COMP 2 Essays - A Rose For Emily, Emily, Fiction,

COMP 2 DISCUSSION 1 A. Brooks and Warren suggest that "A Rose for Emily" is "a story of horror" where "we have a decaying mansion in which the protagonist, shut away from the world, grows into something monstrous." Brooks and Warren go on to ask the question, "Is the horror meaningful?" If the horror of "A Rose for Emily" is meaningful, what does it mean? A. William Faulkner's "A Rose for Emily" is a story of the decaying southern morals and the negligence of an image obsessed society attempting to hide the unthinkable to hinder their inevitable downfall. The prevalent horror is that the town will no longer be the same due to the sinful acts of Emily, decaying the towns outward appearance. As stated by Cleanth Brooks Jr. and Robert Penn Warren, "Just as the horror of her deed lies outside the ordinary life of the community, so the magnificence of her independence lies outside their ordinary virtues." If the problem is not addressed, then the problem will not be an issue, and the town will remain in the monotony they have grown accustom to. Likewise, another horror that is evident in "A Rose for Emily" is the incentive that has captured the town to ignore the murder that has occurred in order to try to keep the last fragments of their town from being destroyed, just like the south during this post-civil war time period. The meaning of thi s horror is that a society can become so twisted into preserving the image they meticulously hand crafted, that they will ignore and cover twisted acts, such as Emily's murder of Homer, in order to preserve that image because the thought of the unknown consequences to the towns image petrifies them. Emily's past is also a horror story due to her condemning father that manipulated her every action. Emily was victim of lack of control, lashing out in an attempt to have a sliver of control in order to understand her situation. Emily was a victim to patriarchal control and by killing homer, she not only killed the monopolizing patriarchal image of the town, but now controls them, even in death, through the murder. She lingers on their minds every day and now has the town hiding what she has done. The town may think Emily lacks intelligence and self-discipline because of her actions, but in reality, she, the matriarchy, has taken victory to the patriarchy town, just like the North took v ictory to the South; it is the changing of societal norms that also occurred with the decaying south. The final horror in "A Rose For Emily" is that Emily was striving for control her whole life and in that strife for power, her happiness was depleted until she found control through killing Homer, a metaphor for her home. Once she killed homer, a reference to her home, her past trials and tribulations where lifted, thus allowing her to finally achieve happiness and subsequently freedom. As stated by Yona Kifer, Daniel Heller, Wei Qi Elaine Perunovic, Adam D. Galinsky, "Although striving for power lowers well-being, these results demonstrate the pervasive positive psychological effects of having power, and indicate the importance of spreading power to enhance collective well-being.", which is what occurred to Emily when she murdered Homer, the feeling of freedom. http://journals.sagepub.com/doi/abs/10.1177/0956797612450891