William Faulkner's A Rose For Emily

Centuries ago, English historian Thomas Fuller said, “He lives long that lives well; and time misspent is not lived but lost.” Essentially, the proper use of time management can make or break a person’s path to success. This emphasizes the need to prioritize your daily activities to become successful. However, the opposite is seen in William Faulkner’s A Rose for Emily. This short story focuses on Emily’s life, from her community’s perspective. Aspects explored throughout the story, which are beneficial to a modern audience, is the outcome of following societal norms, and having an egocentric personality.
Today, maintaining a good reputation is important to many people. To do this, they must be socially compatible with others. Unfortunately, …show more content…
While denying this for three days, keeping his decaying body in her home, Faulkner portrays her as a deranged figure. The parents of the town then share the idea of Emily being perverse to their children. For example, when she buys arsenic for an unknown reason, the town believes “She will kill herself; and it would be the best thing.” Although arsenic is commonly used as rat poison, the town presumes Emily will commit suicide. Specifically, the youth have grown up believing Emily deliberately misbehaves, so they do not confront or attempt to prevent her from using the arsenic because it is inescapable. If they do decide to help Emily, the elderly would see their friendly efforts as an act of rebellion for going against their values. The idea of being bound by societal norms is further exemplified in a Ted Talk by Chimamanda Ngozi Adiche called The Danger of a Single Story. Adiche explains how people grow up believing certain stereotypes. As a result, these people find it hard to disagree with stereotype turned societal norms when they are older. Hence, they will spread false truths because they do not know any better. In the same way, Mannes …show more content…
No one truly cares for another, as they only have their own future in sight. This is also seen in A Rose for Emily between the rich and middle classes of the town. Emily’s father raises her alone, denying her any interactions with other people because of their class. From a psychoanalytic perspective, this leads to Emily becoming overly attached to her father, similar to the Oedipus complex. It is for this reason, that his death shatters the order in Emily’s life. She is not willing to accept these changes and it causes her id to go out of control. Later in the story, Homer Barron meets Emily and when the two indulge in a relationship, this convinces the town “She will marry him; she will persuade him yet.” Emily projects her feelings for her father to Homer, and as a result becomes possessive of him because she does not want to lose him, as she did with her father. However, when Homer leaves for a week, Emily ensures he can never do so again by poisoning him with arsenic. From then on, Emily sleeps with Homer’s dead body every night, satisfied. The idea of being possessive for things is also seen in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. Both parties believe they have a God-given right to the territory because they come from the same group of people who inhabited Jerusalem. However, they continue to destroy Jerusalem, along with their respective lands, because they are too focused in their personal