A Rose for Emily

I knew of Faulkner’s “A Rose for Emily” for a long time, but I never actually read it until this class.  When I realized Faulkner wrote this story, I wasn’t sure if I would like it.  My senior English class read The Sound and the Fury last year, and it was an extremely frustrating book to try to read.  I’m glad “A Rose for Emily” wasn’t written in the same stream-of-consciousness style; this style may be interesting or genius to literary scholars, but it is almost impossible to read it without getting a headache.  I liked the way Faulkner wrote this short story.  The point of view is from a third person perspective, but the person telling the story is a member of the community where Emily lived.  As a reader, I felt closer to the story because of this.  It made me feel like part of the town.  It also made the story seem more real, which is important for the shocking ending.  All of the strange little scenes that make up the story let the readers know that Emily is a very different person.  Even though I knew how the story ended before actually reading it, I was still shocked when the neighbors opened the door and found Homer in the bed.  The subtle way that Faulkner suggests that Emily has been sleeping in the bed with Homer’s body with the lines about the indentation on the pillow and the single grey hair is part of what makes it so shocking.  He doesn’t just tell us what has been happening; he makes us figure it out for ourselves.  Another disturbing part of the story that I didn’t see until we discussed it in class was the reaction of the neighbors.  When Emily died, they immediately knew that there was a room in her house that no one had seen in years.  They also noticed when Homer disappeared, and they complained about the smell that came several weeks after that disappearance.  Through all of this, no one bothered to investigate or call the police.  The neighbors all just watched Emily go crazy little by little, gossiping about her the whole time.  “A Rose for Emily” is definitely a creepy story, but I also feel like it is very sad.  Poor Emily went crazy because she was always the gossip of the town.  Her father chased away any of her possible suitors, and when he died she was left all alone.  If any of Miss Emily’s neighbors had taken the time to get to know her as a person, or include her in any events in the town, the story could have ended differently.