Bringing the Reality Out of a Fantasy

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Recommended: The symbolic use of rose in Faulkner’s A Rose for Emily

If Superman were humanized, he would lose all his immortal traits and become an earthly citizen with only human-like characteristics to depend on. In A Rose For Emily, William Faulkner uses this same word to express the major changes that the protagonist of his story, Emily, goes through after her tragic incident. With his choice of word, Faulkner makes a single transition in the story express how Emily deals with her father's death, becomes pitied by the townspeople, and handles the remainder of her own life. At first glance, the word humanize does not seem like the perfect word to use when expressing the changes Emily experiences during her grievance period. Emily does not admit to the harsh realty for three days and shows no emotion when questioned about the topic; two seemingly inhumane actions. However, these are very acceptable reactions considering all the young men her father had driven out of her life. Emily realized without her father, she had nobody left to depend on. Furthermore, this shows that she does possess dependent emotions, a very humane trait that she does not show very often. With her father's death and the humanization process commencing, Emily is also being pitied by the townspeople; something that they could not bring themselves to do before. Up until her father's death, some of the townspeople viewed Emily as an, "obligation" rather than a fellow neighbor. Others viewed her as a very powerful woman who lived in a big house and had her father running her life. Emily never had to pay taxes, which made the townspeople see her as an inhumane person. The people of the town felt like they could never truly pity her because it is impossible to show compassion to an artificial individual. With her father dy... ... middle of paper ... ...her ongoing life. With her father out of her life, she realizes that she needs him more than she thought, and is forced to become more independent. With this independence, the townspeople open up to Emily because they value her character for her willingness to grow as an individual. They are on the same level with her and now can pity Emily instead of envy her. Although there are no evident signs of improvement, Emily realized that she needs love and affection to survive. These are emotions that all humans need in order to stay sane and emotionally stable. Choosing a word to express such a major transition in one's life can be extremely difficult, but Faulkner depicts his character's emotions brilliantly using the word humanize. Humanize has a wide variety of meaning in the context of the story; a great deal more than what meets the eye in the standard definition.

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