Reader Response Criticism: a Rose for Emily

Introduction

‘A Rose for Emily’ is one of the outstanding works of William Faulkner. Through the life of Emily, the work shows the contradiction between the values and the system in the south and the south, and the decline of the southern tradition is reflected in the south’s backward tradition. To provide an example of reader response criticism, in this essay I will make an argument on my views on this novel from four aspects: the outline of the content, the background, the opinion, the summary.

Contents of “A Rose From Emily”

The story took place in the small town of Jefferson after the American Civil War. It is a story about a quirky old virgin named Emily Greer, who was completely married by her father, two years after her father died, poor Emily familiar with the northerners called Homer Barron One day for the laborer, she fell in love with him. However, their relationship was short and Homer became tired of her and wanted to get rid of her. In order to keep Homer, Emily Emily killed him with arsenic and “acquired” him. Therefore, she slept with his body for ten years. This is a “truth”, that is, “villagers After finding it, find the truth of ‘finding’ the villagers found after they found it.

Background of “A Rose For Emily”

“A Rose For Emily” was written by William Faulkner. Faulkner’s plots are imbued with the complex psychological changes of the characters, and the exquisite emotional description intersperses them. The main outward features of his work are long sentences that stretch and are extremely complex in structure and clever words that are chosen after careful deliberation. He and Hemingway, whose style is crisp and crisp, are even more extreme. Echoing the European experimental writers Joyce, Woolf, Proust and others, he used a large number of innovative literary techniques such as stream of consciousness, multi-angle narration and time lapse in statements. His novel has obvious spatial form of the novel, his skill of stream of consciousness and time, the creative use of misplaced enriched the novel a form of traditional literary genre in space and time, no doubt a challenge to the traditional narrative structure constitute a transformative, brings the reader’s traditional literary aesthetic value system the impact of the new, to the reader’s understanding ability and imagination is a great test. Faulkner’s syntax is often peculiar and twisted, and the sentences seem overly complex, appearing one after the other, with ambiguous or even non-existent homonyms.

There are often confusing interludes within the interludes, and the meandering flow of the sentences allows the reader to immerse himself in the world he has created. A large number of abstract words appear repeatedly in his works. In addition, Faulkner’s novels use symbols a lot. In the article ‘rose for Emily’, Emily, rose and so on are symbols.

My opinion on “A Rose For Emily”

In my opinion, this masterpiece reflects the decline of southern society, reveals the destructive power of southern tradition in an exaggerated way, and reveals the conflict between two different value systems and two societies after the civil war.

In this novel, Emily and her father symbolize the South, the ancient and the tradition, and the North represents the North and new cultural values. The two young people may be interested in each other when they first meet, but they have completely different values and life concepts, so they are inevitably separated soon. In the south, Emily killed the North in a mad and mad manner, in order to get him forever. He even pushed the North-South contradiction to a climax, and also showed the poison of the backward traditional values of the South.

For Emily, at the beginning of this story, the author tells that decorating her house is still the style of the 1870s, without changing anything more. In addition, she is also stubborn. When the new government forced her to tax, she refused to pay taxes, and even ridiculously mentioned that a colonel had almost died for ten years. Another example is that she blocks people from installing mail boxes on the wall. She retains the traditional view and resists changing anything. Poor Emily is a determined woman regardless of people’s criticism, she insisted on marrying a northerner whose social status is clearly lower than she was aware of at that time. Hierarchy is ubiquitous in society and is deeply ingrained. It has a profound influence on marriage. When a person chooses a partner, he or she must consider the social status of the other party in the marriage, but Emily Emily Choose to violate the convention and challenge the tradition. In view of this situation, her failure is equivalent to the failure of the traditional shackles of the South. She captured her lover in her own incredible way, destined to fail, because love is given in a way that is given.

For Emily’s father the old grierson, he was also the embodiment of the south, patriarchy and tradition. He was extremely critical of her daughter’s marriage, and he restricted her happiness.In a sense, his father contributed greatly to Emily’s tragedy, which was the result of the legacy of the south.

Conclusion

The novel continues Faulkner’s consistent stream of consciousness and multi-symbolic writing, takes Emily’s life as the main line, exaggerates the North-South conflict, and describes the existence and potential contradictions in American society after the Civil War. It embodies the author’s humanistic feelings and has important literary value and social significance.

Works Cited

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