A Rose for Emily and How to Date a Browngirl - Personal Statement Example

One of the most vivid images in "A Rose for Emily" was the explanation of her appearance: "She looked bloated, like a body long submerged in motionless water, and of that pallid hue" (1) William Faulkner painted a vision for the reader so that one could exactly "see" the image of Miss Emily.       One of the images that struck out in "How to Date a Brown girl, Blackgirl, Whitegirl, or Halfie" was one of the descriptions that he had to use: "Put the crapped-on toilet paper under the sink" (144).

This image is disgusting to think about but it fits into the narrative as the boy tells of what he has to do to get ready for any girl that may come to his home.       The expectations for each girl were dependant on her skin color. The narrator's expectation of white girls was that they would be the first ones to give sex: "A white girl might just give it up right then" (146). The black girl was wealthy because she "grew up in ballet and girl scouts" and  "had three cars in their driveway" (145).

Local girls had a reputation to keep and they "will flow over when she's good and ready" (144). Each girl would have something that a boy would want and it would depend on how his approach whether he got what he wanted.       In Faulkner's story, a proper woman was able to keep her own house and would not let a man keep it. She was to be proper and genteel. This was the South and she would have been a very quiet woman. Since she was left penniless and alone (2) she now was a "human" person according to the town, instead of someone who was wealthy and beyond them.

They pitied Emily because she had no one and no family and that to the townspeople was a terrible fate; this is why they said it would be best for her to commit suicide (4).       The last line, "the long strand of iron-gray hair" (6), was actually a very sad aspect of the story. This revealed the fact that Miss Emily had killed her suitor and laid next to the corpse until she died herself.       In Junot's work, men were the conquerors of women and men were working towards finding a way to seduce the women.

According to the narrator, the male would need to find a different way to seduce each type of woman. In "A Rose for Emily" women were supposed to be taken care of by men and without a man, a woman was just a very sad case. Times have definitely changed so that women are now seen as equal parts of society but this does not mean that there are not men who think in the way that these men did.