2. Please read pp. 467-470, parts I and II of "A Rose For Emily," and blog. You might comment on plot, point of view, setting, diction, or anything else related, but I particularly urge you to look at Faulkner's syntax (sentence-structure), especially when a particular sentence's syntax catches your eye/ear.
3. Don't forget about the OPTIONAL revision of your discussion of "Rare Bird."
The point of view I believe is from the townspeople in which Miss Emily lived in. When I had first read I believed it was narrated by one person. When I reached the end of part II, I had read the lines "We did not say she was crazy then. We believed she had to do that. We remembered all the young men her father had driven away." "We" tells that there is more than one narrator of the story. This was a group of people, the townspeople. Throughout the story, the words "we" and "our" were repeated. The narrator seems to be good hearted. When talking about the black man the narrator did not bash him for being black, unlike Judge Stevens. Judge Stevens did not view the colored man as being an equal. The point of view, the townspeople, was not one sided. The reader could see the whole picture.
ReplyDeleteIn reference to Faulkner's syntax, a particular sentance that caught my eye was this, "When the Negro opened the blinds of one window, a faint dust rose sluggishly about their thighs, spinning with slow motes in the single sun-ray." The "faint dust" is very descriptive of the amount of time that has passed without any visitors, without saying it outright. I also think that the "single sun-ray" is a metaphor for Miss Emily's tunnel vision on life. Miss Emily refuses to accept that times have changed and that she is no longer exempt from tax payments. The sun-ray contains all of her thoughts that she can see and understand whereas the darkness that surrounds it represents everyone else's thoughts on the matter, all of which are unseen to her.
ReplyDeleteKatie Taylor
Katie Burch
ReplyDeleteFaulkner uses the syntax of stringing clauses together throughtout his writing. An interesting sentence written like this is "That was two years after her father's death and a short time after her sweetheart-the one we believed would marry her-had deserted her." This line is particularly expressive in the fact that after all the tragic events in the quote it is no wonder that Ms. Emily locked herself away in her house. Why did her sweetheart desert her? Was it because she was middle-aged? "So when she got to be thirty and was still single, we were not pleased exactly, but vindicated; even with the insanity in the family she wouldn't have turned down all her chances if they had really materialized." The word vindicated appears to be interesting word choice because why is it any of the townspeople business? They shouldn't care if Ms. Emily is married or not. The fact that insanity runs in the family may be a reason why she isn't married. If there is so much insanity in her life why would anyone else want to experience this craziness as well. The word materialized refers to why Ms. Emily did not really have any choices for marriage. It is not as if anyone must have shown an interest in her.
There are two lines that most interest me, hand in hand.
ReplyDelete"Alive, Miss Emily had been a tradition, a duty, and a care..." and "When Miss Emily Grierson died, our whole town went to her funeral: the men through a sort of respectful affection for a fallen monument..." Faulkner seems to use these 'historical' type references as metaphor for Miss Emily's age, and that alive or dead, she demanded respect. "She did not ask them to sit. She just stood in the door and listened quietly until the spokesman came to a stumbling halt." As for the fact that the whole town treats her as this monument, Faulkner could be describing a setting - a very tight knit community where everybody knows everything about everyone.
Faulkner's descriptive writing casts a mood over the entire story, almost like an aged film effect. Through his word choice, especially in dialogue, you really get the feeling for this imaginary location and time period. "But what will you have me do about it, madam?" he said. "Why, send her word to stop it," the woman said. "Isn't there a law?" This language is very proper and matter of fact. All in all, Faulkner, (at least for me), establishes a southern plantation world where everything is caged in by white picket fences.
Though there were many descriptive sentences throughout our reading, a simple line of dialogue caught my eye. In the middle of part II, the Board of Aldermen meet, the youngest man says, "It's simple enough, send her word to have her place cleaned up. Give her a certain time to do it in, and if she don't..." Judge Stevens replies, "Dammit, sir, will you accuse a lady to her face of smelling bad?" This conversation tells you a lot about the towns people. The words, "and if she don't..." hint that these men might not be very well educated. In the next quote by Judge Stevens, the rude comment of "Dammit" followed by the polite title of, "sir" almost contradicts itself. Lastly, the simpleness of the words in the rest of the Judge's speech reinforces the fact that the men might not be well educated.
ReplyDeleteI have read!
ReplyDeleteKatie Burch
I think Trevor did a great job at identifying how Faulkner set the where and when in this story. This town is obviously pretty close-knit and where archetypical in-your-business people live. The "we" used frequently throughout the story shows the reader that it's a collective narrative because they all have the same opinions, and they all probably conversed about it on a regular basis.
ReplyDeleteI get the idea that Emily was quite the public figure in her town, whether she was out of the house or in the house. By the line, “...and a short time after her sweetheart-- the one we believed would marry her-- had deserted her.” Everyone knew of her love life when she was (I'm guessing) a decently active person in the community and everyone knew about what her house looked like when the men came over to talk about her taxes.
As far as Miss Emily's characterization goes, the way she presented herself shows that she at least still considers herself a bit dignified and presents herself in a cold, yet still august way. The way I imagine it, she dresses well. “They rose when she entered-- a small, fat woman in black, with a thin gold chain descending tp her waist and vanishing into her belt, leaning on an ebony cane with a tarnished gold head.” Although she is a “pauper,” she still shows up in a neatly, if sorry, way.
I think that the story itself also presents itself with the same tone. Perhaps the story and the narrator's way of telling us this story is reflective of Miss Emily's own self? It is proper, polite even at times, yet there's still judgment. There's still callousness in the subtext, much like how Miss Emily is portrayed.
I'm very interested by the same quotes Trevor used:
ReplyDelete"Alive, Miss Emily had been a tradition, a duty, and a care..." and When Miss Emily Grierson died, our whole town went to her funeral: the men through a sort of respectful affection for a fallen monument..."
I agree that this shows that she hailed from a family that commanded respect, but I also believe this truly comments on the real point of view of the towns people that maybe is a little less respectful than it would seem. She is called a "duty" and a "care." In other words she was a burden (i.e her tax issues.) She is someone they don't exactly understand yet they're curious and its not exactly like they can ignore her.
They pay special attention to her relationship with her father and her deterioration afterwards. The meticulous syntax in the line "None of the young men were quite good enough for Miss Emily and such. We had long thought of them as a tableau; Miss Emily a slender figure in white in the background, her father a straddled silhouette in the foreground, his back to her and clutching a horsewhip, the two of them framed by the back-flung front door." I think is very revealing to the very sheltered world she lived in. Living in a world where a father control all aspects in your life including love could easily cause the kind of break down she experiences. And you can see how the towns people's point of view of her change after that right down to the way she is described physically when the tax collectors visit her. Their point of view continues on a path of pity and misunderstanding as the story continues and the loss of her sweetheart affects her. This launches us into the next part of the story which I admit I have already read.
I have read
ReplyDeleteKatie Taylor
i agree completely with everything that Daphne said. To carry on with her description of the tone of the story, to me the tone seems a bit eery and mysterious. Miss Emily seems to be growing more and more mysterious every day. For example, "The day after his death all the ladies prepared to call at the house and offer condolence and aid, as is our custom. Miss Emily met them at the door, dressed as usual and with no trace of grief on her face. She told them that he father was not dead." This creates a creepy mood and adds on to this quote, "...the women mostly out of curiosity to see the inside of her house, which no one save an old man-servant- a combined gardener and cook-had seen in at least ten years."
ReplyDeleteI feel that the narrator shows lots of imagery throughtout this story. From the way Miss. Emilys house is first described by saying 'It was a big, squarish frame house that had once been white, decorated with cupolas and spire....'. The author seems to make the description of things matter quite a bit. Also the way Miss. Emily is described 'a small fat woman in black with a thin gold chain descending to her waist and vanishing into her belt, leaning on an ebony cane with a tarnished gold head.'. Also the way the author describes Miss. Emily as being 'like a body long sumbmerged in motionless water' this proves that after her father had died that Miss. Emily didn't care about doing anything or going out to see anybody. And that she had no desire to move around or be with other people, or try to get married. The description and imagery shown in this story are not just to describe things, but instead these descriptions have a much deeper meaning.
ReplyDeleteI think Makenzie points out important part except the part that the young men is not well educated. I think, the reason that he shows us uneducated, because he is young. I mean, judge Stevens is a 80 years old man, who knows town’s events and people very well. Since the town seems like ‘a very tight knit community where everybody knows everything about everyone,’ (like Trevor said) judge Stevens knows almost everything from his childhood. However, the young men is not. No matter how smart he is or how well-educated, he doesn’t know the peculiar culture or the way of town’s people thinking, because he is young. And ‘Emily’ belonged to that ‘peculiar’ category. There is a quote that shows it well: ‘Alive, Miss Emliy had been a tradition, a duty, and a cure, a sort of hereditary obligation upon the town.’ Nobody treated her easily. When the Board Alderman went to Emily’s house, they even look like they henpecked by her. She is not just a normal human in the town but a socialite. Since judge Stevens and three gray-beard men know and see all of it, they crossed Emily’s lawn like burglars and sprinkled lime in the midnight instead of sending her word to have her place cleaned up.
ReplyDeleteI agree with most of the comments above, especially with Knemetz. I also think that the tone of this story is mysterious. The opening of this story is interested to me. The first sentence of this story is, "When Miss Emily Grierson died....",and the author used flashback to explain about her life. Also,I think Emily seems like a mysterious person. She looks different than common people. I could realize by her behavior. The other thing that makes the tone mysterious is, her life after she broke with her fiance and her father died. She didn't came out from her house, and the author didn't put much details about it.
ReplyDeleteI agree with Trevor's observation that this story is like an "aged film" where we readers don't actually know what's going on in the story because we can only observe/watch the characters in the "film". Imagery like "It was a big, squarish frame house that had once been white, decorated with cupolas and spire..." (467) gives us an idea of the setting and the way Miss Emily acts tells us what kind of character she is and what her situation/condition she is in. "But, Miss Emily-" "See Colonel Sartoris" (469). Even though the townsfolk sees her with respect, they notice that she is no longer who she used to be.
ReplyDeleteEveryones points seem very valid, and educated. I would like to focus on tone, and in my opinion the tone appears very haunting. Not only from the imagery of this place as a "fallen monument,"which conveys a feeling of dreariness, but the history of this place. Focusing on it's "anonymous graves of Union and confederate soldiers who fell at the battle at Jefferson." The story of Miss Emily and her history also has quite a lingering, haunting feeling. This is especially captured in the last line of part two " and we knew that with nothing left, she would have to cling to that which had robbed her, as people will."
ReplyDelete“When Miss Emily Grierson died, our whole town went to her funeral; the men through a sort of respectful affection for a fallen monument, the women mostly out of curiosity to see the inside of her house, which no one save an old man-servant- a combined gardener and cook-had seen in at least ten years.” Faulkner draws the reader into the story with this line of text. He makes us wonder who this woman is since the whole town came to her funeral, she is referred to as “Miss Emily” which seems to be a title of respect, and she is referred to as a “fallen monument”. A monument is usually a character that is larger than life and untouchable. As the story goes on, we see that she really seems to be untouchable. When the town tells her many times to pay her taxes, she says she has no taxes to pay. No matter how many times they ask her to pay, she just says no and tells them to go away… and they do. Why don’t they arrest her as they might other people who don’t pay their taxes? The townspeople seemed to feel protective of her, “Alive, Miss Emily had been a tradition, a duty, and a care, a sort of hereditary obligation upon the town…” Even though the generations after her father’s death believed she should pay the taxes, they still let her get away with it.
ReplyDeleteI have read.
ReplyDeleteIn reference to Faulkner's syntax, her sentence structure seems to be most prominent in the first sentence of the story: "When Miss Emily...least ten years." I believe Faulkner begins her story with such a long, dramatic sentence to provoke the reader more into the story. In regard to Trevor's remarks on his two quotations, I believe that "the whole town attended her funeral" more obviously implies that Miss Emily Grierson was a "celebrity" in the town, rather than her mainly demanding respect.
ReplyDeleteGreg
I agree with Greg, one thing that William Faulkner does very well is catching the interest of the reader right away. By stating that she has died and that she, as Greg said, was some kind of "celebrity", it is human instinct to be interested in these two things. It seems as though Emily had many great things in her life so when such an eerie mood is set in this story it triggers the reader's curiosity. I feel that the line "held themselves a little too high for what they really were," shows that either Emily or her father have been illusional which may lead to further shaping of the plot.
ReplyDelete