Social Class as a Story Background

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In Faulkner’s “A Rose for Emily”, the subject of class is the background for the story. Specifically, Emily’s social class and the advantages this class membership allowed her to experience. Emily’s influence came from a history of financial abundance, giving her power by inheritance. Her father’s wealth gave him power during his lifetime, and this power and social significance continued with his daughter, until the day of her death. In The English Handbook, Whitla wrote; “At the level of political influence are the matters of status (including age and ethnicity), as well as power – how to gain it and to exercise it. At the cultural level are the facts of education, language use (such as accent and syntactic accuracy), lifestyle (including dress, food preferences, housing, and decorating style), and beliefs, including religion and values” (2008, p. 302). In “A Rose for Emily”, Emily was placed high on the social class level. Because of her family’s original financial status, authority figures looked the other way when there were questionable activities happening in Emily’s home. Emily was not forced to pay her property taxes, and when neighbors complained about the horrific smell coming from her house, members of the town elite tried to cover up the smell instead of finding out the source. Faulkner used influence and power of social and political class to allow the main character to get away with murder. It seems that Faulkner’s point was to identify the difference in the way people are treated, based on their class affiliations. Class was the vehicle that allowed Emily to be treated differently than a person from a lower social and economical level. Class provided the reason the actions in the story were able to take place. Faulkner, W.(1930). A Rose for Emily. In R. DiYanni (2nd Ed.) Literature: approaches to fiction, poetry, and drama
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