Cultural Criticism of A Rose For Emily

A Rose For Emily

A.    When William Faulkner returned to Oxford, Mississippi after World War I, America was changing dramatically. In reading A Rose for Emily I feel there is a definite connection to the history of the South and the changes it was facing in the aftermath of World War I. America began dealing with its own problems expanding industries in all directions. Cars were introduced on a large scale and were affordable to working class citizens. Wages were higher than ever and technology allowed people to improve their lives being able to travel places they only heard of before. Roads were improved all over with the introduction of cars. Many new businesses opened along these roads and people realized they could now easily live in the country and travel by car to their city jobs. America was improving and expanding at a rapid rate. The North and the South became much more integrated. The South experienced drastic changes and I feel this is expressed in the story through Emily not being able to leave go of the past. I will look at the contrasting interests of the different generations of Jefferson society, how the story relates to the history of the South, and the theme of isolation.

B.      Miss Emily seems to represent the Old South. She is “considered a ‘monument’ of Southern manners and an ideal of past values” refusing to become a part of new society ("WowEssays.com"). She had been a tradition and a hereditary obligation upon the town since 1894 when Colonel Sartoris remitted her taxes, the same man who “fathered the edict that no Negro woman should appear on the streets without an apron” (Faulkner 409). This shows that she is stuck in the past, a past that suppressed its people. By not being able to let go of the past, it seems she is now the one being suppressed. She is the last of an old Southern family still clinging to the past even when “Colonel Sartoris had been dead almost ten years” (410). With him died the old generation but Miss Emily stubbornly refuses to move on. This is symbolized through her house “lifting its stubborn and coquettish decay above the cotton wagons and the gasoline pumps- an eye-sore among eyesores” (409).

C.     Isolation is a prevalent theme in the story. It seems that Emily’s father prevented her from a social education. His “spraddled silhouette in the foreground, his back to her and clutching a horsewhip” (411) is symbolic of how he kept her in isolation: “[w]e remembered all the young men her father had driven away, and we knew that with nothing left, she would have to cling to that which had robbed her” (411). The suppression by her father had kept her in ignorance of a changing society. She knew nothing only the old traditions she was thought by her father. When he died the house was all that was left of the family’s history, a place frozen in time and people were glad as they “believed that the Griersons held themselves a little too high for what they really were” (411). They could finally pity her for becoming humanized: “[n]ow she too would know the old thrill and the old despair of a penny more or less” (411). It’s as if the whole town wants to flush out the old ways and traditions of the South and move on. They see Emily as a hindrance, an obstacle in the way of society’s progress.

D.    The new generation is adamant with moving forward with social change. A member of the rising generation requests that Miss Emily cleans up her house as it’s causing a smell and a bother to the neighbors but the older men of the board still respect her status from the old generation. The 80 year old mayor, Judge Stevens is stunned at the idea of accusing “a lady to her face of smelling bad” (411), so it is decided to spread lime around her property in secret. The smell dissipated shortly after. It seems that the older men see Miss Emily as representative of the old traditions and values of the South; and even though they’ve accepted social changes themselves, they don’t want to see the new generation bothering this martyr of the old Southern society which has suppressed her to a life of solitude.

    

E.     Some interpretations see A Rose for Emily as a conflict between North and South; however, I disagree with this view. I feel Homer Barron is a symbol of the ever growing and expanding America. He symbolizes improving connections between the North and the South becoming well known and liked by everyone in Jefferson: “[p]retty soon he knew everyone in town” (412).  Homer Barron was on the forefront of an ever changing society but Miss Emily was unwilling to let go of the past. It was all she knew. He was her last chance at happiness and escaping a life of isolation so when she realized he would not slow down for her or give her what she wanted, she took it for herself. Finally she could keep a man that her father could not chase away or society could take away.  By killing him he became a rose for Emily that she brooded over: “we saw a long strand of iron-gray hair” (415). I feel that just as this represents an isolated woman desperately clinging to love; it also has a connection to the history of the South at the time.

    

F.      It seems that Homer represented the expansion of America after World War I. Construction expanded at a rapid rate, and perhaps too fast to foresee what was coming. The Great depression hit and all that Homer stood for came crashing down. The construction industry collapsed and America was in disarray: “In the first 10 months of 1930 alone, 744 US banks went bankrupt and savers lost their savings” (Slothower). It seems that just like a rose, Homer (America) was magnificent in his bloom; but paved the way for his own destruction moving too fast for society to keep up, crumpling and withering just like a rose at a funeral. Maybe if he had slowed down, they would have lived happily together and faced the economic downturn with more knowledge of the setbacks a construction boom can cause.

G.    In Conclusion the Great Depression began in 1929, two years before A Rose for Emily was published in 1931. I feel this strengthens the idea that the story is based on a history of the South at that time. The South experienced many changes going from the construction boom of the nineteen-twenties to the Great depression. The changes in society and attitudes to these changes are expressed in the story through the contrasting perspectives of the old and new generations. There is a definite connection to the history of the South explored through Homer Barron symbolizing the North and the expansion of America, and Miss Emily holding on to past ideals and traditions. The theme of isolation is prevalent throughout the text. I feel this theme instills a moral in the story that society will leave us behind if we are unwilling to change with the times. However we need to be wary of these changing times as they are not always positive and maybe it is wise to hold on to some past ideals and traditions as we never know when we may have to fall back on them.

2.      CULTURAL CRITICISM OF A ROSE FOR EMILY

Faulkner paid very special attention to the theme of the Civil War in the US in his works. And “A Rose for Emily” is not an exception in fact. The whole atmosphere of the story is gloomy and depressed and reflects the attitude of the southerners to the happened tragedy. I think that in some part miss Emily personified the soul of the whole country (Southern States) and the narrator himself  always uses pronoun “we”. It is like collective image of a certain person, but in this case the part of the country – the Nothern States: “We did not say she was crazy then. We believed she had to do that. We remembered all the young men her father had driven away, and we knew that with nothing left, she would have to cling to that which had robbed her, as people will” (Faulkner,1930). I think the author used such an allegory to show what was the difference between the defeater and the lost side. Faulkner made a stress on these two aspects to make the reader understand the fact how miserable and wretched looked in old days arrogant and self-complacent southerners. The society felt sorry for Miss Emily but all this compassion seems to be artificial and fake. They just wanted her to show their so called “Charity of the Winner” but in fact she did not need their mercy.

The author starts the story describing the death of Miss Emily and then telling some facts about her late life and attitude to the events that influenced her life. Miss Emily was like a splinter of an old Civilization, the culture and life of Southern States. She was still using Afro-American servant and do not let anyone into her life.

When her father died, the society felt gladness: “When her father died, it got about that the house was all that was left to her; and in a way, people were glad. At last they could pity Miss Emily. Being left alone, and a pauper, she had become humanized. Now she too would know the old thrill and the old despair of a penny more or less” (Fsulkner, 1930), they also felt gladness when her fiancé “left” her. They just felt gladness as if she got her bitters for her arrogance and defiance. It was essential thing for that time.

In the field of personal tragedy of Miss Emily (she lost everything) Faulkner showed the tragedy of the whole nation: at the beginning rich, prosperous and arrogant and in the end beggary, spiteful and still arrogant. The author masterfully showed the typical image of the post war southerner: spirit of the southerner was living inside and nothing could defeat it.

In short passages the author showed masterfully the difference between the generations. The development showed that people have changed and their attitude to such an odd as Miss Emily was changed also. They did know nothing about so called “Southern Code of Honor” which was provided by the Colonel Sartoris and that is why came to take taxes from her. Her pupils were also the daughters and then granddaughters of the old colonel but in the end they did not sent their children: “Then the newer generation became the backbone and the spirit of the town, 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” (Faulkner, 1930). The generation changed and changed the attitude. Miss Emily and her life during all this period was something like an entertainment in Jefferson. Everyone of them was interested in her life. Everyone wanted to know more about her, but she do not let anyone of them. She wanted to keep all her secrets. And they were kept up until her death.

She poisoned her fiancé and all the time he was lying upstairs on the second floor and she was visiting him for some time. It was like a habit, probably, awful, terrible, even horrible habit. She probably did not understand what she had made. She just did not believe that he was gone. He was always near, as her father, colonel Sartoris and other phantoms of an Old Sothern Civilization that was destroyed by the Civil War in the United States. She was one of the last pieces of this civilization, and with her was buried a part of a living history of the flourishing South that turned into a desert, arrogant desert of insularity and conceit. It is essential as the whole atmosphere of post-war society was assisting to the fact.

3.      CONCLUSSION

In conclusion, there are many aspects that were incorporated into “A Rose for Emily”. William Faulkner was able to create a story involving many ideas about society and how it functioned in a specific time period in the South. To further examine “A Rose for Emily”, one can use the reader response criticism and analyze the aspects of the hidden message found within the story, race found through anthropology, and gender found through anthropology. “A Rose for Emily” is an important element in literature due to examination of the effects of change created in the olden South. This story serves a good example for future generations.

Sources:

The Norton Introduction to Literature Website.2005. William Faulkner, "A Rose for Emily". 18th of October 2009.

Morton, Clay (2005). "'A Rose for Emily': Oral Plot, Typographic Story," Storytelling: A Critical Journal of Popular Narrative 5.1.