“The Monkey’s Paw” by W.W. Jacobs and “A Rose for Emily” by William Faulkner both detail the tragedy of loss and how one reacts to it. Tragedy is an ever-present occurrence in life and death is often a cause of it, that is the main issue of both texts. Both stories go on to teach us that letting go is necessary for both the living and dead. Those that bring us the most grief when they die are the ones that we love dearly in “The Monkey’s Paw” it is the White family’s only son and in “A Rose for Emily” it is the beloved men of Emily’s life. When these beloved people do die the remaining survivors are often so ingrained with grief they wish for a way to fix their sorrow, but the solutions are always imperfect or unnatural. Therefore the only true solution when dealing with the death of a significant other is
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Mr. White takes responsibility for his actions as he “frantically breathed his third and last wish” (Jacobs 6). The final wish Mr. White made was to put his undead son out of his misery effectively letting him go, rather than clinging onto something undead. Miss Emily slept with Homer Barron after he died as evidenced by the pillowcase having “a long strand of iron-grey hair” (Faulkner 5). She held onto his corpse as a means of having him forever, but she did eventually let go of him through her own death. Death is a natural part of life and although it is often hard to the best thing one can do for ones self is to let go of what is already gone. In a “Rose for Emily” and “The Monkey’s Paw” it is shown that a refusal to let go only results in more pain for those still alive. Miss Emily cast a black mark on her family name through her actions and the Whites had to experience the death of their son. If they had paid heed to what their associates had told them none of this would have ever happened. Nature takes its course of reaping lives and one can only accept
Mr. White takes responsibility for his actions as he “frantically breathed his third and last wish” (Jacobs 6). The final wish Mr. White made was to put his undead son out of his misery effectively letting him go, rather than clinging onto something undead. Miss Emily slept with Homer Barron after he died as evidenced by the pillowcase having “a long strand of iron-grey hair” (Faulkner 5). She held onto his corpse as a means of having him forever, but she did eventually let go of him through her own death. Death is a natural part of life and although it is often hard to the best thing one can do for ones self is to let go of what is already gone. In a “Rose for Emily” and “The Monkey’s Paw” it is shown that a refusal to let go only results in more pain for those still alive. Miss Emily cast a black mark on her family name through her actions and the Whites had to experience the death of their son. If they had paid heed to what their associates had told them none of this would have ever happened. Nature takes its course of reaping lives and one can only accept