A Rose for Emily

299 Words2 Pages
“A Rose for Emily” Gap Questions 1. Why did Emily’s father run off her suitors? 2. What was the real reason behind the tax remittance? 3. What were the circumstances behind her father’s death? 3. What was the source of her fathers falling out with her relations? 4. Was Homer Baron really romantically involved with her? 5. Why was Emily placed under such investigation and conjecture by the community? 6. Why the recurrent symbolism of dust? Juxtapositions 1. Her behavior pre and post Homer Barron. 2. Colonel Sartoris’ tax remittance vs. new city government official’s insistence of tax debt owed. 3. Noblesse oblige vs. Emily’s responsibility to herself Most Important Sentence When first reading William Faulkner’s “A Rose for Emily” I got the initial impression of Emily being somewhat of a demented eccentric, but, when reflecting critically on “Poor Emily” (Faulkner 31), I found that Emily is obviously not a foolish woman; she is a woman that is struggling for her freedom to live and be contented as much as she can. It’s the mental anguish that was exacted upon her that lives within her from the moment of her father’s death until Homer Barron attempts to leave that makes her a woman of piquant intellect and mind-set. It is the affect that her father leaves on her that lingers throughout the remainder of her life; an unyielding influence that incessantly shapes her into the woman she ultimately becomes at the conclusion of the story, which is a woman at “seventy four…vigorous iron-gray, like the hair of an active man (48).” Work Cited Faulkner, William. “A Rose for Emily.” The Bedford Introduction to Literature. Ed. Michael Meyer. 8th ed. Boston: Bedford/St. Martin’s. 2008.
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