Themes In Everything That Rises Must Converge And A Rose For Emily

“Everything That Rises Must Converge” and “A Rose for Emily”, written by Flannery O’Connor and William Faulkner, focus on the life of southern locals. In these two short stories each author mentions class status and the loss of status due to changes of the environment; these changes being historical events that greatly impacted the south. The stories focus around on two main events, the civil war and desegregation, and how the aftermath has affected the lifestyle of these women. Though these stories share the theme of lost status they differ in characterization, tone, and writing styles.
Both stories are in the Southern Gothic genre; Southern Gothic, a subgenre of Gothic fiction, and mainly focuses on the American south. One of the characteristics …show more content…
We are told that she has to go to a weight reducing classes and that she enjoys it because it’s for her health, but most importantly it’s free. Due to these elements, she continues to go even if it means she has to ride an integrated bus, which she isn’t happy about. We are informed she carries herself in a manner in which a wealthy woman would because she wore a hat and gloves whenever she went out, even to weight reducing class. Because she is oblivious to her surroundings, the readers are led to view her as a comical character in the middle of serious issues. One of her sayings “If you know who you are, you can go anywhere” (449). She seems to know herself in terms of the past, of what she was, not what she is. Her circumstances have changed tremendously since her younger years and she has had to care for a child on her own, which leads the reader to believe she slightly blames her son for putting her in such a situation. This is evident in her relationship with her son; it is a hostile relationship, where she continuously mentions the sacrifices she made for him, and he resents her for it. Because she is routinely reminding him of all she has done for him, the atmosphere of the story is tense from the moment it begins until it ends. O’Connor sets the tone of the story to be tense …show more content…
All we are directly told about her is that she comes from a wealthy family, most importantly her father, who helped the town when in financial need. There is no mention of her mother or any siblings leaving the readers to assume she was an only child. Her relationship with her father is a controlling one, in which he had control over her. He controlled who she married or who she didn’t marry, this set her up for a life of isolation at a young age. Although he denied her of a husband, she still cared for him. When he died she refused to acknowledge that he was dead, but it is dismissed as a form of grief, her losing everything and trying to hold onto it. With her father dead, she is now able to live her life the way she wants and the first thing she does is try to find love that has been denied to her. However, when love fails her she returns back to the life of isolation and she slowly reaches out again through her china painting classes. The most important information we find out about Emily is what is in the bedroom upstairs. The readers are hinted early on that Emily might not be mentally stable and it is confirmed at the end when the townsfolk break down the shut-off bedroom door to find Homer Barron, the lover the community thought abandoned her before the wedding over a decade ago. The dark, tragic, and lonely tone sets the reader up for the final jaw-dropping