William Faulkner was the Great American and a Nobel Prize winner who published exemplary novels, plays, short stories and poetries. He was known for the novels and short stories. He was considered the most celebrated authors of southern literature where he had published several famous novels that included The Revivers, A fable. From his highly successful short stories, one such story is a Rose to Emily, which revolves around the life of high status young woman Emily.

Thesis– Death and change are the inevitable truths of life which made Emily Rose for its self denial.

In the story, William Faulkner writes about the young woman Emily who is caught in the cycle of self- denial, when her father accidently dies. The author weighs on the importance of accepting the realities of life whether it is happiness or grief. In the story, through the life account of Rose Emily, the author tries to capture the various aspects of the nineteenth century where the racial discrimination was prominent in the patriarchy society as Emily was criticized on various occasions (Afsar & Masood, 2018).

The story comes up with the hidden message that is concerned with the death and change. The story starts with the funeral of Miss Emily and leaves the readers started in the end when the Emily kills Homer. In the first part of the story when his father dies, Emily was unable to accept his death and acted, as he was alive by holding on to his corpse. She was afraid of accepting the reality of death. In the story, Emily is shown highly apprehensive of accepting the changes that were brought to her in life, which is shown from the episode when she falls in love with homer and kills him so that he does not leave her. Moreover, she never allowed any one to enter in her house after her father’s death (Pratiwi, l Jihan, & Niswaty, 2019).

The story can also be analyzed from the racial grounds where the prominent discrimination between various classes can be shown which are suggestive through the words used in story that included ‘Negro’ or ‘Nigger’. The usages of such words are suggestive of the discrimination posed to African American in those days. In another sentence that included “Alive, Miss Emily had been a tradition, a duty, and a care; a sort of hereditary obligation upon the town. Dating from that day in 1894 when Colonel Sartorius, the Mayor –he who fathered the edict that no Negro woman should appear on the streets without an apron-remitted her taxes, the dispensation dating from the death of her father on into perpetuity” (Kunte, 2016). Through the sentences, it is cleared that Sartorius wanted to enforce rules in the African- American area where they were seen as workers not the one available for socialization. It could be said that there was strong prejudice in those days among the people. Such incidents were the proof that the high degree of prejudice has been shown in every part of the story.  

The another aspect of racial discrimination that is shown in the story  is gender discrimination which was visible in the incident of the Father death’s of Emily where it was mentioned that when the Emily’s father died whole town visited at the funeral: “the men out of respectful affection for a fallen monument and the women mostly out of curiosity” (Lewis, 2015). It means that women visited the funeral for gossips while men to gain the attention of the woman.  Through this incident, Faulkner tries to portray men serious and caring while woman reluctant. This also shows the stronger side of the men.  

In another sentence, “only a man of Colonel Satoris’s generation could have invented it and only a woman could have believed it”. In the sentence, the Colonel has been considered the ingenious or a man of godly existence while Emily is not even mentioned which is suggestive of superiority of the male generation over female.

Bibliography

Afsar, B., & Masood, M. (2018). Transformational leadership, creative self-efficacy, trust in supervisor, uncertainty avoidance, and innovative work behavior of nurses. The Journal of Applied Behavioral Science , 36-61.

Kunte, M. (2016). Reviewing literature on employee wellness practices. Journal of Strategic Human Resource Management , 66-78.

Lewis, N. (2015). Speak Better Write Better English. New York: Goyal Publishers & Distributors.

Pratiwi, l Jihan, N., & Niswaty, R. (2019). The Influence of Work Facilities on Employee Performance at the Regional Financial Management Agency Secretariat Section of South Sulawesi Province. Jurnal Ad’ministrare 6 , 35-44.