Letting Go Essay, Research Paper
Letting Go
Many people hate to let things go. People find security and comfort in their
possessions and the company they keep. If all this is ripped away from a person, it can
have a very negative effect on that person?s life. In Faulkner?s short story, ?A Rose for
Emily,? everything that a person knows is gradually taken away from her gradually
leading to her madness.
Miss Emily, the main character in this short story, is an example of a time that
once was. ?Miss Emily had been a tradition, a duty, and a care; a sort of hereditary
obligation upon the town?(362). Not only is her appearance a symbol of the past but the
place that she called home is also very old fashioned. ?Miss Emily?s house was left, lifting
its stubborn and coquettish decay above the cotton wagons and the gasoline bumps-an
eyesore among eyesores?(362). Miss Emily stays the same while ?the next generation,
with its more prominent ideas?(362) are becoming more visible and established.
Miss Emily not only has a hard time of letting material things go, but she also has a
tough time of letting the people in her life leave her. Miss Emily loves her father very
much, but his death devastates her. It also brings her down to earth. ?Being left alone,
and a pauper, she had become humanized?(364). The death of her father also throws her
into a horrible case of denial. ?She told them [ the ladies ] that her father was not
dead?(364). She told everyone this for three days, and ? just as the [ the people ] were
about to resort to law and force, she broke down and they buried her father quickly?(364).
This is one case of a important person leaving Miss Emily?s life.
Another character that plays a main part in Emily?s life is a man named Homer
Barron. Barron is ?a big, dark, ready man, with a big voice and eyes lighter than his
face?(365). Emily madly in love with this man, eventually to the point where she mentions
marriage to Homer. When this is said to Homer it is said that ?he was not a marrying
man?(366). Once again Emily is destroyed, so destroyed that she takes drastic measures.
She resorts to poisoning Homer, this causes his death. Emily then places Homer in her
bed and proceeds to sleep with him. A severe case of desperation.
Not everyone has this big of a problem of hanging on to things. Most people can
pick up and move on. In Faulkner?s short story ?A Rose for Emily? everything that a
person knows is gradually taken away from her gradually leading to her madness.
Works Cited
Faulkner, William. ?A Rose for Emily? An Introduction to Literature. Ed. Joseph Terry.
NewYork: Longman, 2001, 362-368.
Mike Tunno
Eng 102.12
/928/00
Analytical Essay
Outline
Thesis Statement: In Faulkner?s short story ?A Rose for Emily? everything that a person
knows is gradually taken away from her gradually leading to her madness.
I. Introduction
a. losing things
b. thesis
II. Material
a. appearance
b. house
III. Father
a. loss
b. reaction
IV. Homer Barron
a. loss
b. reaction
V. Closing
a. loss and reaction of people
b. restated thesis
Faulkner, William. ?A Rose for Emily? An Introduction to Literature. Ed. Joseph Terry.
NewYork: Longman, 2001, 362-368.