A Rose For Emily Rhetorical Analysis

Well-known American author, William Faulkner, in his short story, A Rose For Emily, describes a dark and somber mood altering the effects of the reader’s perspective of the plot. Through the use of a cryptic figure, Miss. Emily, the author suggests to the readers the concept that a person’s inability to accept changing conditions, will be different based upon the conditions of their upbringing. He adopts a mysterious and suspenseful tone in order to convey to his readers that Emily is deceiving to the eye and many are unaware of her true potential and resistance. Her past continues to consume her as she simply refuses to adapt to modern society, as the past is ever-present. This refusal to assimilate into the future and to revolutionize is …show more content…
Emily’s father and Homer Barron. Faulkner implies the resistance of Emily to change by using the figurative language of foreshadowing, to create a tone of longing and authority through the father of Miss. Emily. Miss. Emily’s father was the first male figure presented in Miss. Emily’s life and for a long time, the love of Emily’s father was the only love she knew. Even though, this love was controlling and abusive, Miss. Emily possibly never had the love of anybody else to compare it to as she was restricted her from having the love of another man. Thusly, Miss. Emily desired to cling onto what she found familiar when her father passed. “Miss Emily met them at the door, dressed as usual and with no trace of grief on her face. She told them that her father was not dead. She did that for three days, with the ministers calling on her, and the doctors, trying to persuade her to let them dispose of the body. just as they were about to resort to law and force, she broke down, and they buried her father quickly” (Faulkner 2,3). In other words, Miss. Emily was very reluctant to surrender the body of her father as she believed he had not passed. Only when the town threatens to resort to force does Miss. Emily comply. Miss. Emily refuses to accept the death of her father for the reason that she is resistant to change. If Miss. Emily lets go of her father, she must adhere to change and accept that her life can never be the same. She only knew one life and that was the one of her father. By latching on to the body of her father, she was able to latch onto the past and resist the change that was bound to happen. Furthermore, Faulkner implicates the resistance of Emily to change by using the figurative language of foreshadowing to create a tone of sympathy and domination through Homer Barron. Homer Barron was the next