Emily is lonely throughout the story partly because she keeps to herself. The author writes, “From that …show more content…
The house in this short story is a run-down mess and many townspeople complain of the stench coming from Emily’s dwelling. The townspeople proclaim, “Send her word to have her place cleaned up” (Faulkner 136). The people at this point are asking her to clean up Emily’s house and the stench— the overall mess. When the people reference the house’s mess throughout the story, they are wanting Emily to change her life. We can also see this in our lives when we have a lot going on and we ignore our responsibilities. Others try to help us, but we don’t take the help and eventually we create a mess of our lives. Emily pushes away others and her responsibilities, such as tending to the house, and she builds up a mess. Faulkner says, “Miss Emily alone refused to let them fasten the metal numbers above her door and attach a mailbox to it” (141). The house is starting to become run-down and the townspeople try to help her renew it, but she doesn’t take the help. When Emily refuses the help of others to change her house, she is also refusing to let others change her because she is happy with the way things are. She would rather live in her mess than becoming something totally new. The run-down house gives us a picture of Emily’s messed up life, but she shows us that we can be happy in the midst of our messy