shutter that is made from adjustable slats

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“This behind their hands; rustling of craned silk and satin behind jalousies closed upon the sun of Sunday afternoon as the thin, swift clop-clop-clop of the matched team passed: “Poor Emily”

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9. vindicated - verb.

to have cleared someone from blame or suspicion

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“So when she got to be thirty and was still single, we were not pleased exactly, but vindicated; even with insanity in the family she wouldn't have turned down all of her chances if they had really materialized.”

10. inextricable - adjective.

impossible to separate or untangle

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“What was left of him, rotted beneath what was left of the nightshirt, had become inextricable from the bed in which he lay; and upon him and upon the pillow beside him lay that even coating of the patient and biding dust.”

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1. The narrator thinks that Miss Emily’s father tried hard to...

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1. Make sure that Miss Emily would never marry
2. Isolate Emily form the world as she grew up
3. Find a suitable husband for Miss Emily
4. Give his daughter everything as a doting father

2. In the beginning, what did the town’s officials want Miss Emily to do after her father passed?

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1. Volunteer in political campaigns
2. Pay her taxes
3. Clean her front yard
4. Paint her decaying house

3. Throughout the story and her life, the townspeople considered Miss Emily as all of these except...

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1. Peculiar
2. Pitiful
3. Violent
4. arrogant

4. What is Homer Barron’s occupation?

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1. Mayor of Jefferson
2. Local farmer in the south producing limes
3. Businessman from the north
4. Laborer for a sidewalk paving company

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5. What is the name of Miss Emily’s African-American Servant?

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1. Alfred
2. Jeeves
3. Jenkins
4. Tobe

6. Which does not foreshadow the ending of the story?

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1. Buying the rat poison
2. Refusing having a house number
3. The request for her to pay her taxes
4. The bad smell coming from her house

7. What did they find in Miss Emily’s house at the end of the story

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1. A dirty house
2. Homer Barron’s rotting corpse
3. Everything was stolen
4. Miss Emily’s ghost

8. After they notice a weird smell coming from Emily’s home, what does Judge Stevens do?

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1. Sprinkle lime on around the house
2. Has her move out to clean it
3. He has people break in the house and clean it
4. Plant flowers around the house

9. What is Emily’s response to when the druggist asks why she’s buying the arsenic?

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1. She doesn’t rile up a response
2. She replies that it’s to kill rats
3. She jokes that she’s going to kill someone
4. She says it’s just for future use

10. How many roses does Miss Emily receive?

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1. Two
2. None
3. One
4. Over a dozen each day

1. A 6. C
2. B 7. B
3. C 8. A
4. D 9. A
5. D 10. B

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“Then we noticed that in the second pillow was the indentation 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.”

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“...only Miss Emily's house was left, lifting its stubborn and coquettish decay above the cotton wagons and the gasoline pumps – an eyesore among eyesores.

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“Alive, Miss Emily had been a tradition, a duty, and a care; a sort of hereditary obligation upon the town…”

1. What would you do for love?

If your lover, best friend, spouse, child, etc. was undergoing medical treatments and a doctor informs you of a procedure that gives them a 100% full recovery rate at a very high, but you have insufficient funds to pay for its ridiculous expense. Would you be willing to go against the law?

• If you were told something or someone would eventually lead to your own horrible demise, would you still affiliate yourself with that person or object?

Ie. an article circulates around the internet that the wax holding store-bought noodles has been known to cause cancer… Would you still enjoy the pleasurable aspects of it?

• How long does it take for someone to truly let go and move on?

Miss Emily never did; she literally had a skeleton in her closet.

• When presented with a new concept, do you accept it right away or question it?

Say you learn a new math formula, do you follow its sequence because some professional or reputable website or do you try to put logic and reasoning behind it.