Rationalization of Events
Faulkner's A Rose for Emily deals is an intriguing story which uses a jerky, roller-coaster style of time flow. The story jumps around in time so that you are constantly only receiving bits and pieces of the details and have to form your ideas and organize them as the story goes on. Emily's family's prominent stature in the community is a highly regarded one. Unfortunately as time progresses, Emily's stature weakens, but she continues to live in the past, in her own reality and doesn't recognize what is happening around her. People in the community notice how Emily is living in the past and rationalize the situation, which leads to the community sympathizing with Emily. This rationalizing and sympathizing is what ultimately leads to the ability for Emily to commit a serious crime and get away with it without even being questioned. "Alive, Miss Emily had been a tradition, a duty, and a care; a sort of hereditary obligation upon the town, dating from that day in 1894 when Colonel Sartoris, the mayor--he who fathered the edict that no Negro woman should appear on the streets without an apron--remitted her taxes, the
Faulkner presents us with a story that shows us what can happen if we do not take action. An innocent man was murdered and a woman was left, assumingly unhappy, because of the townsfolk ideas of leaving Miss Emily alone because they understood her situation and felt sorry for her. The town ignores events that obviously explain what has happened in the story and decide to just feel sorry for Emily without ever really offering to help the situation. Being an established community, people remember Miss Emily's family and understand why she acts like she does. Emily is enabled to live in the past with no worries because of the way people rationalize her situation. She is able to bypass the law in a few instances because of this. The first would be her ability to continue not to pay taxes and get away with it. When confronted with questions about her failure to pay, she explains how Colonel Sartoris had remitted her taxes long ago and that if there were any problems, the townsfolk should see him. Colonel Sartoris of course, has at this point, been dead for some time. The second time she is able to bypass the law
Some common words found in the essay are:
Colonel Sartoris, Miss Emily, Rose Emily, Miss Emily's, Homer Barron, miss emily's, miss emily, colonel sartoris, able bypass law, miss emily's family, emily's family, rationalize situation, actions raised, bypass law, live past, able bypass,
Approximate Word count = 759
Approximate Pages = 3 (250 words per page double spaced)
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