In the short story, ‘A Rose for Emily,’ William Faulkner gives the story of a spinster who goes by the name Emily Grierson who is seen to have some weird life. The story begins after the death of Emily. Many come to witness her death as some take a chance to go inside her house. Nobody had entered for almost a decade apart from Emily and the gardener who was often seen getting groceries. As explained by the author, the woman had a father who had died earlier. He was a tough man who had driven away several suitors who wanted to marry Emily. By use of deconstruction, one can get to understand the thoughts of the author in a more critical approach.
Understanding the short story could prove challenging since the author does not put the story in a chronological follow up of events. The story begins with the death of Emily and the events of her funeral (page 1) and then goes back to the story about her father and her negro servant Homer Baron. The story gives an implication on how people fail to have a regular life in modern society so as not to get trapped in a traditional crisis. Though the story, Emily does not associate with other people and is considered a monument. This would symbolize a person who wants to be out of the law in modern society. By application of this technique, Faulkner, as a modernist feels that he should go beyond the old way of thinking.
This story is set in the early 1900s in a once rich people’s street, which had now turned into a cotton factory area and is now inhabited by middle-class people. Miss Emily proves to be an anachronism or, in other words a throwback to a different time and way of thinking. She is considered an outsider by the people of this community since she decides to live and stick to the past in her sense of law and conduct. This includes refusing to pay taxes, “the tax notice was also enclosed with a comment” (1). She, too, fails to mention why she buys poison. “Miss Emily just stared at him, her head tilted back to look him eye for eye until he looked away and went and got the arsenic and wrapped it up. “. (4)
In this story, the author there lacks a system for evaluation where the author brings up issues that prove there is no absolute evil or good he emphasizes that there is no need to judge others based on observation. For instance, after purchasing poison, the people thought that Emily would kill herself” So the next day we all said, ‘She will kill herself’; and we said it would be the best thing. “(4). Or as the people concluded that she would marry Homer Baron after they had started being seen together.
The author in this short story, has used the technique of jumping between past and present as he introduces a new notion of time. The author would need a narrative technique that would help to connect the scenes to help achieve this goal. Faulkner hence writes the story in such a way that every triggers another piece of the story. For instance, the story about the alderman who tries to confront Emily about her paying of taxes reminds the narrator of a 30 years ago experience when a bad smell came out of Emily’s house. The author links the two incidences, “So she vanquished them, horse and foot, just as she had vanquished their fathers thirty years before about the smell.”(2)
The author uses a lot of literal devices in his piece of work, such as foreshadowing and foreseeing, as he explains about Emily’s behavior, which the people of her community saw as the opposite of the social norm. First, it begins with hiding the body of her father, which is betrayed by an odor that fills the neighborhood. Emily kept the body in her house for five days before releasing it for burial. She again purchases poison from a drug vendor and refuses to explain what she was to use it for. She looks at him “eye to eye, until he looked away and got the arsenic and wrapped it up.”(4). Homer also vanishes with no one knowing about him leaving her house. Through the various conflicts that Emily had with different other characters proves that she wanted freedom and hence opposed the forces that restricted her. In this case, a reader can be triggered by foreshadowing to pose questions towards the actions of Emily, maybe curiously to know about the bad smell or even the reason why she buys the poison. One could also question the disappearance of Homer.
All through the story ‘A Rose for Emily’ the author employs various aspects of style in different ways that express his view on the situations across the story and also help the reader understand in-depth the main themes addressed. By deconstructing the story, one is capable of identifying hidden themes during a close reading of this story.