A Study of the Modernism Elements in William Faulkner's Short Story, A Rose for Emily

904 Words2 Pages

Introduction
At first talking about the author can be essential to go through the topic. William Faulkner was born in New Albany, Mississippi in 1897. He became Famous from the set of novels that explore the South’s historical legacy, fraught and violent present. His works are usually rooted in his fictional city in the county of Mississippi, Yoknapatawpha. This setting which was the microcosm of the south he imaginarily knew it very well. He could look into as binoculars which he could go through the society and people. He was particularly interested in the moral implications in the history. It - “A ROSE for Emily”- was first published on April 30, 1930. This is the time of the high modernism with the rise of its elements. Faulkner once called it a “ghost story”. The story includes the tension between the US North and South, changing world order complexities, harsh social constraints for women. Shortly, this is a story of an unchangeable modern-time woman who draws the readers` attention into the portrait of aberrant psychology and necrophilia in the dank and dusty world of the protagonist, Emily Grierson (Azizmohammadi and Kohzadi 134).
A traditional text is usually written in the sequence of happenings. As Aristotle mentioned, the order of a unified plot is a chronological happenings of beginning, middle, and end. The beginning is the main action that makes readers follow the story more interestedly; the middle presumes what has occurred in the past and requires something to end; and the end comes after all the occurrences to sum up and finish the story (Abrams 161). In in contradiction to modern texts, the story does not grow in the linear form mentioned. The action passes through a character`s awareness. It is the flow of tho...

... middle of paper ...

...ss, and some contradictions between modern life and traditional life as modernism elements. The so called modern-time is compared by the late traditional aspects of life. Change is a way, a progress, and even an irony that is shown in the text. There is only one truth ruled by the aldermen maybe as capitalists that an unchangeable figure does not admit it. All this shows the complexity of modern urban life; and disillusionment.

Work Cited:
Abrams, M.H. Glossary of Literary Term.
FatemehAzizmohammadi, HamedrezaKohzadi, eds., comps.A Study Guide to the Most Famous Short Stories. Arak: U of Islamic Azad, Arak Branch. Bureau of Publication, 2011 print
MilindaSchwab, “A Watch for Emily.” Studies in Short Fiction 28 (1991): 215-17. http://www.cliffsnotes.com/cliffsnotes/history/what-are-characteristics-of-modernist-literature-fiction-in-particular Web, 16 April 2014

Open Document