The Modern Short StoryA Rose for Emily READING 2B Relate the text Short Story by William Faulkner structures of mythic literature to 20th and 21st century VIDEO TRAILER KEYWORD: HML11-1064A American novels, plays, or films. 5A Evaluate how different literary elements shape the author’s portrayal of Meet the Author the plot and setting in works of fiction. 5C Analyze the impact of narration when the narrator’s point of view shifts from one William Faulkner 1897–1962 character to another. Today, William Faulkner is considered typical reader’s desire for a coherent, one of the literary giants of the 20th chronological story. His novels weave century. This distinction didn’t come numerous flashbacks into multiple easily, however. Faulkner took a while to story lines. They push sentence length find himself and his subject. Only after to new limits, and two of his best- he decided to focus on his home state known modernist works increase the did you know? of Mississippi and his colorful family reader’s challenge by using several highly history was the full force of his creativity unreliable narrators to tell the story. The William Faulkner . . . unleashed. Over an astonishing 13- Sound and the Fury has three first-person • dropped out of high year span, Faulkner churned out one narrators (see pages 934-935). As I Lay school and took only a masterpiece after another—among them, Dying has fifteen. The story of a mother’s few college classes as a special student. The Sound and the Fury (1929), As I Lay dying wish, Faulkner’s fifth novel Dying (1930), Sanctuary (1931), Absalom, switches narrators with each chapter, • worked almost three years at the post Absalom! (1936), and Go Down, Moses supplying readers with the perspective office, where he was (1942). Of these artistic achievements, only of various family members and others considered lazy and Sanctuary was a bestseller—partly due to its involved in the story. It is anything but inattentive, before he scandalous subject matter—and none of the an easy read. resigned. books earned Faulkner enough money to Resurgence In 1946, an enterprising support his growing family. Although some editor named Malcolm Cowley published critics raved about him, many others agreed The Portable Faulkner, a collection of with the New York Times that his South stories and novel excerpts that untangled was “too often vicious, depraved, decadent, Faulkner’s elaborate saga. Cowley’s corrupt.” By 1945, most of his books were blueprint plus a helpful introduction out of print. sparked new interest in Faulkner. With Narrative Challenges A glance gla the anxieties of the Great Depression and at Faulkner’s work would World War II behind them, more readers explain why readers and critics were ready to accept Faulkner’s challenge wrote resisted his fiction. He w to revisit the crimes and passions of the narratives on the cutting edge South—and America itself—through a of the new modernism, aand modern consciousness. refused for the most part, he refu to compromise with the Author Online Go to thinkcentral.com. KEYWORD: HML11-1064B 1064 only Miss Emily’s house was left. lifting its stubborn and whom does the narrator 10 coquettish decay above the cotton wagons and the gasoline pumps—an eyesore speak? among eyesores. 1066 unit 5: the harlem renaissance and modernism . 1. the story portrays social customs of the small-town South at the turn of the 20th century. Rose Emily A for William Faulkner background “A Rose for Emily. Mississippi. the women mostly out of curiosity to see the inside of her house. the seventies: the 1870s. takes place in the fictional Yoknapatawpha County. But garages point of view in the and cotton gins had encroached and obliterated even the august names of opening paragraph. 2. decorated Identify the first-person- plural pronoun that with cupolas and spires and scrolled balconies in the heavily lightsome style of establishes Faulkner’s the seventies. And now Miss Emily had gone to join the representatives of those august names where they lay in the cedar-bemused2 cemetery among the ranked and anonymous graves of Union and Confederate soldiers who fell at the battle of Jefferson. our whole town went to her funeral: the men through a sort of respectful affection for a fallen monument.1 set on what had once been our most select street. a a point of view It was a big. For that neighborhood. Published in 1930. Be warned that the narrator refers to African Americans with a term that is offensive to contemporary readers. squarish frame house that had once been white. cedar-bemused: almost lost in cedar trees.” like the majority of Faulkner’s stories. which no one save an old manservant—a combined gardener and cook—had seen in at least ten years. I When Miss Emily Grierson died. . to the effect that she no longer went out at all. asking her to call at the sheriff ’s office at her convenience. and only a woman could have believed it. and of that pallid hue. like a body long submerged in motionless water.3 Not that Miss Emily would have accepted 20 charity. and received in reply a note on paper of an archaic shape. with its more modern ideas. leaning on an ebony cane with a tarnished gold head. A week later the mayor wrote her himself. this arrangement created some little dissatisfaction. remitted . and when they sat down. lost in the fatty ridges of her face. 30 flowing calligraphy in faded ink. Didn’t you get a notice from the sheriff. Colonel Sartoris invented an involved tale to the effect that Miss Emily’s father had loaned money to the town. “I have no taxes in Jefferson. On a tarnished gilt easel before the fireplace stood a crayon portrait of Miss Emily’s father. February came. The Negro led them Why might Faulkner have into the parlor. They rose when she entered—a small. 40 spinning with slow motes in the single sun-ray. without comment. The tax notice was also enclosed. It was furnished in heavy. . 1068 unit 5: the harlem renaissance and modernism . She looked bloated. It smelled of dust and disuse—a close. Perhaps one of you can gain access to the city records and what feeling they create. On the first of the year they mailed her a tax notice. became mayors and aldermen. a sort of hereditary obligation upon the town. They wrote her a formal letter. the dispensation dating from the death of her father on into perpetuity. shadow. A deputation waited Explain when the events of the story’s upon her. the mayor—he who fathered the edict that no Negro woman should appear on the streets without an apron—remitted her taxes. as a matter of business. They were admitted in relation to those by the old Negro into a dim hall from which a stairway mounted into still more described in lines 15–31. dating from that day in 1894 when Colonel Sartoris. and a care. about her life? Explain. Her skeleton was small and spare. c c MOOD 50 She did not ask them to sit. knocked at the door through which no visitor had passed since she first paragraph happen ceased giving china-painting lessons eight or ten years earlier. We are the city authorities. fat woman in black. satisfy yourselves. When the chosen to immediately announce Emily’s death Negro opened the blinds of one window. perhaps that was why what would have been merely plumpness in another was obesity in her. Alive. When the next generation. a faint dust rose sluggishly about their thighs. with a thin gold chain descending to her waist and vanishing into her belt. offering to call or to send his car for her. b b ANALYZE SEQUENCE They called a special meeting of the Board of Aldermen. Miss Emily had been a tradition. leather-covered furniture. . She just stood in the door and listened quietly until What is your initial reaction to Emily? the spokesman came to a stumbling halt. and there was no reply. Only a man of Colonel Sartoris’ generation and thought could have invented it. Her eyes. Miss Emily. they could see that the leather was before revealing more cracked. figurative language in Her voice was dry and cold. Colonel Sartoris lines 42–49 and explain explained it to me. looked like two small pieces of coal pressed into a lump of dough as they moved from one face to another while the visitors stated their errand. in a thin.” “But we have. which the town. Then they could hear the invisible watch Cite two examples of ticking at the end of the gold chain. a duty. dank smell. preferred this way of repaying. perpetuity: released her from paying taxes forever from the time of her father’s death. signed by him?” 3. teeming world and the high and mighty Griersons.” he said. a Then. A neighbor.” That townspeople’s perceptions of his main character. That was two years after her father’s death and a short time after her sweetheart—the one we believed would marry her—had deserted her. Judge. A few of the ladies had the temerity to temerity (tE-mDrPG-tC) n.” II So she vanquished them. Miss Emily—” “See Colonel Sartoris. after her sweetheart went away. madam?” he said.4 “We really must do something about it.) “I have no taxes in Jefferson. gossip and the conflict Give her a certain time to do it in. Think about “Dammit.” “But. complained to the mayor. We must go by the—” “See Colonel Sartoris. diffident deprecation: timid disapproval. in the dialogue. horse and foot.” (Colonel Sartoris had been dead almost ten years. As they recrossed the lawn. I’d be the summary to include the last one in the world to bother Miss Emily. “It’s probably just a snake point of view here—first or a rat that nigger of hers killed in the yard. a rose for emily 1069 . eighty years old. “Just as if a man—any man—could keep a kitchen properly. her. people hardly saw her at all.” Judge Stevens said. . Faulkner’s unique “I’m sure that won’t be necessary. They broke open the cellar door the points of view of a and sprinkled lime there. After a week or would the use of multiple narrators affect this story? two the smell went away. one of window that had been dark was lighted and Miss Emily sat in it. . “Isn’t there a law?” events in Miss Emily’s life. Reread lines 65–88. “Show these gentlemen out. “will you accuse a lady to her face of how the point of view smelling bad?” d might change if Faulkner So the next night. sniffing along the base of the brickwork and to tell Miss Emily’s story.” 60 “But there is nothing on the books to show that. and the only sign of life about the place was the Negro foolish boldness man—a young man then—going in and out with a market basket. for example. and in all the outbuildings. a woman. 70 call. you see.” Miss Emily said. Tobe!” The Negro appeared. at the cellar openings while one of them performed a regular sowing motion with He could. “Send her word to have her place cleaned up. . but were not received. send her word to stop it.” the woman said. I have no taxes in Jefferson. a neighbor woman. 4. night the Board of Aldermen met—three graybeards and one younger man. the light behind the complaining citizens. “Perhaps he considers himself the sheriff . . and if she don’t . so TEKS 5C they were not surprised when the smell developed. Faulkner captures both “It’s simple enough.” Judge Stevens said. paragraph summarizes “Why. They crept quietly across and the judge. four men crossed Miss Emily’s lawn and had the length of a novel 90 slunk about the house like burglars. Notice that the opening “But what will you have me do about it. After her father’s death she went out very little. member of the rising generation. but we’ve got to do something. after midnight.” among small-town perspectives. one from a man who came in possible for this narrative diffident deprecation. sir. I’ll speak to him about it. write entire passages from his hand out of a sack slung from his shoulder. “I received a paper. How the lawn and into the shadow of the locusts that lined the street. Judge Stevens. and her upright torso motionless as that of an idol.” person plural—makes it 80 The next day he received two more complaints. just as she had vanquished their fathers thirty years before about the smell. yes. It was another link between the d POINT OF VIEW gross.” the ladies said. I have no taxes in Jefferson. person-plural point of The day after his death all the ladies prepared to call at the house and offer view. a Yankee—a big. Whenever you heard a lot of laughing anywhere about the Cite evidence from the square. Now she too would know the is told from the first- old thrill and the old despair of a penny more or less. and a foreman named Homer paragraphs.” But there were still others. III She was sick for a long time. not dead. and a pauper. e e GRAMMAR AND STYLE When her father died. her hair was cut short. older people. At first we were glad that Miss Emily would have an interest. Miss Emily met them at the door. her father a spraddled silhouette in the foreground. The pronouns we and our and in a way. a day laborer. What is Faulkner’s summer after her father’s death they began the work. and we knew that with nothing left. as is our custom. had gone completely 100 crazy at last. buggy and the matched team of bays from the livery stable. she broke down. She did that for three days. noblesse oblige (nI-blDsP I-blCzhP): the responsibility of people in a high social position to behave in a noble fashion. believed that the Griersons held themselves a little too high for what they really were. with a vague resemblance to those angels in colored church windows—sort of tragic and serene. and they buried her father quickly. ready man. a in white in the background. everybody in town. she had become humanized. When we saw her again. because the ladies all said. Homer Barron would be in the center of the group. and in the Reread lines 119–124. “Of course a Grierson would not think seriously of a Northerner. and which Barron. with a big voice and eyes lighter than personal pronoun signals his face. The construction company point of view in these came with niggers and mules and machinery. with the ministers calling on her. She told them that her father was townspeople. remembering how old lady Wyatt. dark. she would have to cling to that which had robbed her. who said that even grief could not cause a real lady to forget noblesse oblige5—without calling it noblesse oblige. 1070 unit 5: the harlem renaissance and modernism . it got about that the house was all that was left to her. even with insanity in the family she wouldn’t have turned down all of her chances if they had really materialized. Just as they were about to resort to law and force. At last they could pity Miss Emily. We 120 remembered all the young men her father had driven away. So when she got to be thirty and was still single. dramatic scene or picture his back to her and clutching a horsewhip. f f PoiNT of ViEw The town had just let the contracts for paving the sidewalks. Being left indicate that this story 110 alone. and the doctors. People in our town. her great-aunt. The little boys would follow in groups to hear him cuss the niggers. That was when people had begun to feel really sorry for her. making her look like a girl. we were not pleased exactly. We did not say she was crazy then. dressed a single character. but the collective voice of the as usual and with no trace of grief on her face. the two of them framed by the back- flung front door. We believed she had to do that. trying to persuade her to let them dispose of the body. None of the young men were quite good enough for Miss Emily and such. Miss Emily a slender figure tableau (tBbPlIQ) n. The narrator is not condolence and aid. people were glad. We had long thought of them as a tableau. but vindicated. Pretty soon he knew what makes this point of view unique in fiction. Presently we began story to support your to see him and Miss Emily on Sunday afternoons driving in the yellow-wheeled answer. Reread lines 98–107. the point of view? Explain 130 and the niggers singing in time to the rise and fall of picks. 5. as people will. She was over thirty then. It was as if she demanded more than ever the recognition of her dignity 150 as the last Grierson. but years ago her father had fallen out with them over the estate of old lady Wyatt. “I want some poison.” the whispering began. .” and while the two female cousins (Gm-pûrPvC-Es-nEs) n. They just said. rustling of craned silk and satin behind jalousies6 closed upon the sun of Sunday afternoon as the thin. “Poor Emily. haughty black eyes in a face the flesh of which was strained across the temples and about the eye-sockets as you imagine a lighthouse-keeper’s face ought to look. What else could . “Of course it is. Like when she bought the rat poison. and there was no communication between the two families.” She had some kin 140 in Alabama.” She carried her head high enough—even when we believed that she was fallen. the arsenic. as if it had wanted that touch of earthiness to reaffirm her imperviousness. swift clop-clop- clop of the matched team passed: “Poor Emily. “Do you suppose it’s really so?” they said to one another. .” This behind their hands. or disturbed “I want some poison. 6. That was over imperviousness a year after they had begun to say “Poor Emily. a rose for emily 1071 .” she said. “Poor Emily. still a slight woman. with cold. an inability to be affected were visiting her. jalousies (jBlPE-sCz): blinds or shutters containing overlapping slats that can be opened or closed. Her kinsfolk should come to her. though thinner than usual.” she said to the druggist. the crazy woman. They had not even been represented at the funeral. And as soon as the old people said. with the letters H.” 160 The druggist named several. her head tilted back in order to look him eye for eye. cabal (kE-bBlP) n. and it was known that he drank with the comply with the law? younger men in the Elks’ Club—that he was not a marrying man. and we said it would be the character? What best thing. Miss Emily. or to give her a chance to get rid of the cousins.” the druggist said. ma’am. Two days later we learned that she had bought a complete outfit of men’s clothing. and we were all Miss Emily’s allies to help circumvent the cousins. I don’t care what kind. a group So we were not surprised when Homer Barron—the streets had been finished united in a secret plot some time since—was gone. Miss Emily with her head high and Homer Barron with his hat 180 cocked and a cigar in his teeth.” Then we said. But what you want is—” “Arsenic. We learned that Miss Emily had been to the jeweler’s and ordered a man’s 190 toilet set in silver. until he looked away and went and got the arsenic and wrapped it up. we had said. . B. reins and whip in a yellow glove. . He would never divulge what happened during that interview. “She will kill herself ”. on each piece. arsenic? Yes.” g g anaLYZE SEQUEnCE Reread lines 154–172. The 170 Negro delivery boy brought her the package. “Poor Emily” behind the jalousies as they passed on Sunday afternoon in the glittering buggy. “They’ll kill anything up to an elephant. “Yes. under the skull and bones: “For rats. “Why. “Is that a good one?” “Is . and we said. of course.7 but we believed that he had gone on to prepare for Miss Emily’s coming.” Miss Emily said. blowing-off: here. “They are married. What kind? For rats and such? I’d recom—” “I want the best you have. When she had first begun to be seen with Homer Barron. At first nothing happened. 1072 unit 5: the harlem renaissance and modernism . erect. So she had blood-kin under her roof again and we sat back to watch developments. (By that time it was a cabal. a celebration. The next Sunday they again drove about the streets.” Miss Emily just stared at him. but at last the ladies forced the Baptist minister—Miss Emily’s people were Episcopal—to call upon her.) 7.” We were really glad. including a nightshirt. “She will persuade him yet. but he refused to go back again. foreshadowing do you “She will marry him. Later we said. “If that’s what you want.” The druggist looked down at her. We were glad because the two female cousins were even more Grierson than Miss Emily had ever been. her face like a strained flag. She looked back at him. The men did not want to interfere. But the law requires you to tell what you are going to use it for. But what you want—” “I want arsenic. Then we were sure that they were to be married. the druggist didn’t come back. and the following day the minister’s wife wrote to Miss Emily’s relations in Alabama. What does this exchange IV indicate about Emily’s So the next day we all said.” because Homer sense in her refusal to himself had remarked—he liked men. When she opened the package at home there was written on the box. We were a little disappointed that there was not a public blowing-off. Then some of the ladies began to say that it was a disgrace to the town and a bad example to the young people. and the painting pupils grew up and fell away and did not send their children to her with boxes of color and tedious brushes and pictures cut from the ladies’ magazines. From that time on her front door remained closed. in a heavy walnut bed with a curtain. tranquil. She fitted up a studio in one of the downstairs rooms. Sure enough. this pronoun help to convey the story’s point of view? Support your answer with evidence from the story. we had that “we sent her a tax long since given up trying to get any information from the Negro. as we had expected all along.” She died in one of the downstairs rooms. we could never tell which. inescapable. And. with only a Reread lines 227–233. where the daughters and granddaughters of Colonel Sartoris’ contemporaries were sent to her with the same regularity and in the same spirit that they were sent to church on Sundays with a twenty-five-cent piece for the collection plate. He talked to notice” and “we would no one. but the front door remained closed. And of Miss Emily for some time. impervious. monthly. a rose for emily 1073 . When we next saw Miss Emily. Now and 230 then we would see her in one of the downstairs windows—she had evidently shut up the top floor of the house—like the carven torso of an idol in a niche. like the hair of an active man. she had grown fat and her hair was turning 210 gray. and perverse. probably not even to her. 200 within three days Homer Barron was back in town. The Negro man went in and out with the market basket. Now and then we would see her at a window for a moment. downstairs windows. looking or not looking at us. unclaimed. Thus she passed from generation to generation—dear. whom does “we” indicate? And how does 240 her gray head propped on a pillow yellow and moldy with age and lack of sunlight. A neighbor saw the Negro man admit him at the kitchen door at dusk one evening. as the men did that night when they sprinkled the lime. Then we knew that this was to be expected too. as if see her in one of the from disuse. for his voice had grown harsh and rusty. save for a period of six or seven years. as if that quality of her father which had thwarted her woman’s life so many times had been too virulent and too furious to die. And that was the last we saw of Homer Barron. after another week they departed. h h Point of View And so she died. Each December we sent her a tax notice. which would be returned by the post office a week later. but for almost six months she did not appear on the streets. when she was about forty. when it ceased turning. She would not listen to them. yearly we watched the Negro grow grayer and more stooped. During the next few years it grew grayer and grayer until it attained an even pepper-and-salt iron-gray. going in and out with the market basket. When the town got free postal delivery. during which she gave lessons in china- painting. Meanwhile her taxes had been remitted. Fell ill in the house filled with dust and shadows. 220 Then the newer generation became the backbone and the spirit of the town. Up to the day of her death at seventy-four it was still that vigorous iron-gray. Miss Emily alone refused to let them fasten the metal numbers above her door and attach a mailbox to it. We did not even know she was sick. When the narrator says doddering Negro man to wait on her. The front door closed upon the last one and remained closed for good. Daily. with the crayon face of her father musing profoundly above the bier8 and the ladies sibilant and macabre. They held the funeral on the second day. One a story like “A Rose for of us lifted something from it. Upon a chair hung the suit. i Explain your answer. With “A Rose for 260 rose color. lifted. rotted beneath what was left of the nightshirt. Jones. a huge meadow which no winter ever quite touches. to whom all the past is not a diminishing road but. deeply flawed characters. What makes Then we noticed that in the second pillow was the indentation of a head. divided from them now by the narrow bottle. talking of Miss Emily as if she had been a contemporary of theirs. which. Faulkner’s mythic South For a long while we just stood there. and which would have to be forced. A thin. Gurganus and Edward P. as invented a unique vision if they had just been removed. The two female cousins came at once. Among them lay a collar and tie. believing that they had danced with her and 250 courted her perhaps. had cuckolded Flannery O’Connor to 270 him. TEKS 2B neck of the most recent decade of years.10 What was left of him. i MOOD Already we knew that there was one room in that region above stairs which no This story ends with a one had seen in forty years. They waited until grotesque discovery. beneath it the two mute by gloom and peopled by shoes and the discarded socks. carefully folded. The body had apparently once lain in the attitude of an embrace. Faulkner tarnished that the monogram was obscured. 1074 unit 5: the harlem renaissance and modernism . He walked right through the house and out the back and was not seen again. The man himself lay in the bed. and leaning forward. cuckolded him: made his wife or lover unfaithful to him. we saw a long strand of iron-gray hair. acrid pall: bitter-smelling gloom. that conquers even the grimace of love. but from page one the The violence of breaking down the door seemed to fill this room with author’s dark. upon the delicate Emily” and other stories array of crystal and the man’s toilet things backed with tarnished silver. with the town coming to look at Miss Emily beneath a mass of bought flowers. curious glances. and then he disappeared. instead. 10. looking down at the profound and fleshless has influenced Southern fiction ever since—from grin. left upon the surface a pale crescent of the South—a mythic narrative weighed down in the dust. with their hushed. had more recent fiction by become inextricable from the bed in which he lay. V The Negro met the first of the ladies at the front door and let them in. confusing time with its mathematical progression. Miss Emily was decently in the ground before they opened it. sibilant voices and their quick. bier: coffin along with its stand. but now the the short stories of long sleep that outlasts love. gothic pervading dust. acrid pall9 as of the tomb seemed to lie everywhere upon mood has prepared us for a creepy revelation in this room decked and furnished as for a bridal: upon the valance curtains of faded the end. and the very old men—some in their brushed Confederate uniforms—on the porch and the lawn. 9. as the old do. that faint and invisible dust Emily” so compelling? dry and acrid in the nostrils. 8. silver so and novels. and upon him and upon the writers such as Alan pillow beside him lay that even coating of the patient and biding dust. upon the dressing table. upon the rose-shaded lights.
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