Emily was a woman that cannot be described without a the words ” not quite normal”, and “extra ordinary. ” The story, “A Rose for Emily” by William Faulkner is about one woman’s life, from her being a teen to her death in her house. The town’s people did not like her, her family did not like her, but when she died, everybody showed up to Miss Emily’s Funeral. The only person to see Emily was her old manservant, a black man that was the cook and the gardener. The only time that the town would see him was when her went to the grocery store to shop.
He would never talk to anybody while he was there. The end of her life never saw Emily out of her house. The town questioned this, but Emily soon just became another story with the town. Miss Emily was not always alone. When she was younger, her father lived at the house with her. He was a man without his sanity. When ever a male would come to the house to see Emily, he would great them at the door, and see them off before Emily could even say hello. The town used this excuse for Emily when her father died. He was dead for three days before she would let the coroner to take him out of the house.
This can be een as the beginning of Emily’s decent to madness. Emily was not always without a man. The town was getting sidewalks put in, and a group of colored men from the north was called in to build them. Their Foreman went by the name of Homer Barron. We began to see him (Homer) and Miss Emily on Sunday afternoons driving in the yellowed-wheeled buggy It was at this time that Emily bought poison from the druggist. The town thought that she was to kill herself, but her talk of marriage to Homer changed that. Emily and Homer started to get to know each other quite well during his time there.
But it was a relationship that was to pass. Homer himself had remarked- he liked men, and it was known that he drank with the younger men in the Elks club-that he was was not a marrying man. Soon, after the work had been finished, the men were gone, and Homer Barron was but a story. This is about the time that Emily stopped going out. She used to teach town children china painting, but they grew old, and they did not carry their children on. Soon, the only element of Emily’s household to be seen was her manservant that would go shopping, but ould never talk to anyone.
And then, she died. In her old age, inside her own house like her father. The town’s people came. Some out of respect, most to feed their curiosity to see the inside of this mysterious house. They paid their respects to the family and the servant, and walked around and surveyed the household. But there was one room left that they did not see. Already we knew that there was one room in that region upstairs which no one had seen in forty years They broke down the door, and the room was open for the group to see.
Covering the entire room was a thick coat of dust. On the side table lay a man’s toilet things. The entire room was made in a pale red. The silver so tarnished that the monogram was blurred. On the bed lay a man. The group stood there for a while just looking at the body. It lay there as if it was in an embrace. Then the group noticed the pillow that was next to him. Then we noticed that in the second Pillow was the indentation of a head. One of use lifted something from it, And leaning forward we saw a long strand of iron-gray hair.
The story, “A Rose for Emily” is told in a third person point of view. This is a limited point of view because you really can not get into the heads of any of the characters to see what they are really thinking and feeling. The narrator is never really known. This story is most likely called, ” A Rose for Emily” because of the color of her room in the end. It is the color rose, and a rose is a symbol of love. That love was her love for Homer Barron, and herself. When the town changed, she stayed the same. Emily was the last touch to the past in the town of Jefferson.
This story is more than just about a woman who slowly lost her mind, it is about the changing from the past to the present, then to the future. Emily was the symbol of the past, of a time where they did not have numbers on their houses. The town was a symbol for the current times, with gas stations and sidewalks lining its streets. We are to learn from this story. Not just that change effects everybody, but that one person can change an entire town. Without Emily, the town would have nothing to gossip. Their complete ties to the past would be cut. Emily’s death was the end of an era.