A Rose for Emily William Faulkner's short story

The story is set in a small town in the American South in the post-Civil War years. Only in this milieu would the story be believable--the chivalrous protection of Miss Emily, the payment of her taxes by Colonel Sartoris, and the odd behavior tolerated in a small town to the point of the suspected murder of a lover. Colonel Sartoris invented a complicated tale to explain his payment of the taxes to the effect that Miss Emily's father had loaned money to the town, and this was how the officials preferred to repay. "Only a man of Colonel Sartoris' generation and thought could have invented it, and only a woman could have believed it" (77).

Only in a small southern town of this era could a wo

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h and rusty, as if from disuse (82). These details help us understand the relationship between these two characters, a post Civil War relationship of mistress and "slave." The character of Homer Barron is necessary for the story to unfold. He was a Yankee, a big, dark, ready man. Tie was the street-paver foreman who soon knew everyone in town and drank with the younger men at the Elks' Club. He told his drinking companions that he was not a marrying man. This trait provides the "last straw" for Miss Emily. He is her last hope. She is getting older, and her father had run off all previous suitors years ago. Homer Barron's disinterest in marrying Emily is sufficient motivation for her to poison him with arsenic. Point of View The point of view in "A Rose for Emily" is a first person narrative, in this case, the plural we. The story reads as if several of the townspeople tell it together, randomly rambling about the various happenings surrounding Emily, her history, and her death. This first person plural point of view allows the story to develop in a folksy, graphic way, as neighbors might gossip and tell stories to each other about what "so and so" did, as small town southern people do. This point of view allows l
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Some common words found in the essay are:
Rose Emily, Symbol Faulkner, Kirszner Mandell, Miss Emily, Colonel Sartoris, Rose Emily--conflict, Colonel Sartoris', Otherwise Emily, Barron Negro, Homer Barron, colonel sartoris, rose emily, miss emily, unable believe, kirszner mandell, murder lover, southern town era, jefferson , city authorities, city officials, colonel, believe happy life, taxes jefferson , unable believe happy, colonel sartoris,
Approximate Word count = 1288
Approximate Pages = 5 (250 words per page)

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