Tuesday, February 5, 2013

"A Rose for Emily" Insight

"A Rose for Emily" Insight

From your first-draft and second-draft reading, you jotted down questions, connections, ideas, and more that you had.  Go back through those ideas and choose one that you will focus on.  Give full insight on your ideas and provide textual evidence to prove your thoughts.

37 comments:

  1. Emily felt the need to be loved more than anything. She wanted someone to love her and never leave her, like her father and mother did. On page 520 you can see how hard it was for her to let go of her father, and she refused to believe he was dead. She didn't want him to leave her all alone. "She told them her father was not dead. She did that for three days, with the ministers calling on her her, and the doctors, trying to persuade her to let them dispose of the body." This shows that she was trying to cling on to someone, even though they were obviously dead. He was the only one she had, and he left her nothing. She was very lonely, and it didn't help her father never let her have a suitor. She grieved for awhile and became sickly after her father's death. She soon met Homer Barron. She spent a lot of time with him and soon everyone thought they were in love and they were going to marry. Soon she has cousins move in with her, until she kicks them out and Homer moves in. Everyone believes they are now married since she went out and bought a toilet set. She soon let him into her house and no one ever saw him again. Later you find out Emily kills him with arsenic so he will never leave her and she will always have someone there. "Then we noticed in the second pillow was the indentation of a head. One of us lifted something from it, and leaning forward, that faint and invisible dust dry and acrid in the nostrils, we saw a long strand of iron-gray hair." This passages shows that Emily was so desperate for love, she killed him so he couldn't leave her. She laid with him many nights, and even until her death. It comes down to the fact that she was lonely and just wanted someone there for her. Perhaps if her father had wed her off sooner, she would have been better off and been able to let go of him easier. She had no one but her father, and she clung to him even when he was obviously gone. This shows her insane means of trying to keep the one that she loved with her. She was afraid to be alone. When Homer came into town she felt that she had a chance at love. They spent a lot of time together, and even though she was falling in love with him, he only saw her as a friend. This drove her to the edge to keep him, she wasn't about to let him go like she did her father. So she bought arsenic and killed him so he would be stuck with her until she died. People do crazy things for the ones that they love, but sometimes people go too far.

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  2. At the beginning of the story Emily is dead, but as you continue to read you get flash backs on what her life was really like. At one part I was kind of confused on if she really had had a boyfriend or not, but when her father died "she was sick for a long time" (520). In my mind this showed that the only person she had ever had there for her was her father. And that a boyfriend was just a figure of her imagination.
    The story continues on to when she finally meets, Homer Barron, a yankee whom never had a true interest in loving her as she felt he did. When she purchases the arsenic and then a man's toilet set (522-523) everyone thinks that she and Homer are to be married, but this isn't true. Emily instead poisons him so that he will never leave her.
    All throughout the story you learn that Emily has always been protected by her father, and never truly had a life of her own. She never got to enjoy life as she should have been able to, meaning she never got to go to events that young woman like herself were often going to. Her life and how people viewed it was as Faulkner said "a fallen monument" (517). Everyone thought she had this great and grand life, when in reality she suffered her whole life of only knowing the love of her father and never having anyone else there for her.
    -Jenna Beitz

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  3. I asked the question while reading the story for the first time, why did her house smell bad? After reading the story over I then found out that it was a dead body that was smelling up her house. Where did the body come from? The body was from a man that was pretty close to Emily. His name is Homer. When she found out that Homer was gay and that he wouldn't be interested in her she went to get arsenic. She then gave that to Homer and killed him. The people put lime around her house to help cover up the smell of Homer's body. She really didn't care about what the people thought about her though. She needed to kill Homer because that was the only way she would have someone there for her. She needed someone to keep her company. At the end of the story it says "Then we noticed that in the second pillow was the indention of a head." This means that not only did she have him laying in a bed, but that she was also laying with him in the same bed. She needed someone there for her. So to insure that she did have someone there she killed Homer which in turn made her house smell.

    Jared Coyle

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  4. One of the words that went through my mind a lot while I read this story was delirious. It seems that Emily is a little crazy, and maybe her whole family is. She denied her own father's death. "She told them that her father was not dead. She did that for three days, with the ministers calling on her, and the doctors, trying to persuade her to let them dispose of the body" (520). I think she must have denied his death because he was all she had. Without her father, what would Emily do? She no longer had someone controlling her life. Another situation that screams delirious to me is when Emily kills Homer with arsenic. She wanted so badly to have someone to cling to that she killed Homer. When she went to the pharmacy to get poison, she was determined to get the strongest kind. She demands "I want the best you have. I don't care what kind" (521.) The pharmacist is intimidated by her and gives her the arsenic. After Emily kills Homer, she leaves him in a bed and sleeps with him. He is someone she can cling to now. I think Emily is definitely crazy. She didn't know how to make a life of her own when her father died and instead of having a relationship and maybe even a happy marriage, she killed a man. Emily's need for a controlling figure in her life made her insane.

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  5. Rachel Knipper
    8th Hour

    A Rose For Emily has many connections, ideas, and questions. One that I have chosen to focus on is the fact that Mr. Homer Barron's body is found in Emily's house after she dies. It raises many questions on why and how it happened and come to be. These are some of my ideas and connections I made with this scene in this story.

    Homer is found in Emily's house, in a room that it seemed was decorated as for a wedding, or possibly honeymoon. He is found is a nightshirt, with more men's clothing found around him. "What was left of him, rotted beneath what was left of a nightshirt, had become inextricable from the bed in which he lay," (524) This passage shows that he was found after some time, it is most likely he was killed either before or shortly after him and Ms. Emily were married. She had killed him, with Arsenic, so he would be hers. He had been there so long his body had almost become a part of the bed itself.

    In the room around him were the things Emily had bought for him, a men's silver toilet set, men's clothing, and a nightshirt. She obviously had wanted to please him. Possibly he did not want to get married, and this was her way of attempting to get him to love her more.

    When the women looking through the house find the body of Homer, they find something besides him, a single strand of iron-grey hair. Emily's hair. She had been lying besides him. In her way making herself feel like he will always be hers, that no one can try to take him from her. She was obsessed with things that made her feel safe and secure. For years she had been doing this, as their was a dentation in the pillow beside the body, right where her head would have fit.

    I truly believe that Ms. Emily killed Homer and placed his body in the bed for her own self. She felt like she could loose another person who made her feel good, and she had not had many of those, as her father had kept her away from other men and socialization. She was not right in the mind, she did not fully realize what she was doing was not considered right or humane.


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  6. Not everyone in this world is considered sane. Some people are mentally ill or have been scared by an event in their lives. The dictionary defines "crazy", as mentally deranged, esp. as manifested in a wild or aggressive way. Emily was categorized in this group.
    People of the town considered Emily crazy. When her father passed she told people, "that her father was not dead" (pg.520). People could not understand why she was trying to face the facts and with that was the fact that she kept the body for three days before giving it up. The other reason people thought she was crazy was after her death. When they entered the house and went to the bedroom and saw, "the second pillow had an indentation of a head in it" (pg.524). People finally realized that Homer had been dead the whole time and that she was still sleeping with his body. Now if that doesn't make people think that the women was crazy then I don't know what would help convince you.
    Crazy is not always a bad thing to have. You could be crazy for food, life, or even sports like me. But in this story there is two cases of crazy. The one is that Emily was crazy for love. The other is that she was to crazy to kill what she had.

    Jake Nefzger
    8th hr. American Lit

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  7. I think that it is very weird that Miss Emily killed Homer, this is strange, I would think that she would want to be able to live with him until they both died.
    There are many reasons why Emily may have done what she did, in the reading it talks about how Homer himself remarked that he like men, and it was well known that he drank with the younger men in the Elk's Club, Emily may have assumed that he was gay and she new that he would only like her as a friend, so she kills him so she can at least sleep with him during the night and act like he is her husband, this could also explain why she bought a toilet set with HB on them, and mens night clothes so he would have something to sleep in all the nights he will just lie in Emily's bed.
    Another reason that Emily may have choose to kill Homer Barron could be that he was a northerner, and this was the south where they did not mix the north people with the south people. She may have thought that no one would allow the two to get married be cause it was against the 'rules' and she didn't want to let her father down, even though he was dead she may have still cared about what he had wanted for her. She thought that Homer was the best for her.
    Another reason Miss Emily may have done what she did could have been because she had never cared about anyone like she did with Homer, because her father had never allowed her to get close to any male other than himself, and she new that Homer would not feel the same way because he thought about her as only a friend.
    There are many reasons why Emily did what she did, we will never know the whole truth the only thing that we can do is look at all the evidence that is given and assume what was going through Emily's crazy head.

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  8. My question that I want to focus on is why did the towns people feel the way they did about Emily? This is the question that I want to focus on because even though we have discussed it in class it is still something that is just odd to me. Sometimes the towns people are happy for her, sometimes they feel bad for her, and sometimes they are really mad at her. This is something that just doesn't make sense to me because they seem almost bipolar with Emily. From the story we know that they feel pity for her because they say, " At last they could pity Miss Emily. Being left alone..." (520). I understand that they pitied her because Emily's father had passed away and all that he had left her was the house. She no longer had the money and power that she used to have that the towns people had hated her for. You also know that the towns people were mad at Emily and did not agree with her and homer's relationship by them saying, "..that even grief could not cause a real lady to forget noblese oblige.." (521), noblese oblige is the responsibility of a person of high social position to behave in a noble manner. They were angered that Miss Emily was to be this respectful and good southern woman but she was out with a low income northern man. They saw this as a bad look for emily. Which I don’t get because they shouldn’t be involved in her life that much. They should let her live her life the way she wants. Yet they were happy for her and homer because they even state on page 521, "..we were glad that Miss Emily would have an interest..". I feel as if this town that Emily was living in a lot of the people wanted something to talk about and a lot of times it was her. It seems almost like high school with all the drama of who can be seen with who or what everyone is doing. Sydney Barton





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  9. I guess I never really understood why everyone thought she was crazy. In the story, "A Rose For Emily," you find out that in some parts you do find out why she is crazy. Other times you just have to ask yourself why. The first part t hat made me question why she was crazy occurred on page 518 after being told that Colonel Sartoris was indeed dead. When the people come to Emily's house to tell her to pay her taxes she tells them she does not have to pay them. They do not agree with her, making them question why shouldn't she have to pay them. She laters tells them to ask Colonel Sartoris, but they all knew he was dead. Her not knowing he was dead made them even more suspicious on why she didn't know he was dead. They later realized she hasn't left her house in 10 years, causing them the ask yet again if she is crazy. If she wasn't "crazy" like they might think, maybe she would have left her house within those 10 years.
    Also, when her dad dies and people come to visit her she just pushes them away because she does not believe he is dead. People again get confused on why she doesn't think her dad is dead. As said on page 520, "We did not say she was crazy then. Be believed she has to do that. We remembered all the young men her father had driven away, and we knew that with nothing left, she would have to cling to that which had robbed her, as people will." This statement did not make them think she was crazy. But they knew she loved her father very much and did everything for a good reason. When he drove all those men away, he did it under the intention of keeping his precious daughter safe. The death of her father, made the men think this was just her way of dealing with things. She now doesn't have anyone in her life anymore. Her father pushed all the men away, and he was all she had.
    When she finally gets close to a man she ends up killing him with rat poison. Homer, thought that if he did not give her the poison she would hurt him, because he eventually told Emily that he sees them as just being friends. Emily did not like that because she had very strong feelings for him. He knew what she asked for poison, it was not going to be good. She then kills Homer, but then doesn't do anything with the body. A smell eventually develops after a while. People them come to stay with Emily to take care of her because she is getting very old. The relatives then smell the stench and start to question. They go around to all the rooms in the house and find this room that no one has been in in many years. They go in and see this man on the bed, dead. They observe this man closer, only to see a gray hair laying on the pillow next to the body.
    Hearing that there was a hair on the pillow made me question if she really was crazy, or if she was just going through depression. I truly do believe that she was crazy, and that was just the way she was.
    Brooke Wooten
    8th Hour

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  10. I thought that William Faulkner did a very good job of foreshadowing upcoming events in a very secretive way. He didn't just come out and tell us, and reading the story twice really gives you a good realization of what is actually going on in the story. The first thing that I think he foreshadows is when she is arguing with the sheriff that she doesn't owe taxes, "I have no taxes in Jefferson!" (518). This shows that she separated herself from the town because it says on page 518 that Colonel Sartoris had been dead for almost ten years. Another foreshadowing is, "That was two years after her father's death and a short time after her sweetheart-the one we believed would marry her-deserted her" (519). This passage tells us that her boyfriend somehow left her but secretly tells us that there was a smell in the house and that makes us wonder what happened. At first I thought that her dads body was still in the house still, almost two years after he died but we later find out that that wasn't the case. One big foreshadowing passage was, "Miss Emily met them at the door, dressed as usual with no trace of grief on her face. She told them that her father was not dead. She did that for three days" (520). This to me, means that she didn't want to face the fact that her dad had died because he was all she had left and he was her supporter and now she had no one to depend on. This also made me want to think where the boyfriend that she talked about earlier came into play, and I was right, Homer now comes into the picture. All of these examples are good ways of giving us tidbits of information without just coming out and telling us and making us think about what he is trying to say rather then just coming out and telling us. It made me want to keep reading and figure out what he was saying.

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  11. Rachel Becker
    8th hour Am Lit

    Emily's father died, she was in great despair. She did not want to believe that he past away. In the book he said "She told them that her father was not dead" (520). It was hard for Emily to move on, but she did. She found Homer, and it looked like they were falling in love. The towns people were very curious to see how the relationship would continue. Emily was acting like a rebel after her father died. I think this is because her father was so strict and wouldn't let her do a lot of things. People do not get why she is acting the way she is. People are trying to figure out about her and Homer through family. Emily has reasons for the way she is acting but the towns people do not get it. The towns people are being miss lead by their relationship.

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  12. Emily Grant
    A Rose for Emily
    2.6.13

    Dictionary.com defines love as "an intense feeling of deep affection". Throughout this story, "A Rose for Emily," you see different types of love. Love can be interpreted in many ways. As for Emily, she loved her father and Homer Barron. The relationship with her father was important to Emily, but not as important to her father. There was a picture that represents her father's feelings. In the picture, Emily was in the back, as if she was of little importance to him. Her father was front and center, he was holding a whip. He represented power and selfishness. But even though Emily wasn't necessarily his top priority, he still loved her, they still had that connection. He was her daughter, he had to care for her. However, Emily looked up to her father, he was wealthy and powerful. She loved him a lot more than he loved her, but that didn't matter to Emily. Once her father died she didn't want to believe it because he was pretty much the only thing she had left. Later she met Homer Barron, a Yankee. She would go on buggy rides with Homer on Sunday's. She became close to Homer. She started to fall in love. She felt that connection, or she wanted to feel that connection. So Emily decided to buy a "silver toilet set with the initials H.B. on each piece , with a complete outfit of men's clothing" (522). Homer didn't feel the connection or the love. He looked at Emily as a friend not as a wife or someone to love. She just wanted him in her life. She tried to replace Homer for her father. Emily longed for love, but never found it.

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  13. The people in the town at first were all happy about how emily finally hanging out with homer, because her dad would not let her be with any boy. So once the women started seeing that they becoming serious they sent a minister. Once the minister came out of that house he did not tell anyone what they talked about and said he would never go back to Emily's house again. We will never know what happened, maybe he found homers body or maybe she threatened him?? but again we will never no.

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  14. Bailey whittenbaugh is Bella ^

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  15. Felicia
    8th hr

    One idea that I thought was interesting, and held a lot of question was on why Emily poisoned Homer. Emily had never been able to date when her father was alive, and many townspeople felt bad for her, because of this. When Emily did date someone the town did not like who she was dating. The man they saw her around town with was Homer Barron who was a Yankee. Many townspeople thought this relationship was sort of a disgrace to her superior name. The older townspeople showed this by saying, “even grief could not cause a real lady to forget noblesse oblige” (521). Many pitied her for this relationship. Some people though were happy to see her show interest in someone. Many townspeople believed that Emily and Homer would marry, and this made people happy, because it proved to them that she was not as much of a Grierson as was thought. It does really seem that Emily may have wanted to marry Homer possibly, but it was hard to tell, because the story only really focuses on what the townspeople saw. It was a shock to discover that she had killed him. My thoughts after reading it the first time, was maybe she killed him, because she was upset he wouldn’t marry her. I thought that maybe she bought all of the wedding items, because she felt that it would happen someday. After reading it the second time though I realized that she was just crazy. It was very strange that she seemed very attached to him, but yet she would kill him. The weirdest part was that she laid with the body every night which you can assume by this, “we saw a long strand of iron-gray hair” (524). This makes me wonder if maybe she was mentally ill, and this caused her to be afraid of losing him, so she killed him, so he would always be stuck with her even if he wasn’t actually alive.

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  16. A question I had in a Rose for Emily, was why did Emily kill Homer? All of Emily's life she was controlled by her father or with homer. Emily lost her father and almost went crazy. When Emily met Homer She did not want to lose him. I figured this out at the very end of the story when the towns people went in Emily's home. Emily had killed homer and kept his body. The next thing the author said convinced me Emily killed him to keep him forever. In the book it said " we noticed that the second pillow was the indentation of a head" page (524). The Story also said " we saw a long strand of iron-gray hair" page(524). This told me emily had slept next to the dead body all of the time. I think Emily was mentally ill, and that also played a part in killing Homer. THis story made me really think to figure out what was going on, and why.
    1st Hr AS

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  17. Marisa Deutmeyer
    1st Hour

    Have you ever wondered why someone is in love with the person they are? What attracted them to the specific person or even how they met? I asked myself these same questions when reading "A Rose for Emily."
    At the beginning of this story it tells us a little bit about the main character Emily's father who had passed away. This was devastating to her. This was the only person who she had in her life. After he had passed away she had no one. I think this made her very worried and scared because she ended up keeping his dead body for three days. She was so attached to him and was scared to be alone for the first time in her entire life. Her house started to smell like death and people started to wonder. Eventually they put lime all over her cellar to get rid of the smell until someone found his body and carried it away. She hated this and got even crazier after taking her father away.
    I believe that she was very scared when they took him. There was this painting in her house that explained her and her fathers relationship perfectly. "Miss Emily a slender figure in white in the background, her father a spraddled silhouette in the foreground, his back to her and clutching a horsewhip, the two of them framed by the back-flung front door. (pg. 520) Her father was in charge of her. He had the whip in his hand representing him beating away the boys who tried going after his daughter so she wouldn't get hurt. She had never had a boyfriend in her life nor did they have any other family members. Without her father, she was lost.
    Some time after her father had died, she had met Homer who was a sidewalk paver. Homer was big and strong and harrassed the other workers. She fell for Homer hard. They went on walks together and went on evening buggie rides. To others, it looked like they were in love but they were also nervous. They know how Homer is and they know that Emily had never had a guy in her life before besides her father. They were scared that she would get attached to him just as much as she did her father.
    And she did. She got very attached. I believe that she got attached because she had no one else in her life and she didn't want to be alone again. Homer became her comfort and her protector. She loved Homer. Just as her father, he was a man who was in charge and that is why she fell so hard.
    Even though you may ask why people are together as couples, never underestimate the fellings and love of others.

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  18. When Emily's dad died she refused to let them take it for three days. Why did she deny the people to take and burry her dad? When you have lived with someone for so long there comes a point that you cant imagine life without them. Every thing you do involves them. Her father was very protective of her and he only wanted what he thought was best for her. When they came to take him away she said "She told them that her father was not dead" (502). She said this several times to them. The best was that I can figure out why she would do this is because she was going through the stages of greif. And she was obviously in denial. Finally on the third day she broke down and let them take her father finally accepting the fact that her father was in fact dead. When she met Homer the pain went away. She finally thought that she'd be able to move on but then Homer turned out to be gay. So she poisoned him so hed have to stay with her forever.

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  19. One area in this story that I had to read more then once to get it, was the relationship between Emily and her father. It was very interesting to me because I didn't get right away that her father had been so agressive against her doing a lot of things. Emily's father was not the best man when he lived, but Emily thought he was. Emily's father protected her, her whole life from everything. Her father "taught" her the true values of being a southern woman. He picked who she could date and talk to. Emily's father was everything to her. In the story it was hard for me to pick it up right away because the author does use so many flashbacks. So when I did my second read through I picked it up. The author talks about the painting (tableau) in their house. He says " None of the young men were quite good enough for Miss Emily." "We had long thought of them as a tableau Miss Emily a slender figure in white in the background, her father a spraddled silhouette in the foreground, his back to her and clutching a horsewhip." I had to read this a couple of times to get it, but I found out what it really means. Emily's father has a horsewhip because it was a symbol for any boys who tried to be with his daughter, because nobody in her father's eyes were good enough for her. Also the reason why the father was in front was because he was the dominate figure between them. That is why Emily is in the back of the tableau. However, Emily's father really did care about her and they did have a very strong relationship between them. When Emily's father died, Emily had kept the body for 3 days because she didn't want to give him up and because she didn't want to be alone. Emily cling to her father. She didn't know what to do when her father died. She finally had freedom because she didn't have her father telling her what to do all of the time. She didn't have to be the "southern" woman that her father made her be. I had to read this part of the story again because it was hard to understand in the beginning but after taking two looks at it, it really did make sense.

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  20. Haley Hillers
    1st hour

    Why was Emily's father so important to her? I questioned this a lot during the story. In the beginning of the story, we learn that her father had died over thirty years ago. The reason that she did not venture out of the house was because of her father's death. The story expands on this. "After her father's death she went out very little; after her sweetheart went away, people hardly saw her at all. A few of the ladies had the temerity to call, but were not received, and the only sign of life about the place was the Negro man-a young man then-going in and out with a market basket." (519). For some reason, Emily did not feel comfortable leaving her home. I think it was because she didn't feel protected like she did with her father. He was always in control of her and was very protective. I don't think she felt in the right when she left the house without him. It was like he was still controlling her, even from the dead. She also must have been very close to her father. After he died, she clung onto him and denied that he was dead. Was it because she loved him so much? In the story, it expands, "Miss Emily met them at the door, dressed as usual and with no trace of grief on her face. She told them that he father was not dead. She did that for three days, with the ministers calling on her, and the doctors, trying to persuade her to let them dispose of the body." (520). Why was it that she would not let her father go? What was she thinking? I came to the conclusion that Emily's father was so protective and so controlling, that she didn't know any better. She didn't know what it was like to have another man in her life. She also didn't know how to relate to other people. She never got the chance to become close with other people, because of her father's protection. He was her main source for everything. When he died, she had no one to turn to.
    I have a great relationship with my Dad. He is one of my biggest supporters and I would be devastated if something were to happen to him. But if something did happen, I would not keep his body. I would end up letting go and accepting reality. Emily doesn't do this. She seems to never get over the fact that her Dad died.
    We all have different relationships with our fathers. Emily had a very unique relationship. She never wanted to let go of the memory of her father. She didn't want to lose Homer like she did her father. This story makes me realize that dads shouldn't she taken for granted. Whether you're like Emily or like me, a dad is someone who is irreplaceable.

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  21. How will you feel when your father dies? Would you shut yourself down or would you try to remember all of the good things that he was about? That moment in life is one of the most memorable, tough, and tragic life events you can go through. Everyone will handle it differently but making sure that you come out stronger would be a goal for me. This is not the case in "A Rose for Emily".
    When Emily's father died she told people that he didn't and for three days people really didn't think he did. But when people found out he did there was a funeral, Emily didn't want the funeral, it was a very quick and short one. Little did everyone know Emily kept her father's body upstairs in one of the rooms. She couldn't handle the fact that her father, the only one who really cared for her, was gone. She didn't want change and she still wanted her father to look out for her because that was the only thing she ever knew. She didn't know what it was like to be alone and she didn't want to feel it.
    "Being left alone, and a pauper, she had become humanized". After a good chunk of time of locking herself in her house, she cut her hair and felt like a girl again. Right as she was starting to go out again, Homer, a yankee came down to the South to work on sidewalks. Emily fell for him almost instantly and Homer took a liking to her too. They started to go on buggy rides on Sunday afternoons, the people started not to feel sorry for her. After awhile from watching them together the people thought that they weren't doing things they were suppose to, but to Emily it was a good thing for her, she finally had another man in her life. She felt like she needed Homer like she needed her father. After the sidewalks were done Homer went back to the North, but came back three days later to see Emily. Homer never came back out of that house, Emily had killed him so that he would never leave again. She didn't want to be alone and when Homer left she felt so terrible people thought she bought poison to kill herself. After Homer was killed Emily shut the whole upstairs and never left her house, people began to wonder about her, after a short while Emily died. When the funeral was held many people attended it, not to see Emily's body, but to see her house and what she was hiding. The people went upstairs and found a way inside a locked door and saw Homer laying in a bed with an indent on the pillow beside him.
    Everyone handles deaths differently and react to the situation. How you grow up and learn about death is another thing that could control your actions. It is a test of your human being and how strong you are.

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  22. How will you feel when your father dies? Would you shut yourself down or would you try to remember all of the good things that he was about? That moment in life is one of the most memorable, tough, and tragic life events you can go through. Everyone will handle it differently but making sure that you come out stronger would be a goal for me. This is not the case in "A Rose for Emily".
    When Emily's father died she told people that he didn't and for three days people really didn't think he did. But when people found out he did there was a funeral, Emily didn't want the funeral, it was a very quick and short one. Little did everyone know Emily kept her father's body upstairs in one of the rooms. She couldn't handle the fact that her father, the only one who really cared for her, was gone. She didn't want change and she still wanted her father to look out for her because that was the only thing she ever knew. She didn't know what it was like to be alone and she didn't want to feel it.
    "Being left alone, and a pauper, she had become humanized". After a good chunk of time of locking herself in her house, she cut her hair and felt like a girl again. Right as she was starting to go out again, Homer, a yankee came down to the South to work on sidewalks. Emily fell for him almost instantly and Homer took a liking to her too. They started to go on buggy rides on Sunday afternoons, the people started not to feel sorry for her. After awhile from watching them together the people thought that they weren't doing things they were suppose to, but to Emily it was a good thing for her, she finally had another man in her life. She felt like she needed Homer like she needed her father. After the sidewalks were done Homer went back to the North, but came back three days later to see Emily. Homer never came back out of that house, Emily had killed him so that he would never leave again. She didn't want to be alone and when Homer left she felt so terrible people thought she bought poison to kill herself. After Homer was killed Emily shut the whole upstairs and never left her house, people began to wonder about her, after a short while Emily died. When the funeral was held many people attended it, not to see Emily's body, but to see her house and what she was hiding. The people went upstairs and found a way inside a locked door and saw Homer laying in a bed with an indent on the pillow beside him.
    Everyone handles deaths differently and react to the situation. How you grow up and learn about death is another thing that could control your actions. It is a test of your human being and how strong you are.

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  23. Ean Troester
    1st Hour
    2/7/13

    Were pharmacists different during this time than compared to our time? All over the news and by mouth you hear stories of people trying to buy certain drugs from drugstores but the pharmacists wouldn't let them have the medication. There are so many reasons that pharmacists will keep medicine and other things from their customers; Used to make illegal drugs, people abuse the drugs, the drugs are given to other people for money, and many other reasons. If you don't have a prescription to get most of the medications, you won't be allowed access to them. It had to have been much easier to obtain these chemicals and drugs from pharmacists in the old times of "A Rose for Emily" because, on page 521, Emily goes to see a druggist for arsenic. The only thing the druggist did was ask what it was for, and even though she didn't answer the question, he still gave it to her. I wonder if that was really just southern hospitality and respect that made him give her the arsenic, or if it really was that she scared the druggist. I can't see how and older woman would scare a druggist so it had to have just been the respect. Nowadays you don't see very much respect like that because no one is trusted. If you walked into a pharmacy today and asked for a ton of deadly medicine, while looking quite upset or depressed, the pharmacist wouldn't let you have it and might even call a therapist. As you can see, times change.
    As read on "http://wanttoknowit.com/uses-of-arsenic/", arsenic is now banned in most of the pesticides and herbicides that had been used in the past. In the early 1900's the dangers in many chemicals must not have been recognized and that must be why it was so easily obtained.

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  24. "Miss Emily with her head high and Homer Barron with his hat cocked and a cigar in his teeth." Miss Emily only wanted affection. Her father had given her nothing but that for all of his life. She never even knew what freedom was until he passed away. Her father's death was devastating, until she realized what she was able to do now, things that she couldnt do with the protection and control of her father. Emily met Homer, a yankee. Homer was a smiley, happy, and high spirited man. Miss Emily had found the love of her life. Mr. Barron loved Emily as well but none of the people in the town could agree. I don't honestly understand why it was anyone else's business. I think they needed to just continue on with their own lives. If Miss Emily was happy, then let her be happy. They don't have to live in her shoes. Yes, Emily was high class and Homer was a northerner but if they made eachother happy then they shouldv'e been together. High class, low class, middle class, those are all just superficial standards that parents push their kids to live in. Social status shouldn't determine the quality of the person or the quality of their lives. True love isn't segregated and Emily knew that. She was even so scared to lose Homer that she would kill him to stay with him forever. The ladies in the town would make fun of their relationship saying, "it was a disgrace to the town and a bad example to the young people.'' I think it was a good example that Emily followed what she wanted and wasn't controlled by anyone anymore. She had been told what to do for so long that she needed to be set free. Maybe she was so obsessive over Homer because she was so sheltered as a child and a teen. She did what she felt was right and no one could stop her. Emily had a hard life and losing her dad set her off.

    Amy Bacon
    1st hr

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  25. Everyone pays taxes in today's world. It is one of the many necessary evils to keep this county going. On my first draft of reading I asked the question, why doesn't Miss Emily have to pay taxes?

    On page 517 we learn that Colonel Sartoris remitted Miss Emily's taxes. The Colonel made up a story that Miss Emily's father had loaned money from the town when he really didn't. The book states, "... remitted her taxes, the dispensation dating from the death of her on into perpetuity. Not that Miss Emily would have accepted the Charity. Colonel Sartoris invented an involved tale to the effect that Miss Emily's farther had loaned money to the town, as a matter of business, preferred this way of repaying." In that passage we learn that people do strange things out of kindess. The Colonel grew up in old Southern style and carried those characteristics of kindness and charity.

    Through out the book their are odd acts of kindness. Page 519 we learn that the folks in town complain about a stench coming from her home. They come to Judge Stevens and ask for him to do something, he replies, "Dammit, sir," Judge Stevens said,"will you accuse a lady to her fave of smelling bad?" We find that many people throughout the South carry deep values and traditions. When Emily wants arsenic the pharmacist doesn't question her wants, he though he thinks she might kill herself with it.

    Throughout the story acts of kindess and respect are found. These people respect Emily's wants and wishes.

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  26. I think the author foreshadows very well in the story. I also think he does a very good job of blending the events into the story. I think it is necessary that you read the story at least twice. In the second reading you find out so much about why Emily is like the way she is. My question is why is Ms. Emily a loner? I think the reason why she is so separated from society is because her dad was so protective of her that she couldn't be a normal woman. He didn't want Emily to get hurt and in the reading it says "We had long thought of them as a tableau, Miss Emily a slender figure in white in the background, her father a spraddled silhouette in the foreground, his back to her and clutching a horsewhip, the two of themed framed by the back flung door." (519-520). This sentence says a lot. It says that Emily was controlled by her father and he held all the power in the family. The whip in his hands ment he would do anything in his power to stop someone from hurting Emily. He was very protective of his daughter. He stops every man trying to get to Emily. This is one reason why is a loner. When her dad dies Emily doesn't know what to do because thats the only person she really has in her life. Then when Homar comes along and she falls in love but the town never accepts her. I don't understand why the town never accepts her. A lot of people never get accepted for what they stand for and I don't know why people can't accept it.

    Tanner Hargrafen
    !st hour

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  27. Maddie Digmann
    8th hour

    I am going to focus on the Miss Emily and Homer Barron situation. Miss Emily was having a hard time coping with the death of her father. When Homer came into her life, I believe that she found that sense of love again, and she felt that she had that male figure back in her life. On Sundays, Homer and Emily would go out on rides in the city. Many people didn't like this, because a woman, such as Miss Emily, was of much higher standards than Homer Barron. Emily, a Grierson, "would not think seriously of a Northerner" (521). Emily was happy, though, for the first time after the death of her father. But Homer himself had remarked that “he liked men” (522). Miss Emily was still in love with him. She even bought a man's toilet set with the letters H.B. engraved in them. When Emily's family came to visit, Homer left. But when the cousins left, Homer came back. The townspeople thought that they would get married, but that was the last that they ever saw of Homer. After Emily’s death, her cousins went through her house to see what was left. Nobody was prepared for what they were going to see. There lied Homer, dead in a bedroom with the toilet set that Miss Emily bought for him, and an indented pillow next to him. Miss Emily had killed Homer, because she wanted to be with him forever, and wanted to keep that father figure in her life. Miss Emily didn’t want change in her life, and she went to extremes for it. Would you go that far?

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  28. Emilee Muller
    1st Hour
    2/7/13

    In our time when someone in a small community dies everyone feels it. It's like there was a hole ripped from the town and something is missing. When people find out they immediately fire up their ovens to make something for the immediate family. Another thing that is common is that we go and visit the family showing our sympathy. In the story, "A Rose for Emily" the people in the town help Emily in a different way.

    When Emily's father died the town felt grief for Emily. They wanted to find a way to help Emily. The whole town attended the funeral showing their sympathy. Colonel Sartoris being the nice gentleman that he is wanted to help Emily out. "Colonel Sartoris, 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. Not that Miss Emily would have accepted charity. Colonel Sartoris invented an involved tale to the effect that Miss Emily's father had loaned money to the town," (p. 517). By doing this it was a way of saying that since her father supposedly donated this money the town was paying her back for the donation. They felt bad for her because she had no one left. They cared about Emily and didn’t want to hurt her anymore. Eventually a horrible smell showed up and the people in the town couldn’t take it anymore. They wanted to do something about it but they didn’t know what. Some of them suggested that they should tell her to just get rid of the smell, but that would be rude. “Dammit, sir,” Judge Stevens said, “will you accuse a lady to her face of smelling bad?” (p.519). Secretly a couple men went and put lime down in the cellar to get rid of the smell.

    It’s shocking how nice and patient they were with Emily. Even when the older generation left the younger people didn’t force Emily to pay her taxes, they still went along with the story of her father donating money. Deep down they cared about her and felt bad for her. Even though this story isn’t true, this shows how much we have changed over generations. Sure we still show our sympathy with little gifts, flowers, and food, but we don’t do anything as extreme as what they did for Emily.

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  29. Breanna Recker
    Miss Emily was always an extremely peculiar woman, she always has been. Ever since her father’s death, Emily clung to whatever she could. At the beginning of the story the narrator tells us, Miss Emily is like a “fallen monument” (517). At the very beginning we gain little knowledge about Emily and her life. As the story goes on we begin to understand how she is exactly like a fallen monument. The story does not tell you exactly how she has fallen, after the statement you must infer. I believe that Miss Emily is like a fallen monument because she fell for Homer, head over heels. She was only happy while with him and she was completely in love with him. I know that she fell for him because the narrator tells us, “We learned that Miss Emily had been to the jeweler’s and ordered a man’s toilet set in silver, with the letters H. B. on each piece. Two days later we learned that she had bought a complete outfit of men’s clothing, including a nightshirt...” (522). She never would have bought this stuff if she wasn’t absolutely crazy over him, literally. She is also a fallen monument because the people of the town believed that she was no longer a virgin. People were appalled by this, they believed in men and women engaging in this kind of act after marriage, not before. They also believed that she should not have fallen for such a low class northerner. She had a very high social status and many people believed she was settling. The narrator states that, “..older people, who said that even grief could not cause a lady to forget noblesse oblige...” (521). Emily shocked people in many ways that they never believed she would. They later found out that Emily gets her comfort from Homer because she is willing to cling to anything as long as she doesn’t feel alone.

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  30. Marlaina Orcutt
    1st Hour

    The first time I read "A Rose for Emily," I was confused as to why Emily didn't have to pay taxes. Emily was very sure that she didn't have to pay them because she was told she would never have to, it was never recorded so the collectors kept bothering her. Emily's father had died and Colonel Sartoris felt bad for her because her father had left her no money. Colonel made up the tale that "Miss Emily's father had loaned money to the town, which the town, as a matter of business, preferred this way of repaying" (517), the preferred way of repaying was Emily not having to pay taxes. The collectors had sent out a tax notice and Emily had ignored it, they then wrote a formal letter asking her to call the sheriff's office. Then the mayor wrote to her and said that he would send a car for her, but she needed to get her taxes paid. She ignored all things and wrote a letter to the mayor along with the tax notice with no comment (517-518). Now I know that Emily didn't have to pay taxes because, Colonel Sartoris, at the time of her father's death, felt bad for her. It was good for Emily because her father had left her no money and she was poor. Emily knew that she would never have to pay taxes, so when the collectors came to her, she refused and told them to ask Colonel Sartoris, who had been dead for 10 years, but Emily didn't know that because she had not left her house in that long.

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  31. Madeline is Madi Gibbs

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  32. Emily was really proud and was sorda independent. She always held her head high no matter how down in the dumps she was....no matter how bad thing would get for her she would always act like there was nothing wrong. One passage from the book that really shows that she would always hold her head high and sorda be a monument to other people is she would never except money at all. page 517 "Not that Miss Emily would have accepted charity. Colonel Sartoris invented an involved tale to the effect that Miss Emily's father had loaned money to the town, which the town as a matter of business, preferred this was of repaying." She would never have accepted money because she was too proud to do any of that. She was too proud to accept anything from anyone. She always held her head high when she went out in public. She was a girl that women looked up to.

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  33. I think the idea of Emily being Secluded is a big point to this story after going over it multiple times. Emily lives with her father and their slave Toby. Her father is a rich and powerful man. He is a very protective father and we see this in many ways. They talk about how in section two there is a picture of her father and her. He is holding a horse whip and she is standing behind him. This showed he had all the power. The towns people say "None of the young men were quite good enough for miss Emily." (519). This is how Emily's dad thought of the men that would come to ask Emily on a date. Since he was so strict and never allowed her to go out. Emily's whole life revolved around her father. When he passes the towns people are very happy. Emily however is in denial and when people come to give their condolences she tells them her father is not dead. After three days the minister convinces her to let them bury the body. Soon after she becomes sick. The next time the towns people see her she has cut her hair and later seen with a man named Homer. Homer however is not good enough in the eyes of the town to be dating Emily, as she still had her fathers name. They later are happy for her and believe they will indeed get married. However Homer is not the marrying type because he liked men. They are not seen for awhile together and miss Emily comes by the drug store to buy arsenic. The druggist had asked her what she would use it for, but she would not tell him. Instead she gave him a glare. He instantly agrees to have it delivered to her house. You can see here that he respects her and there may even be a little fear. Homer is again seen with Emily but after this he is never seen again. She lives the rest of her life in seclusion. After she passes they go into a room that was always locked, and what they find inside it something very disturbing. The body of homer is found and next to him on the pillow is a silver hair. This shows that she slept with the body all her life.

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  34. One of the questions I had when I read the book for the first time was why didn't Emily have to pay taxes after her fathers death? She was rich enough to. I figure out that Emily's father actually gave the town money, and Colonel Satoris, wanted to repay them buy not letting them pay any taxes after her fathers death. He also felt sorry for Emily. "Miss Emily's father had loaned money to the town, which the town, as a matter of business, preferred this way of repaying (517)." Everything was going perfect until The next generation came through. They didn't care about Emily's father gave money to the town. The want Emily to pay taxes. The town sent her letters, but Emily didn't respond. Finally The townspeople went to her house and told her that she had o pay taxes. Emily told the people that she didn't have to and to talked to Colonel Sartoris. Little did she know that Colonel Sartoris has been dead for many years. That shows how Emily didn't leave the house for years. It took me a little while to figure out why she didn't have to pay taxes, and how Colonel Sartoris is suddenly dead, but know I understand it all.

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  35. My first questions was how did Emily die and why does her house smell so bad. From later reading I found the answer to this question. The reason why her house smelled so bad was because she used arsenic to poison Homer. When she obtained this arsenic the person who sold it to her what she is going to use it for and her response is just a relentless death stare that forces him to give her the poison. As soon as her housemates left homer came to her house and never returned. A few weeks later an odd smell begins to come from her house so they put lime around her house to make it stop. Later in the story emily dies of old age and they find the source of the stench which turns out to be the rotting body of Emily's lost love, Homer.

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  36. Cody Lahr
    One of my questions was how did Homer die, and wether or not htere was shenanigans that caused his death. Emily always had a man in her life. For the first half or so, her father watched over her. Emily's father, though, was very strict and hung on to the old way of doing things. You can use the description of the family picture on pages 519 and 520, where her father is in the front holding a whip and she is in the background,as an example of his old ways. Any man that Emily would become close to, would be scared away by her father. So when her father died, she was alone. I feel that Emily needed to fill the hole that her father's death had left. So, when Barron came to town, she jumped at the opportunity. I feel that Emily didn't worry about the towns opinions of heer dating a Northerner because she needed a man so badly. When, on page 522, it is revealed that Barron is gay, we see that the possibility of her losing another man is there. Once Emily realizes that he may leave her, I believe that she finally lost it. On page 521, she buys the strongest poison she can get. The town believes she is using it to kill herself, when, in reality, she is using it so that Barron can never leave her. She diminishes the chance of him leaving by killing him. This is what caused the smell to come from the house. At the end of the story, they find his body laying upon the bed in the bedroom upstairs.

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  37. At the beggining of the story I was really confused. All the flashbacks made the time line seem different then what it actually was. I wanted to know what happened to Homer. I didn't know if when the guys from the town were sprinkling the lime if Homer was still around or not. It sounded like at that point that Homer had dissapeared but I wasn't sure. Then on page 521 Emily goes and buys the best poison the pharmasist had without any explanations of the use. When Homer stays missing I started to think that he left her due to the fact the he might be homsexual stated on page 522. At the end when they find a skelton in the bed in the room thats locked up stairs I believed that it was Homer. It would make sence that she killed Homer to keep him from leaving her.

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