Book Report for A Rose for Emily

William Faulkner, the author of A Rose for Emily originally published on the April 30th, 1930, in Forum Magazine and the Nobel Prize winner in 1950, is regarded as one of the leading American writer in literary history of United States and has become the most frequently and intensely interpreted writer of modern American literature.

The whole story happens after the American Civil War. Miss Emily Grierson is a traditional girl who sticks to aristocratic lifestyle. No matter young or old, her father is very strict with her marriage. However, out of respect and admiration, she can't accept her father's death and falls ill for a long time. Later, she cuts her hair short and falls in love with Homer Barron, a foreman who doesn't match her class. The whole town doesn't agree with their love and blames her that she forgets her identity. In response, she carries her head high and purchases arsenic. All people think Homer would desert her but there is no evidence. Suddenly, Homer abandons her only two years after her father's death making her no longer like a girl. She grows fat and her hairs turn gray. From now on, she closes her house's front door and refuses to contact the outside. She insists not to pay for tax and refuses to clean her house. She just lives in her house and the only person they can see from her house is her servant, Negro. Finally, Miss Emily falls ill and dies in her shabby house at 74 and the whole town goes to her funeral to see her house which doesn't open for forty years. Surprisingly, they find Homer Barron's corpse lying in bed and a long strand of iron-gray hair. It is obvious that Emily kills Homer with arsenic to prevent being deserted.

From my perspective, Miss Emily represents the South, while Homer Barron represents the North In this novel. They fall in love with each other but later they break up because of their different values and social status, which symbolizes the conflict between the South and the North after the American Civil War. Besides, the "rose" in the title is never mentioned in the novel, and I guess it represents Miss Emily's life and love. When the rose blooms with bright colors, it represents her comfortable aristocratic life; when it withers, it symbolizes her miserable life and failure of love after war. Moreover, she is always under her father's control and can't choose her true lover personally, which probably stands for the author's sympathy for Miss Emily.