Plot Development in Good Country People and A Rose for Emily

In William Faulkner’s “A Rose for Emily” and Flannery O’Connor’s “Good Country People”, the characters and theme are developed through irony, suspense, and symbolism.

Some readers might find the title of Faulkner’s story, “A Rose for Emily,” ironic. As a Symbol, the rose usually signifies romantic love. Assuming that Faulkner is well aware of a rose’s symbolic meanings, why does he wish to name his story about a doomed and perverse love affair? Faulkner causes the reader to believe this is a classic love story. Faulkner then overturns the reader’s expectations by offering an unconventional heroine. Generally love stories involve a young woman, pure and beautiful, worthy of receiving love. In this story, however, the heroine is old and decrepit. Emily is introduced first at her funeral where everyone from the town has come to pay respects. Emily then is described as “a tradition, a duty, and a care; a sort of hereditary obligation upon the town”. (Faulkner 681) This meaning that the townspeople viewed her as more of a monument to the town that has been there for as long as they can remember and won’t be moved. Emily throughout the whole story is criticized for the way that she thinks she is more important than everyone else, but it takes a society to judge a person at the top in order for there to be any social ladder. When Emily meets Homer she again is criticized for being seen with someone who comes from a lower part of society, but she is also being criticized for thinking she is better than everyone else. The townspeople make her feel like an outcast, and that is why she isolates herself from the rest of society. Society criticizes her for what she does, but it is the society that makes her do it. When Emily buys the rat poi...

... middle of paper ...

...ent kind of awareness gained from the reader, makes the reader pay attention to the attitudes of each character, and what each of them could mean to the story.

Works Cited

Reiss, Donna. "Who or What is Rose." LitOnline. Tidewater Community College, 2003. Web. 26 Mar 2011. .

Faulkner, William. A Rose For Emily. 10th ed. New York, NY: W.W. Norton & Company, Inc., 2010. 681-687. Print.

O’Connor, Flannery. Good Country People. 10th ed. New York, NY: W.W. Norton & Company, Inc., 2010. 506-519. Print.

Ditsky, John. "Good Country People: Overview." Reference Guide to Short Fiction. Ed. Noelle Watson. Detroit: St. James Press, 1994. Literature Resource Center. Web. 26 Mar. 2011.

"William Faulkner: The Faded Rose of Emily." Mr. Renaissance. N.p., n.d. Web. 30 Mar. 2011 .