A ROSE FOR EMILY

Because her father is an upper class figure, some of his ways of thinking has "thwarted [Miss Emily's] life" (1013). Miss Emily has always been kept in confined environments that only her father knows what she will do. The event of her father's death is a shock to Miss Emily because the guidance of her father is gone. This explains Miss Emily's behavior after her father's death as well as her reaction to another character, Homer Barron. Homer Barron is the first lower-class person to reach Miss Emily after her father's death. While Miss Emily is still distressed by her father's death, homer's affection brings Miss Emily out of her grief. Homer Barron therefore frees Miss Emily from her reserved nature. However, the news that homer Barron is leaving town for another women pushes Miss Emily to the edge of insanity, While Miss Emily's father and Homer Barron influences Miss Emily to have the confused personality she does, Faulkner also suggests her insane behavior may be inherited. The insanity of Miss Emily's great aunt, old lady Wyatt, suggests that Miss Emily's craziness may be passed on from her family line. By informing the reader about old lady Wyatt's insanity, Faulkner foreshadows Miss Emily's own madness.
             Not only does the author use many details to express Miss Emily's isolation, but he also uses many descriptive words. To suggest Miss Emily's separation from the modern society, Faulkner uses words such as "coquettish decay", "tarnished gold," and "nobles oblique" to depict the past. (1008-1014) Faulkner expands the paradox "coquettish decay" to illustrates the fact that Miss Emily's house is different from any other house in the community (1009). While Miss Emily's house used to be a magnificent building in town, it has now turned to be "an eyesore among eyesores" (1008). With the paradox of coquettish decay, Faulkner contrasts the attractiveness of the house in the past with the unattractiveness of it in the present.