A Withering Rose for Homer

A detailed Summary of A Withering Rose for Homer

The Yankee outsider, the new center of attention Homer Barron without notice disappears. This representative of "mechanical progression" is forced down the "diminishing road." It sounds like the entrails of a mystery, a web of virtual gossip and inevitable investigation amongst the old southern society and guard. Yet no one came, no search party is dispatched. The only constant left is Emily's continued existence, her clenching to a "rose tinted" past separated by an unchangeable fate. Because Homer Barron represented a threat, and a constant reminder of change, the community not only failed to recognize his disappearance, they ignored it.

Emily's character is consistently seamless, as if existing outside of time. Her behaviors are exemplified in the text. For example, by the time the representatives of the new, progressive Board of Aldermen waited on her concerning her delinquent taxes, she had already completely retreated to her world of the past. She declared that she had no taxes in Jefferson, basing her belief on a verbal agreement made with Colonel Sartoris, who had been dead for ten years (16). Just as Emily refused to acknowledge the death of her father much earlier, she now refused to recognize the death of Colone

All of this helps to typify the story, it is the past pitted against the present, tradition verses progression: the past with its social decorum, and the present with everything set down in "the books." This clash continues; the present was expressed chiefly through the words of the unnamed narrator. The new Board of Aldermen, Homer Barron (the representative of Yankee attitudes toward the Griersons and thus toward the entire South), and in what is called "the next generation with its more modern ideas" all represented the present time period. The Construction Company, the "mules and machinery" they came with, and Homer himself symbolize the further encroachment of the present into Miss Emily's life of the past.

l Sartoris. He had given his word and according to the traditional southern view, his word knew no death.

With the scene set, it should be pointed out that Emily's concepts of love, life, and death were misconstrued in her mind letting the blame to her strict father. It is apparent throughout the story that Emily lacks the ability to acknowledge the dead as different than the alive. Just as the words and decrees of Colonel Sartoris shall never die to Emily, her perception of the differences between the living and the dead is questionable. This helps explain the logic used in her bizarre behavior of killing Homer Barron. In regards to her notion of love, the only man who she had affection for was her father. His actions as recounted from the story, "We remembered all the young men her father had driven away," led to her antisocial lifestyle as she had no one else in her life other than her dad (18). It is now understood exactly how love and death were held hand in hand according to Emily's logic.

Or perhaps it didn't go unnoticed. Instead, conceivably no one wanted to question or even notice the lost of change. His disseverment from the community allowed them to continue on clutching to the ways of the old south just a little longer, as Emily continued to clutc

Some common words found in the essay are:
Homer Barron, Miss Emily, Homer Emily, Despite Emily, Colonel Sartoris, Board Aldermen, Construction Company, homer barron, , Miss Emily's, colonel sartoris, homer emily, antisocial lifestyle, board aldermen, kept secret, miss emily,

Approximate Word count = 1346
Approximate Pages = 5 (250 words per page double spaced)

Category: English