A Rose For Emily Literary Analysis

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The tale “A Rose for Emily” by William Faulkner has a multitude of themes that could apply to it. The one that stands out the most in my mind, however, is how the story displays how paramount it is for all human beings to have positive relationships. In this particular short work of fiction, we hear the story of a woman named Emily Grierson, who was, for the most part, isolated her entire life. What is the cause of this isolation? The cause of her solitude is a combination of both her father and her family’s own style of living. “We remembered all the young men her father had driven away. . .” this is an illustration of how her father kept her isolated. Mr. Grierson drove away any possible suitors in Emily’s life, meaning that she never got the chance to form any romantic bonds so would not ever have understood how they worked. Therefore, she did not build any healthy romantic bonds in the future. “ ‘Of…show more content…
The most obvious used was foreshadowing. “ ‘I want arsenic.’ ” is one such show of foreshadowing. As Emily is very vague about what she wants the arsenic for it gives the reader a hint that she plans to do something with the poison that is not kill rats. There was also a fair amount of symbolism in the writing. One example of symbolism would Emily’s house. Emily’s house is a very old, traditional style abode that represents Emily’s more traditional, southern viewpoint. Emily herself could even be a symbol of traditional southern values and how with our growing society those values tend to die. Suspense was also used by William Faulkner to really draw the reader in. Up until those last few lines of the story, the reader feels almost this pressure on them to know what happened to Homer Barron. It is what keeps the reader interested and reading to the end. Although there are probably many more literary techniques used within the short story, I believe those were the most prominent
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