Miss Emily Grierson Made Her Feel Essay - 1,364 words

Michael Palomo Palomo 1 In William Faulkner's "A Rose for Emily" there are numerous aspects of the plot that can be explored. The use of conflict, foreshadowing, and flashbacks throughout the story form the plot along with its characters. The plot's stages can be traced throughout the story. The start and end of the exposition, climax, and resolution can be identified. There is also a protagonist and a few antagonists in this story. The story is based on the life of a southern woman and the outcome of probably her one and only relationship with a man.


I will in the following paragraphs illustrate the use of the previously mentioned tools in the story. The story opens with the death of Miss Emily Grierson, the subject of the story. The fact that the story begins in medias res or in the midst of the story is an example of manipulation of the chronological order of the story (Kirszner and Mandell 65). This tool used by authors enhances the way a story is told.


Another form of manipulating the order of when events are exposed is through the use of flashbacks. Faulkner relies on this to describe the events leading up to Emily's death. Throughout the story the narrator goes back to different events to introduce characters such as her father, her Negro servant, Homer Barron, and the Board of Aldermen. An example of this would be when the narrator states, "We did not even know she was sick; we had long since given up on getting any information from the Negro. " (86) Within these flashbacks, the author inserts examples of foreshadowing. When an author uses foreshadowing they are trying to give the reader an insight to the events about to unfold later on in the story (68). Palomo 2 One example of this would be when the aldermen go to visit Emily to serve her with a notice of the taxes she owes.


The author writes, "So she vanquished them, horse and foot, just as she had vanquished their fathers thirty years before about the smell. " (82) This statement was an example of foreshadowing in that it evoked the reader to ask him / herself "what smell?" . The smell would be the rotting corpse of her dead lover Homer Barron, which was revealed at the end of the story. The cause of his death was also foreshadowed in the text. Emily had gone to the drugstore and asked for arsenic. When the druggist informed her that by law he was obligated to ask her the purpose for the arsenic, she looked at him "eye to eye, until he looked away and got the arsenic and wrapped it up. " (84) The use of flash backs and foreshadowing by the author help him establish the storyline and introduce the conflicts that the protagonist must face. The conflicts that Emily had with some of the characters and herself shaped her in the eyes of the reader.


Emily was a woman that had been raised around the time of the Civil War in a prominent family. This fact kept her from having a normal life. Her father never felt any man was worthy of courting her. After he died, she searched for that happiness she felt she deserved, but always maintained the noblesse oblige whenever in public. The denial she exhibited at her father's passing was the same denial she felt when she realized that Homer could one day leave her, too.


The culmination of her father's death and no big inheritance made her feel as if though her life was spinning out of control. She could not bear the thought of being without Homer and alone with nothing. This is why she killed him and still slept by him all those years. His death created a conflict with her moral character, which is why she became a recluse.


Palomo 3 Aside from this struggle, Emily had now also become an old lady surrounded by a new generation of towns people and leaders. She ...................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................

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Essay Tags: town people, homer barron, rose for emily, miss emily grierson, made her feel

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