UNIVERSITI PUTRA MALAYSIA FACULTY OF EDUCATIONAL STUDIES TEACHING THE LANGUAGE OF SHORT STORIES LHE 3250

LECTURER TITLE AUTHOR NAMES

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DR. HABSAH BINTI HUSSIN A ROSE FOR EMILY WILLIAM FAULKNER WAHEIDA AZMY (160780) MUGILAN A/L MANOKARAN (160738) LEE ANN LOKE (160763)

SUBMISSION DATE :

28TH MARCH 2012

Plot A Rose for Emily begins with the announcement of the death of Miss Emily Grierson, a lonely and impoverished woman left penniless by her father. Emily was left when her father died with a very large house, into which the townspeople have never been invited, and there is an almost sensational interest among them when they are finally able to enter the house upon Emily's death. At that point they discover that she has kept the body of her lover, a Northerner named Homer Barron, locked in a bedroom since she killed him years before, and she has continued to sleep with him. Theme "Compassion and Forgiveness" is the theme of this story. The story can seem downright cruel, the characters wholly unsympathetic, and the plot gross. When we begin to see the magnitude of the tragedy, and its impact on multiple generations, we understand the story is a call for understanding. The story seems to argue that forgiveness, compassion, and understanding can only come by facing the facts of the past and the present, which are tangled up together in a tight knot. Faulkner is both mercilessly subtle, and painfully blunt in this story, but we can feel the spirit of compassion rushing through. Characterization Emily will be forever defined by her bizarre habits, one of which seems to be copying up to her dead lover's corpse. She is most of all defined by her reclusively. This is almost like no definition at all, since we cant follow her into the house. Tobe is defined by the fact that he stays with Miss Emily there in the house. For Tobe, Emily is a habit. She's a habit for the town, too, often in a not nice way. The different generations represented in the story each has a slightly different way of dealing with Miss Emily, but, as shown be the repeated reference to her as "an idol" they all treat her more or less like an object. We can make it a habit to try to see beyond Emily as an object, and into Emily as a human. Language Style William uses fancy long and complicated sentences which replicate the blooming and breeding to hide the harshness of the world Emily was living in. Even then, William never neglects the reality part of it for, with every blooming rose; he gives us a rotting one, too. The story not only celebrates a lush life, by representing its opposite, but also cautions us against alienating others, against pushing others to hide from the light of life. General Comment Faulkner might have written the story provide an audience with a good story of his writing style, mysterious and suspenseful yet yearning for sympathy. Yet another reason could have been to make a point about clinging to the past. He shows in this story that not letting go and moving on after a death, or any traumatic event, will lead to misery and eventually destruction. People should accept the changes that they are dealt in their game of life. The story is written in such a way that its readers are involved in the story, like they are also members of the town hearing gossip and trying to figure out the mystery of Miss Emily's life.