A Rose for Emily

            Life is fickle and most people will be a victim of their surroundings, circumstances and the times. Some people choose not to let circumstances rule them and, as they say, "time waits for no man."" In the story, "A Rose For Emily- by William Faulkner, Emily did not have the individual confidence, or maybe self esteem and self worth, to believe that she could stand alone and succeed at life especially in the face of changing times. She had always been ruled by, and depended on, men to protect, defend and act for her. From her father, to Homer Baron, all her life was dependent on men. Life is sad and tragic; some of which is made for us and some of which we make ourselves. In this story, to a great extent, the environment influences Miss Emily's relationship between Homer Barron, and the two generations of the townspeople. Several literary elements such as setting, characterization, and theme depict the environment's huge influence on Miss Emily's relationships.
             The great extent to which the environment influences the relationships between Miss Emily and Homer Barron and the two generations of the townspeople is evident in the literary element of setting. Faulkner uses the element of time to enhance details of the setting and vice versa. By avoiding the chronological order of events of Miss Emily's life, Faulkner first gives me a finished puzzle, and then allows me to examine this puzzle piece by piece, step by step. By doing so, he enhances the plot and presents two different perspectives of time held by the characters. The first perspective (the world of the present) views time as a "mathematical progression" in which the past is a "diminishing road- (537). The second perspective (the world of tradition and the past) views the past as "a huge meadow which no winter ever quite touches, divided from them now by the narrow bottleneck of the most recent decade of years- (537).