That Evening Sun Go Down seemed to contain many allusions to mysterious fears. The dark ditch in which the man is supposedly hidden, for instance, seems to be symbolic of faceless fears in the dark.
I say “faceless fears” because I was not fully convinced that Nancy was hiding from Jubah. Perhaps there was a lack of reader comprehension on my part, but it did seem that Nancy considered Jubah a good man in her life: “Jubah always been good to me…Whenever he had two dollars, one of them was mine.” I wondered if Nancy was more afraid of the white man, the Baptist deacon. Perhaps it was the deacon hiding the razor “on the string down his back.” Perhaps it was the deacon who gave Jubah his scar. Or maybe, once again, I simply did not fully understand this short story.
Whether Nancy feared Jubah, the deacon, or Jubah’s reaction to her pregnancy (presumably by the deacon), what I took from the story was Nancy’s helplessness and the lack of support she received from the white community, specifically the Compsons – the people she believed could truly help her.
In the novel, it is repeated, by Caddy and especially Jason, that Nancy is a “nigger.” Dilsey and Jubah are also labeled as such, repeatedly. It is interesting that Faulkner includes this, and it seems to speak for the fact that white people define black people by this word and all of the connotations implied therewith – being a “scairdy,” for instance. Not only are the young children aware of this term, in tune with the involved stereotypes, and constantly using it to describe their black acquaintances, but Nancy herself seems to view herself as such as well (“I ain’t nothing but a nigger”). Interestingly enough, when she relays the story of a woman crossing a ditch to get home, she describes a queen.
Nancy’s fears do not seem to be taken seriously. At one point Caddy tells Jason that he was “scairder than niggers.” It therefore seems that a stereotype associated with black people is superstition or irrational fear. Nancy is a woman living alone without a husband. When the evening sun goes down, she is alone in the dark. So she seems to gravitate toward the light – staying by the fire, leaving it burning once the Compsons leave her alone. Perhaps I am mistaken, but it seems Faulkner wishes the reader to sympathize with Nancy, to see past the outlooks of young Quentin and his siblings and view Nancy as a justifiably scared woman, desperate enough to seek comfort in children. To me, it was very sad how she had to bribe young, helpless children as a means of achieving perceived protection. How she was ultimately left alone by Mr. Compson and the younguns.
This story seems to contain a theme of change. The town used to be one way, until it changed into another way. Nancy herself was once steady, carrying a bundle on her head that “never bobbed nor wavered.” By the end of the story, she is unsteady. She is described as being outside of herself. Her hand seems to be detached from the rest of her body. She is frightened out of her skin.
Tuesday, April 6, 2010
Monday, April 5, 2010
Narrator in A Rose for Emily
Small-town gossip and general societal nosiness are common themes in most every Faulkner novel. They are also used as a means of relaying the stories themselves, as in Absalom, Absalom, Light in August, and even Soldiers’ Pay. A Rose for Emily, with its nameless, faceless narrator, is no exception.
As Professor Ethridge said, much is conveyed in the opening sentence of any Faulkner work. In A Rose for Emily, Emily Grierson herself is, off the bat, presented as a “fallen monument.” A monument in any community is often a centerpiece. This idea is enhanced by the implication that Miss Emily, despite being a recluse, is a highly known – the women were curious to see the inside of her house, the entire town attended her funeral.
The story, as shown in the very first sentence, is told from the perspective of the town itself. Although the reader cannot know from the first line that the narrator will never be developed as his/her own person, he/she is presented as part of a collective from the very beginning (“our whole town”). The fact that the narrator never develops an identity of his/her own enhances the idea of small-town gossip and nosiness. All of the information attained by the reader is told by the voice of this narrator, this faceless member of a community. Therefore, everything the reader learns about Emily herself is presented through the eyes of the community. We do not see the inside of Miss Emily’s house after all of those years of solitude until the community itself enters and sees for itself the dead man and the gray hair upon the pillow.
I cannot say why Faulkner chose to tell the story in this way, nor why he titled it A Rose for Emily. A rose implies passion, romance, and danger. For the most part, Miss Emily is seen as a passionless person. She is a person lacking vivaciousness. She is in that claustrophobic, dusty house, hidden. People disappear through the front door; they disappear out the back door. I suppose the point is, nobody knows what goes on in Miss Emily’s home or, even more, in her mind or heart. We only know that we see the iron-gray hair on the pillow beside a presumable lover.
As Professor Ethridge said, much is conveyed in the opening sentence of any Faulkner work. In A Rose for Emily, Emily Grierson herself is, off the bat, presented as a “fallen monument.” A monument in any community is often a centerpiece. This idea is enhanced by the implication that Miss Emily, despite being a recluse, is a highly known – the women were curious to see the inside of her house, the entire town attended her funeral.
The story, as shown in the very first sentence, is told from the perspective of the town itself. Although the reader cannot know from the first line that the narrator will never be developed as his/her own person, he/she is presented as part of a collective from the very beginning (“our whole town”). The fact that the narrator never develops an identity of his/her own enhances the idea of small-town gossip and nosiness. All of the information attained by the reader is told by the voice of this narrator, this faceless member of a community. Therefore, everything the reader learns about Emily herself is presented through the eyes of the community. We do not see the inside of Miss Emily’s house after all of those years of solitude until the community itself enters and sees for itself the dead man and the gray hair upon the pillow.
I cannot say why Faulkner chose to tell the story in this way, nor why he titled it A Rose for Emily. A rose implies passion, romance, and danger. For the most part, Miss Emily is seen as a passionless person. She is a person lacking vivaciousness. She is in that claustrophobic, dusty house, hidden. People disappear through the front door; they disappear out the back door. I suppose the point is, nobody knows what goes on in Miss Emily’s home or, even more, in her mind or heart. We only know that we see the iron-gray hair on the pillow beside a presumable lover.
Absalom, Absalom: A Ghost(ish) Story
For me, the most captivating aspect of Absalom, Absalom is the relationship between Henry and Judith Sutpen. This brother/sister relationship contains competitiveness, incestuous urges, and telepathic connectivity. What struck me most about their particular relationship was the idea that I had read about similar relationships in other novels. In Donna Tartt’s contemporary The Secret History, it is discovered by an outsider protagonist that a set of twins is engaging in sexual activities with one another. Furthermore, the female twin, like Judith Sutpen, is described as having masculine qualities. In Henry James’ The Turn of the Screw, siblings Flora and Miles are interpreted by their nursemaid as sexually corrupted beings with telepathic powers. It is important to note that what we find out about Henry and Judith’s strange relationship is also an interpretation, in this case from Quentin’s father, one of several narrators relaying the rise and fall of the Sutpen family in Absalom, Absalom.
Quentin’s father says: “…perhaps this is the pure and perfect incest: the brother realizing that the sister’s virginity must be destroyed in order to have existed at all, taking that virginity in the person of the brother-in-law, the man whom he would be if he could become, metamorphose into, the lover…” This is, in fact, mere speculation on the part of Quentin’s father, Mr. Compson. However, it is so twisted and clever that I, who has only the words on the page as evidence, took it to be true of Henry’s relationship toward his sister. Henry’s urge for Charles Bon, whose every act he emulates, to marry (and presumably bed) his sister is interpreted by Mr. Compson as a way of, somehow, “de-virginizing” Judith on his own and, thereby, somehow, controlling that loss of the precious.
As for their mystical connectivity, Mr. Compson discusses “that telepathy with which as children they seemed at times to anticipate one another’s actions as two birds leave a limb at the same instant.” Mr. Compson/Faulkner also uses the word “clairvoyance.”
This novel is an epic account of a man’s attempt to acquire a name and a place in this life. However, the account of Sutpen’s children by Mr. Compson gives the Sutpen saga the feel of a ghost story at times. The mentions of clairvoyance, spells and body-snatchings (“as though it actually were the brother who had put the spell on the sister, seduced her to his own vicarious image which walked and breathed with Bon’s body”), as well as the image of Miss Rosa Coldfield creeping around as a child, listening behind closed doors, certainly give the novel an eerie quality, and make the story within the story read like a ghost story (a la The Turn of the Screw).
It is not only a ghost story because of its, at times, chilling nature. There is also the fact that actual figures from the past are being conjured and mingling with those of the present. This can be most clearly seen in the re-telling of the story by Quentin and his roommate Shreve: “First two of them, then four; now two again. The room was indeed tomblike…”
Quentin’s father says: “…perhaps this is the pure and perfect incest: the brother realizing that the sister’s virginity must be destroyed in order to have existed at all, taking that virginity in the person of the brother-in-law, the man whom he would be if he could become, metamorphose into, the lover…” This is, in fact, mere speculation on the part of Quentin’s father, Mr. Compson. However, it is so twisted and clever that I, who has only the words on the page as evidence, took it to be true of Henry’s relationship toward his sister. Henry’s urge for Charles Bon, whose every act he emulates, to marry (and presumably bed) his sister is interpreted by Mr. Compson as a way of, somehow, “de-virginizing” Judith on his own and, thereby, somehow, controlling that loss of the precious.
As for their mystical connectivity, Mr. Compson discusses “that telepathy with which as children they seemed at times to anticipate one another’s actions as two birds leave a limb at the same instant.” Mr. Compson/Faulkner also uses the word “clairvoyance.”
This novel is an epic account of a man’s attempt to acquire a name and a place in this life. However, the account of Sutpen’s children by Mr. Compson gives the Sutpen saga the feel of a ghost story at times. The mentions of clairvoyance, spells and body-snatchings (“as though it actually were the brother who had put the spell on the sister, seduced her to his own vicarious image which walked and breathed with Bon’s body”), as well as the image of Miss Rosa Coldfield creeping around as a child, listening behind closed doors, certainly give the novel an eerie quality, and make the story within the story read like a ghost story (a la The Turn of the Screw).
It is not only a ghost story because of its, at times, chilling nature. There is also the fact that actual figures from the past are being conjured and mingling with those of the present. This can be most clearly seen in the re-telling of the story by Quentin and his roommate Shreve: “First two of them, then four; now two again. The room was indeed tomblike…”
As I Lay Dying
I'm going to honestly say that this novel made me, as a reader, want to die. It was a great attempt by Faulkner, just not a great delivery. Faulkner wrote this novel using stream of conscious allowing the characters in the novel to give their point of view. Many of the ideas in the novel were hard to catch on to especially the idea of the dying mother being a fish. I didn't understand why that was so. Anywho, I was also tired of the country setting which Faulkner seems to include in nearly every novel.
The characters in As I Lay Dying were not very interesting to me either. The only character I had an appreciation for was Dr. Peabody. He viewed the family the same way I do. He's able to point out the absurdity in the actions of others in the novel. For example, it was absurd that the mother was left in her room only to hear her son create her caufin. It's as if all of her family was waiting for her to die! Her husband also played a part in this theory as well. He was only concerned with their sons heading off to town soon enough to beat the storm so they could make money. Even though he said it was his wife's wishes to be buried in town, he was mainly concerned with the money he would be missing if they didn't make it there before the storm reached their area.
It is questionable if the woman's children and her husband loved her at all. I found myself asking this question when noticing the time and attention Cash gave to creating her cauffin but the little emotion he exhibited to the fact that it was for his dying mother. He seemed unmoved that his mother was inside their home hanging on to life. Their love for her was also questionable when I noticed that none of her children visited her often. She was only accompanied by a young woman taking care of her.
Faulkner did a great job with setting up an eerie and heartfelt setting, but the interesting aspects of the novel were lost. As a reader, I was unable to tap into the novel and really enjoy it. I felt like there was a lot going on but yet still not enough to make it interesting. Sorry.
The characters in As I Lay Dying were not very interesting to me either. The only character I had an appreciation for was Dr. Peabody. He viewed the family the same way I do. He's able to point out the absurdity in the actions of others in the novel. For example, it was absurd that the mother was left in her room only to hear her son create her caufin. It's as if all of her family was waiting for her to die! Her husband also played a part in this theory as well. He was only concerned with their sons heading off to town soon enough to beat the storm so they could make money. Even though he said it was his wife's wishes to be buried in town, he was mainly concerned with the money he would be missing if they didn't make it there before the storm reached their area.
It is questionable if the woman's children and her husband loved her at all. I found myself asking this question when noticing the time and attention Cash gave to creating her cauffin but the little emotion he exhibited to the fact that it was for his dying mother. He seemed unmoved that his mother was inside their home hanging on to life. Their love for her was also questionable when I noticed that none of her children visited her often. She was only accompanied by a young woman taking care of her.
Faulkner did a great job with setting up an eerie and heartfelt setting, but the interesting aspects of the novel were lost. As a reader, I was unable to tap into the novel and really enjoy it. I felt like there was a lot going on but yet still not enough to make it interesting. Sorry.
"A Rose for Emily"
I absolutely LOVE this story. I had the chance to read A Rose for Emily in high school but I had no idea William Faulkner was the author. As a matter of fact, that really surprised me. This is one of his best pieces. Faulkner's usage of symbolism in such a short piece was very well done. In third person narrative he clearly described a southern belle, named Miss Emily, and what it means to grow up with an image to uphold. However, the prestige that comes with the image can cause damage to one's life as seen in Miss Emily.
Life, love, and normality was left void in Miss Emily's life. As a member of the elite Grierson family, Miss Emily was isolated from the outside world and deprived of having an ordinary life. The same luxurious home that all the people in Miss Emily's neighborhood envied is symbolized as the torture chamber in which Miss Emily lived in for all her days. The home grew an identity to represent Miss Emily. The house is described as "an eyesore among eyesores" and Miss Emily is described in a much more detailed and grotesque image as being "bloated like a body long submeged in motionless water, and of that pallid hue." She is nearly described as a walking corpse. This also sheds light on how everyone in the community grew to view Miss Emily. Even though Miss Emily came from the reknowned Grierson family which symbolized the Southern romantic persona, Miss Emily became a burden on the town because she refused to tidy her home and pay her taxes.
In addition to life and normality, Miss Emily also forfeited love in her quest to uphold her family's name and prestige. When Miss Emily noticed the wandering personality of the only man she ever loved besides her father, Homer Barron, she bought arsenic and killed him. She kept his corpse in her bed where she slept laying next to him every night. This is the part of the story that always stuck with me. I always found it strangely interesting that she was comfortable and secure with a corpse laying next to her every night. I also wondered why Miss Emily felt that true love stopped with Homer Barron. This made me feel as though Miss Emily's only purpose in life was death, so that she could go back to the lifestyle that she knew best, one involving the warmth and comfort of her deceased love ones and deceased husband.
The third person narrative to explain the events surrounding Miss Emily gave a more interesting account of why Miss Emily lived the way she did and the absurdity of her actions. It also gives the feel of being on the outside looking in the way everyone in Miss Emily's town were positioned in viewing the actions that went on inside her home. From this point of view, the story is more shocking and mind-blowing. Faulkner did a superb job with offering the surprise through this person's perspective.
This is definitely a great read and I would recommend it to anyone. I'm happy I read it again.
-Kristen
Life, love, and normality was left void in Miss Emily's life. As a member of the elite Grierson family, Miss Emily was isolated from the outside world and deprived of having an ordinary life. The same luxurious home that all the people in Miss Emily's neighborhood envied is symbolized as the torture chamber in which Miss Emily lived in for all her days. The home grew an identity to represent Miss Emily. The house is described as "an eyesore among eyesores" and Miss Emily is described in a much more detailed and grotesque image as being "bloated like a body long submeged in motionless water, and of that pallid hue." She is nearly described as a walking corpse. This also sheds light on how everyone in the community grew to view Miss Emily. Even though Miss Emily came from the reknowned Grierson family which symbolized the Southern romantic persona, Miss Emily became a burden on the town because she refused to tidy her home and pay her taxes.
In addition to life and normality, Miss Emily also forfeited love in her quest to uphold her family's name and prestige. When Miss Emily noticed the wandering personality of the only man she ever loved besides her father, Homer Barron, she bought arsenic and killed him. She kept his corpse in her bed where she slept laying next to him every night. This is the part of the story that always stuck with me. I always found it strangely interesting that she was comfortable and secure with a corpse laying next to her every night. I also wondered why Miss Emily felt that true love stopped with Homer Barron. This made me feel as though Miss Emily's only purpose in life was death, so that she could go back to the lifestyle that she knew best, one involving the warmth and comfort of her deceased love ones and deceased husband.
The third person narrative to explain the events surrounding Miss Emily gave a more interesting account of why Miss Emily lived the way she did and the absurdity of her actions. It also gives the feel of being on the outside looking in the way everyone in Miss Emily's town were positioned in viewing the actions that went on inside her home. From this point of view, the story is more shocking and mind-blowing. Faulkner did a superb job with offering the surprise through this person's perspective.
This is definitely a great read and I would recommend it to anyone. I'm happy I read it again.
-Kristen
Faulkner the sweetheart
I really like “A Rose for Emily” so I’m going to post again, not only because I’m slightly desperate to make up a few, really. Like I mentioned in my previous post, I read one of Faulkner’s interviews on “A Rose for Emily.” This dialogue led me to start thinking of this story as a southern ghost story, given all of its eerie qualities and its focal position in the past. I think that the story is utterly haunted; reappearing words like “once been” emphasize the importance of the past from the very beginning to the end of this story which circulates in a sporadic time frame around a funeral and death. If we look in to the characters names, as we always do with Faulkner, we will notice that Emily’s last name, Grierson, almost contains the word eerie. Mentions of shadows, dust, and “a close, dank smell” are suggestive of life after death or an open coffin. Emily is described as submerged, perhaps like a ghost that lingers on earth unable to enter heaven. This could be one way I would support that the conflict of God and Satan, as I mentioned in my previous post, is present here because Emily is so much like a ghost trapped between these realms. One example of her being stuck in the middle is that she knows and is taught that every woman must marry yet she is unable to do so because her father denies her this opportunity.
I think all of the allusions to death and the afterlife have one very important objective here. Perhaps Faulkner, in his attempt to tell a story about the human experience, is demonstrating the inevitability of Miss Emily’s fate. She is predestined to be lonely, has been submerged by her father her whole life, and remains steadfast in her traditional ways, which no longer are valid in present Jefferson (exemplified by her refusal to pay taxes).
Faulkner wants us to recognize that Miss Emily is different and unusual. He describes her as “what would have been merely plumpness in another was obesity in her.” We have to interpret this as Faulkners way of alluding to the uniqueness of Miss Emily’s existence. I believe this uniqueness forces the reader to relate Miss Emily to that of a ghost.
In every way Emily is a ghost. This story is of that ghost, that stranger, whose would have never been told nor know. Moreover, it’s as if the story itself is a ghost, one that is “on a paper of archaic shape, in a thin, flowing calligraphy in faded ink,” at least I could have imagined it to be. In telling it, Faulkner is demonstrating his respect and offering tribute to Miss Emily’s experience. I think it symbolizes something quite simple actually, I think it’s like Faulkner communicating to this character via letter and on that letter it says,
Here is a rose for you Emily.
Love,
Faulkner.
I think all of the allusions to death and the afterlife have one very important objective here. Perhaps Faulkner, in his attempt to tell a story about the human experience, is demonstrating the inevitability of Miss Emily’s fate. She is predestined to be lonely, has been submerged by her father her whole life, and remains steadfast in her traditional ways, which no longer are valid in present Jefferson (exemplified by her refusal to pay taxes).
Faulkner wants us to recognize that Miss Emily is different and unusual. He describes her as “what would have been merely plumpness in another was obesity in her.” We have to interpret this as Faulkners way of alluding to the uniqueness of Miss Emily’s existence. I believe this uniqueness forces the reader to relate Miss Emily to that of a ghost.
In every way Emily is a ghost. This story is of that ghost, that stranger, whose would have never been told nor know. Moreover, it’s as if the story itself is a ghost, one that is “on a paper of archaic shape, in a thin, flowing calligraphy in faded ink,” at least I could have imagined it to be. In telling it, Faulkner is demonstrating his respect and offering tribute to Miss Emily’s experience. I think it symbolizes something quite simple actually, I think it’s like Faulkner communicating to this character via letter and on that letter it says,
Here is a rose for you Emily.
Love,
Faulkner.
Conflict in A Rose for Emily
My reading of “A Rose for Emily” this semester came with new connotations and appreciations. In high school I generally understood this story to be symbolic of the conflict between the North and the South, the old and the new. Even more so, I recall it being argued that the conflict in the story was between good and evil. I researched this interpretation to see if it was the focal point I once believed it to be and I found some very interesting insights given by Faulkner. When questioned about “A Rose for Emily” in an interview he says that the conflict of the story was “not between North and the South so much as between, well you might say, God and Satan.” I came to interpret this in several ways. My first instinct was to trust Faulkner’s words and locate a more personal, internal conflict rooted in Miss. Emily. Then I remembered how often Faulkner alludes to the opposite when speaking of his works. Ultimately I felt the conflict of the North and South was present, however, I also found it to be less intentional than his main objective which was curiously more personal. Faulkner says, “I was simply trying to write about people.” I find the aforementioned to be all too evident in this bone chilling story, which exposes the internal conflict within the mysterious Miss Emily by way of describing her surroundings.
I was wondering what other people thought about this story in terms of the conflict; that is, does any one see the conflict between God and Satan? Is it important?
I was wondering what other people thought about this story in terms of the conflict; that is, does any one see the conflict between God and Satan? Is it important?
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