Setting, Change, and Resistance in Faulkners A Rose for...

Setting, Change and Resistance in Faulkners A Rose for Emily The years following the Civil War brought about a change in Southern life. Many of the wealthy white families who owned plantations, slaves and vast material wealthy had been all but destroyed by the war. And with the dismantling of slavery, many aspects of the Souths longstanding socioeconomic arrangement began to slip away. For many of the demographics that enjoyed the racially-driven hierarchy, the changes that carried over into the early 20th century were especially difficult to accept. This is the shifting context into which we enter William Faulkners first published short story. In 1930s A Rose for Emily, the title character represents this incapacity to adapt in a most disturbing way. For Emily, the setting is at once a bygone South in which her family was part of an aristocracy, and simultaneously, a gradually modernizing Jefferson, Mississippi within which Emily cannot seem to survive. Ultimately, the protagonist is a figure that has been deeply wounded by socially construct ed forces that are largely beyond her comprehension and therefore has retreated from the setting composed by reality into a suspended state within the walls of her decaying estate. Faulkners story initiates with the death of his primary focus. The deceased recluse, Emily, who had to that juncture existed only in the lonely recesses of her house and in the prying gossip of the townspeople, is a figure beset upon by a uniqueShow MoreRelatedEssay on Prose Analysis â€Å"a Rose for Emily† William Faulkner1085 Words   |  5 PagesProse Analysis â€Å"A Rose for Emily† William Faulkner The two female cousins came at once. 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But she wanted to have boy friends, because she alwaysRead MoreLogical Reasoning189930 Words   |  760 Pages1993 with ISBN number 0-534-17688-7. When Wadsworth decided no longer to print the book, they returned their publishing rights to the original author, Bradley Dowden. The current version has been significantly revised. If you would like to suggest changes to the text, the author would appreciate your writing to him at dowden@csus.edu. iv Praise Comments on the earlier 1993 edition, published by Wadsworth Publishing Company, which is owned by Cengage Learning: There is a great deal of coherence