Essay about Southern Decay

Submitted By mawaters09
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Southern Decay William Faulkner’s “A Rose for Emily” is an intriguing parable that uses grotesque imagery to explore a culture unable to cope with its own decline. The short story takes place in the South, during a time period of racial discrimination and major political change. Miss Emily Grierson, the main character, is the subject of many tongues in the decrepit town of Jefferson because she chooses to seclude herself inside her home away from the outside world. An unusual timeline, present to past and past to present, produces confusion for the reader but signifies the confusion of Miss Emily’s life. Emily is a woman who has experienced a life full of loneliness, denial, and decay. Miss Emily has never married, and as a young woman the townspeople believed “…that the Griersons held themselves a little too high for what they really were.” (Faulkner par 25). Her father is a very controlling man who believes that no man is good enough for his daughter. However, after his death she falls in love with a Northerner, named Homer Baron, who is in town to pave the sidewalks. Their love affair ends almost as quickly as it begins. It is evident that Homer does not want to be married because he is overheard in a tavern remarking “—that he was not a marrying man.” (Faulkner par 43). After the paving contract is over, Homer is seen visiting Emily one evening and that is the last of their affair. He is never seen again, or so the narrator leads the reader to believe. It is imposed that Homer has left the town and that Miss Emily is again alone, except for her single Negro companion who doubles as a cook and butler. She visits the druggist and buys poison, arsenic to be exact. Miss Emily is again alone, because her only chance at happiness has left her, so she intends to kill herself. However, the shocking twist illustrates that Miss Emily has killed her lover and kept him locked in their wedding room for decades. Emily cannot keep her living lover with her, so she murders him in order to fulfill a vacancy in her heart and life. Miss Emily does not accept reality throughout the story. After the death of her father, she refuses to believe that he is dead and tells ladies from the town “that her father was not dead.” (Faulkner par 27). She continues this belief for several days until she eventually breaks down and allows her father’s body to be lain to rest. Similarly, she keeps Homer’s body locked in a room. Miss Emily refuses to accept that he is leaving her, so she murders him. Night after night, she lies in the bed beside his body and the aspect of necrophilia is introduced when the townspeople “…noticed that in the second pillow was the indentation of a head…we saw a long strand of iron-gray hair.” (Faulkner par 60). This twist again reiterates the conception that she was incapable of facing rejection and
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