Racism and Resistance in A Rose for Emily - Book Report/Review Example

A Rose for Emily First published in April 1930, A Rose for Emily is a beautiful and symbolic short story by renowned 20th century American writer and intellectual William Faulkner. Faulkner’s stories not only reveal the bitter realities of life, in somewhat mysterious but an eloquent manner, but also a ray of gloominess haunts the environment throughout. The story, with the support of only few characters, throws light on the uncertainty of life, and all the activities related to it. The author appears to be communicating the bitter truth that all objects and articles, even the most alluring and glorious ones in nature, are sure to observe decline and decay, and hence everything meets with its ultimate end sooner or later. The decline is not confined to the material objects only; on the contrary, being the mortal creature, humans also undergo the same fate by commencing their journey from childhood to youth, middle-age, old-age and death ultimately by giving up their ghost at some specific time fixed by Nature. Charles G.D. Roberts (1860-1943) has rightly depicted the journey of line in his “On the Road”, that ‘only more hills, and more hills, and a poor enough inn at the last.’ The story also gives the message that some mysteries of life remain secret till the end, and hence cannot be explored and disclosed even after making hard efforts to unveil them. Thus, the beautiful short story maintains different themes and messages, which make the story a significant piece of literature. The story begins with the death scene of the protagonist Emily Grierson an old lady of 74 years, who has an affluent, influential and respectable family background in her native town called Jefferson. Her father, the late Mr. Grierson, was a very highly regarded and wealthy person, who used to live in a magnificent mansion situated at an excellent road of the Jefferson town. It was his stateliness and dignified mannerism that had earned sound reputation and social status in the eyes of the local people. Mr. Grierson had once rendered great financial support for the development program of the town, which was widely recognized and acknowledged by the administration and masses alike. It is therefore he and his family were exempt to pay any taxes for the great favor they had granted on Jefferson. It is therefore the mayor has never demanded any taxes from him, which used to be collected from the other inhabitants of the town. Somehow, he does not manage to make arrangements for the matrimony of his only daughter. Consequently, Emily is unmarried at the age of thirty years when her father breathed his last. Her father’s demise serves as a great shock for the young and lonely Emily, who does not have any friends, relations or companion in the town to share her joys and sorrows. Her family background, financial position and personality traits does not let her mix up with the local people; nor does she keep any suitor to make love and enjoy the pleasures life offers to man. Consequently, she leads a life of recluse by confining her within the four walls of her home. Somehow, arrival of a non-local and outsider foreman, called Homer Barron, pacifies her loneliness to a significant extent. Although the people of Jefferson strictly disapprove of the company of refined, polished, appealing and affluent Miss Emily with Homer, the ordinary and dark-skinned outsider, belonging to lower stratum of society, yet Emily pays least notice of the comments and remarks passed by them against his love affair with Homer. Hence, racial, regional and class discrimination appear at the eve to discourage the relationship between the members coming from divergent socioeconomic statutes and positions. “Faulkner expresses truths about racial and economic hierarchies through individual characters, yet he also ponders what can happen when individuals combine. By depicting individuals in combination, he can comment on the potential for both good and evil that can result from a social mass action.” (Barnwell, 2002:9-10) Another major reason behind the people’s rejecting Emily’s friendship and romance with Homer is his being a member of African American racial group. It is due to the very fact that the black community was regarded as an inferior race in the eyes of the white people, who had been involved into the trade of black people by bringing them from their countries as slaves for centuries. It is therefore the whites did not allow the Africans to obtain the status of spouses, suitors and lovers of the white women. The same situation also prevailed in the Asian countries, where the Indian aristocracy had raised revolt against the Queen Raziya Sultan of Delhi in 1240 for her marrying the black slave called Jamal-ud-din Yaqoot. (Keay, 2011) Moreover, Faulkner was not the first writer to discover the racial discrimination prevailing in the white societies; on the contrary, Lee (1960) has also pointed out towards the ethno-racial hatred and social conflict as well in her To Kill a Mockingbird, where the judiciary, on the strong recommendation and demand of the white community, announces capital punishment to the black person Tom Robinson, for developing sexual relationships with a white lady Mayella Ewell. Hence, the community adopts dual standard while treating the fellow-humans; Faulkner aims to criticize the same with the help of duality. “A duality is a structure containing two mutually exclusive concepts that can only be fully defined as the opposite of each other.” (Bolin, 2004:6) Hence the heroine i.e. Emily is white, rich, beautiful and mannered, while her suitor Homer is black, poor, ugly and somewhat coarse too. Thus, the author has combined absolutely two opposite characteristics while depicting the personalities. The story shows that Emily does not accept the bitter reality of her father’s death; it is therefore she refuses to allow the women, arrived to condole over the death, to enter her house, by claiming that ‘my father is alive.’ Scherting explores the signs of Oedipus/Electra complex mentioned by renowned psychoanalyst Sigmund Freud in his famous Oedipus complex theory that the child has developed sexual attraction towards the parent of his/her opposite gender. “The Oedipal desires expressed in Emily’s affair with Homer were never recognized by the people of Jefferson, and Emily herself was aware of them only as subconscious longings” (Scherting, 1980: 404). Emily does not move in the town with Homer on daily basis; on the contrary, she appears at the road only on Sunday evenings to make some shopping and returns her house soon. However, it is not tantamount to the so called social norms and cultural values being observed by the locals. Consequently, they lodge complain against Emily to her relations living outside the town and asked them to pay an immediate visit to her in order to remind her of the family conventions, traits and traditions. Somehow, Homer has left the town before the arrival of her relations. The author does not disclose the meeting between Emily and her relations, and just notes their departure subsequent to their dialogue with the protagonist character Emily. The people become satisfied on their triumph for successfully forcing the foreman to leave the beauty of the town, though Homer returns within few days only and called on Emily as usual, though his return is not welcomed by the locales people altogether. Emily is found buying arsenic from the pharmacy the next Sunday, though she displays no adequate reason for purchasing the same. The community is fearful of lest she would take her life by consuming the same, though no unpleasant incident happens for the future years to come. Somehow, they are unable to witness the movement and activities of her suitor at all. They are also unable to see Emily outside her house for the last four decades, though she makes few appearances at the balcony. Her hair turns grey along with the gain of weight and losing of physical charms; the same is the situation of her once splendid house and excellent street, as both are in constant decay as soon as her physical charms desert the protagonist gradually. Somehow, the busy community looks disinterested in respect of discovering and unveiling the secrets of her life. The decaying body turns dead, as Emily gives up her ghost at the age of 74 years. The people come across her only attendant Tob, who leaves the dead body by allowing the people to enter the house. Discovery of Homer’s forty years old dead body startles the visitors, and they come to the conclusion that the arsenic had been purchased for him. Since Emily was extremely reluctant to surrender her love for the downtrodden African American, she has preserved his body after killing him in order to keep him with her as keep-sake for the future years to come. The story ends in a morbid way by giving the very message that life constantly declines along with all the living and non-living objects; and the racial, regional, religious, ethnic, social and economic differences, prejudices and hatred maintain no value or significance in human life. Works Cited Barnwell, Janet Elizabeth Narrative Patterns of Racism and Resistance in the Work of William Faulkner 2002 2-31 Retrieved from http://etd.lsu.edu/docs/available/etd-1114102-151515/unrestricted/Barnwell_dis.pdf Bolin, Michael The Decay of the South: Duality and Containment in “A Rose for Emily” 2009 1-22 Retrieved in http://undergraduatestudies.ucdavis.edu/explorations/2009/theSouth.pdf Faulkner, William A Rose for Emily 1930 Retrieved from http://web.me.com/mstultz72/home/Faulkner_files/A%20Rose%20for%20Emily%20(full%20text).pdf Keay, John India: A History Grove Press 2011 Lee. Harper To Kill a Mockingbird Grand Central Publishing 1988 Roberts, Charles G.D. On the Road Canadian Poetry Press Retrieved from http://www.uwo.ca/english/canadianpoetry/confederation/roberts/new_poems/on_the_road.htm Scherting, Jack. Emily Grierson’s Oedipus Complex: Motif, Motive, and Meaning in Faulkner’s A Rose for Emily. Studies in Short Fiction 17.4 1980 397–405 Read More